It depends on your specific policy. Universal Life (UL) insurance is a type of life insurance that offers more flexible premium payments and death benefit options than a traditional whole life policy.
Premiums: Your UL policy will require you to make premium payments throughout the life of your policy. The required premium will be based on age, the size of your death benefit, the cash value and anticipated investment returns of your policy. Generally, if the policy is well-managed and funded, you can often make payments for many years before needing to adjust the premiums or drop the policy.
Death Benefit: Your policy's death benefit can be used for a variety of things, such as retirement planning, college tuition, or end-of-life expenses. The death benefit will depend on the amount of premiums paid over the life of the policy and any additional contributions made to the policy.
Cash Value: Depending on the type of policy and age at issue, your UL policy will likely have some form of cash value build up. Depending on the specific terms of your policy and the policy performance, you may use the cash value to pay premiums, supplement retirement income, or even borrow from the policy.
In short, the answer on how long any given Universal Life insurance policy will need to be paid depends on the details of that particular policy and the performance of the policy. Generally, well funded and managed policy should be able to last several decades, if not longer. Ultimately, the policy owner will decide when to end the policy due to changes in circumstances and/or policy performance.
If you have further questions about how long you need to pay on your specific policy, we recommend speaking to an independent life insurance advisor or the insurer directly.
