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For generations, families have relied on the essential financial security that Whole Life insurance provides. In addition to paying a death benefit, Whole Life is also a value builder. The cash values that accumulate in the policy can be accessed during your lifetime to fund vital needs such as a child's education or a new home. Whole Life is a flexible product that can be customized to meet your family's unique needs. It can provide a foundation upon which you can help build your family's financial future.
Highlights
- A guaranteed death benefit, generally free from federal income tax
- Tax-deferred cash value accumulation
- Generally, the ability to borrow from cash value on a tax-free basis1
- A level premium that is guaranteed never to increase
- Permanent coverage that can never be canceled, provided that premiums are paid when due
- Eligibility to earn dividends as declared by the Company2
- The ability to customize the plan by adding optional riders
Uses of Whole Life
Individual
Whole Life can be an effective method of protecting your family's assets. Some potential uses include:
Traditional Insurance — Provides the financial security that gives families the peace of mind they deserve.
Mortgage Protection — Can help pay off mortgages and other outstanding debts in the event of a premature death.
Retirement Funding — Over the long term, if you no longer need the death benefit protection, accumulated cash value can be accessed through policy loans1 or surrenders to help supplement a retirement income.
Education Funding — Help pay for children's and grandchildren's education through policy loans1, or as named beneficiaries.
Pension Maximization — A possible solution to the pension dilemma, whereby a "single-life" pension option is chosen and life insurance proceeds are earmarked to replace the lost pension benefit in the event of a pensioner's death.
Estate Planning Tool — Whole Life insurance can be an effective way of providing funds for estate expenses, and to help avoid the sale of assets and/or the need to borrow.
Charitable Giving — Bequeathing life insurance is an effective way to make a significant donation to your favorite charity.
Business
Whole Life can play many vital roles in the smooth operation of a business. It can be used as an attractive employee benefit, and as a means to assure the business's financial future. Following are some examples of its use:
Split Dollar Arrangement — An employee is covered by an insurance policy while premiums are paid by the employer. The employer owns the policy, or the policy is owned by the employee and collaterally assigned to the employer, but the employee can name the beneficiary. Upon the death of the employee, the employer receives proceeds equal to the premium paid or the cash value of the policy, whichever is greater, while the beneficiary receives the remaining proceeds.
Executive Bonus — The employer purchases
a life insurance policy on the life of a key employee, and pays for that policy as a bonus. The employee owns the policy and has all rights in the policy.
Group Equity Carve-Out — A cost-effective way for employers to provide permanent, cash value life insurance to select employees.
Deferred Compensation — Offers employers the opportunity to provide benefits to employees at a later date, such as at retirement.
Salary Continuation — An executive incentive plan that offers the employee supplemental retirement and death benefits.
Buy/Sell Agreement — Funding a buy/sell agreement with life insurance can be the most cost-effective way to protect your business's assets.
Product Specifics
Issue Ages
0-90
Minimum Death Benefit
| For Issue Ages — | 0-17: $10,000 |
| | 18-90: $25,000 (Can go below $25,000 minimum as long as annual premium is at least $480) |
Premium Modes3
New York Life offers
several convenient ways to pay premiums: annually, semi-annually, quarterly, monthly,
or through our automatic bank drafting method — Check-O-Matic (C-O-M), NYL-A-Plan, or
government allotment.
Policy Loans
To help you meet emergency needs, you can tap into your policy's cash value through policy loans. The maximum loan value on a policy anniversary, on a premium due date or during the grace period, is:
Guaranteed cash value plus dividend values plus Option to Purchase Paid-Up Additions (OPP) values minus the total of current loans and loan interest.
At all other times, the maximum loan value is the amount that, with interest, will equal the maximum loan value on the next anniversary or on the next premium due date, if earlier.
Loan Interest Rate
Whole Life features a variable loan interest rate, which is increased or decreased based on the Monthly Average
Corporate Yield shown in Moody's Corporate Bond Yield Average. The Company sets the loan interest rate at least once each year and may set the rate as often as quarterly.
Risk Classes
Based on defined underwriting criteria, New York Life offers the following risk classes: select preferred, preferred, non-smoker, select standard, standard, non-smoker, and standard special classes 2-13.
Available Riders
Whole Life is a highly customizable product. You can choose from a wide variety of policy riders to meet your specific needs.
