Learn More About Joint Life Insurance

Joint Life Insurance in real sense means the coverage that is provided to two persons and gives death benefit at the first death. The premiums, in Joint Life Insurance policies are a bit higher when compared to individual policies (as the possibility of managing death claim is great for insurance companies). Businessmen (partners) usually hire Joint Life insurance policies due the benefits associated with it.

Joint life insurance can be purchased in two ways: Term and Whole Life (Joint Life Insurance). The joint term policy gives death-benefit with less-premium. On the contrary, whole joint life insurance policy provides premium value with the death benefit.

Merits of Joint Life Insurance:

• Joint life insurance holders get the privilege to ask for a loan against their purchased policy. The insurers can pay the loaned amount back in installments at the prevailing market interest rate. If at any point of time the insurer finds it impossible to return the money, his pending return amount is deducted from the sum insurance amount on maturation of the insurance policy.
• Joint Life Insurance policies have a clause which mentions a lump sum amount to the insured in situations of chronic illness such as Cancer, Heart-Attack or Diabetes
• Joint life insurance pays dividends to the insurers annually. Here, the policy holders have the option to collect dividends at policy maturation time or take it as cash (annually).
• Joint Life insurance policies have higher premiums in comparison to single insurance policies but when you combine two single (individual) health insurance policies, Joint Life insurance results more economical.

Different Types of Joint Life Insurance:

• Critical Illness Joint Life Assurance - In this category of joint life insurance a lump sum amount is provided when one of the policyholder gets diagnosed with some critical illness such as multiple sclerosis, stroke, heart attack or cancer.
• Decreasing Term Joint Life Assurance - Term Joint life insurance – also known as ‘mortgage protection’ covers mortgage interest with the investment. The sum assured is delivered to the policyholders when one of the insured partners passes away.
• Level Term Joint Life Assurance - It is the general type of joint life insurance policy. In this class of joint insurance, if one of the insured partners dies, only then death-benefit is provided. The surviving partner cannot receive the death benefit on absence or collapse, even if the policy is on active mode.

Joint Life Insurance Characteristics

Majority of the joint life insurance policies allow the users to borrow some amount of cash loans against their bought joint life insurance policy. The loan offered can be returned at the current market rate interest. The insurance company deducts the returnable amount (on policy maturation) if the policy holder is not able to pay back on time.

Premium payment in Joint Life Insurance can be lessened or can be arranged to add to the interest rate or received in cash in relation to the dividends that have been earned by the premiums.

There are various facilitating options available in the joint life insurance e.g. Non-forfeiture Options such as automatic premium, cash surrender and many more. These options provide help to the insured individuals in emergency situations wherein they are unable to keep up with the premiums.