Accidental Death Benefit
Provides additional death benefit equal to the face amount of the policy if the insured dies as a result of an accident, up to $300,000 maximum to age 70.
Child's Protection Benefit
Protects the ability to continue paying for insurance purchased on a child. If a parent or guardian becomes disabled, the premiums on the child's policy will be waived by New York Life until the child is 25 years old.
Children's Insurance
Provides level term insurance on the children of the insured.
Dividend Option Term
Helps make more insurance coverage available at a lower cost. DOT combines a decreasing term rider with the paid-up additions dividend option. As the paid-up additions increase, the term insurance decreases to provide a level death benefit. It can be converted to a Whole Life or Modified Premium Whole Life policy within the first ten policy years.
5 Year Term
Offers affordable life insurance where premiums are guaranteed and remain level in the first 5 years. In years 6-10, premiums increase and are expected, but not guaranteed, to remain level. Thereafter, premiums increase annually. It can be converted into permanent insurance on an attained age basis.
Increasing Premium Term
Additional coverage through low-cost term insurance. It can be converted into permanent insurance without providing evidence of insurability.
Insurance Exchange
Provides for the exchange of policy coverage to a successor insured, subject to evidence of good health.
Living Benefits Rider
Gives the policyowner access to a portion of the policy's eligible death benefit should the insured be diagnosed with a terminal illness with a life expectancy of 12 months or less. (Various states have established different life expectancy periods once terminal illness is diagnosed.)
Option to Purchase Paid-Up Additions
OPP is an economical way to increase your death benefit protection and build more cash value. OPP premiums are used to purchase additional, paid-up insurance supplementing the total death benefit and cash value.
Policy Purchase Option
Gives the policyholder the right to purchase a new policy on the insured without proof of insurability.
Spouse and Children's Insurance4
Allows the insured to purchase term insurance for spouse and children.
Spouse's Paid-Up Insurance Purchase Option
Gives the spouse/beneficiary the right to
purchase a new paid-up life insurance policy on his/her life without evidence of insurability at the time of the insured's death.5
Upromise Rider
Provides for the one-time deposit of the Upromise contribution amount of $25 for each Whole Life policy into the Upromise College Savings Account6 that you designate.
Waiver of Premium
Waiver of Premium gives peace of mind by assuring that valuable insurance coverage is not lost when the policyholder is unable to pay premiums due to a disability. With this rider, New York Life will waive all premiums should the insured become totally disabled, as explained in the rider.
(These are only partial descriptions of these riders. Not all riders are available in every state, and some states vary the terms of certain riders. We encourage you to speak to your New York Life agent for more complete information.)
Dividend Options
Whole Life policyholders earn dividends when they are declared by the Company. Dividends are not guaranteed. New York Life offers several ways to utilize these dividends, including:
Paid-Up Additions
Increase your coverage by using dividends to purchase additional, paid-up insurance.
Dividend Accumulation
You may leave your dividends on deposit with New York Life to earn interest.
Premium Payment
You may have your dividends applied to pay part or all (if sufficient) of the premium.
Cash
A check can be mailed to you for the full amount of your dividend.
The Company You Keep®
Since 1845, New York Life has provided quality insurance products for individuals, families and businesses. The qualities of integrity, humanity and unwavering financial strength have stood behind the products we offer and the services we provide for almost 160 years. Moreover, as a mutual company owned solely by our policyholders, we can look past short-term goals and manage for the long-term interests of the clients we serve. Talk to your New York Life agent and find out why we call ourselves The Company You Keep®.
1Loans against your policy accrue interest at the current rate and decrease the death benefit by the amount of the outstanding loan and interest.
2 Dividends are based on the policy's applicable dividend scale, which is neither guaranteed nor an estimate of future performance. Although dividends cannot be guaranteed, New York Life has paid annual dividends to policyholders for 150 successive years.
3 If you pay the premiums other than annually, the total premium you pay each year will be more than the annual premium.
4 Not available in Vermont or California.
5Not available in New York.
6 All contributions will be held in a brokerage account with Upromise Investments, Inc., Member FINRA/SIPC and a wholly owned subsidiary of Upromise, Inc., neither of which are affiliated with New York Life or its subsidiaries.
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