Is Whole Life Insurance a Scam?

John, and it instantly... Let's do this. The answer. Hey there, Phillip here with InvestorWow. Are you looking to make a great return on your money, but you're worried about an economic crash? Why yes I am. What if I told you there's a secret investment strategy of the rich and famous? A safe, secure place to stash your money while receiving dividends of 4, 5, even 6% per year, even when the market dips. That sounds incredible. But that's not all. With InvestorWow, your money grows tax-deferred from one year to the next. Buzz off, Uncle Sam. You could use all the wealth you build to plan for retirement. Or for little Jimmy's college tuition. Or a new car. In fact, some people are so wild about this investment, they've used it as a replacement for banks, lending institutions, insurance, and more. Ooh, I want one. What's it called? Whole Life Insurance. Huh? Stop us if you've heard this one. You've been thinking about beginning your investment journey. So you sit down with your local financial advisor, and they throw you a curveball. Whole Life Insurance as an investment solution. When we asked, 30% of you said you've had a financial expert recommend it. The rest of you might be thinking, life insurance as an investment? What are you talking about? Well, as strange as it may appear on its surface, Whole Life Insurance as an investment has been around for generations. It's life insurance that never expires. But that's just the beginning. It has an investment component, too, that's protected from the stock market and pays attractive dividends. Heck, the first book on investing I ever read extolled the amazing virtues of Whole Life Insurance. Let's start with Life Insurance 101. Way back in 1583, Richard Martin purchased the first recorded life insurance policy in England on his buddy William for £30. One year later, when William died, Richard received a £400 payout. Nice for him, not so nice for William. Today, the principal purpose of life insurance is to protect those left behind if a family member dies. It's a standard component of modern financial planning, with 59% of people in the U.S. owning some kind of life insurance. Here's how it works. You pay a regular premium to insure somebody's life. If that person dies while the policy is still in force, the insurance company pays out a cash death benefit, usually hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. This money is meant to help those they leave behind. The most common type is term life. You have a flat monthly premium for a set term, usually 10, 20, or 30 years. At the end of the term, if you're still breathing, premiums jump up dramatically, and it's not uncommon to cancel your policy at that point. But whole life insurance is different. It has consistent flat premiums for your whole life. How can they afford to do that? By charging a much higher premium. Part of that goes towards the cost of insurance, and part of it into an investment account called the cash value, which pays a dividend of 4-6% per year. The purpose of this account is to offset the increasing cost of insurance as you get older, so your premiums stay flat. Unlike term life, if you cancel a whole life policy, you might get some money back. Depending on how long you've had it, you could even get more than you paid into it. Some advisors recommend that instead of borrowing from a bank, you could take out loans against your cash value while keeping the insurance in place, a practice dubbed infinite banking. Advocates of whole life treat it as a financial silver bullet for your needs. Life insurance without an expiration date. A tax-deferred investment for your future. Fire your banker and loan money to yourself. How can term life possibly hold a candle to this? I think it's time to... Run the Numbers! Tia and Tamara are twins, both age 40 and are shopping for life insurance. Tia picks whole life, while Tamara picks a 30-year term life. The death benefit for each is $500,000. Tia will be paying $563 per month for a whole life policy, according to U.S. averages. That's pretty steep, but Tia was attracted to the cash value growth. She's thinking this will count as some of her investing each year, and that 5.5% is a pretty good return. But hold on, Tia. The 5.5% dividend only applies to your cash value portion, not the full $563 payment. According to a 2015 Consumer Reports study, after costs like commissions and fees, the average whole life investment return was closer to 2%. If Tia lives to age 70, she'll have paid $202,680 in premiums. But her policy will have a cash value worth almost $280,000. She's been insured her whole life and made money. Sounds like a win to me. Now, Tamara's 30-year term life is costing her $52 each month. If she also lives to 70, she gets nothing back. So Tamara decides to invest the difference between her premium and what she might have paid for a whole life policy. And if she invests in a basic stock index fund, she'll probably average over 7% for the next 30 years. At 70, her life insurance will be worthless, but her investment will be worth over $600,000. That's twice as much as Tia got with her whole life policy. So with high premiums and underwhelming returns, why is whole life recommended by brokers and advisors across the country? One word, commissions. See, agents and advisors typically receive a commission of 80 to 100% of the annual premium. So Tamara's agent made only $600, but Tia's made around $600,000. When I first started my financial career, I too drank the Kool-Aid. It was clear that our commissions would be much higher for recommending any insurance product with an investment component. Our clients were often unaware of this conflict of interest. To be fair, there are some situations that might make whole life insurance a good fit. Like a family with a special needs child who needs a lifetime of support. Or owning a complicated family business or a sizable estate with substantial taxes. But these are special cases. It's not the one-size-fits-all remedy it's made out to be. It's best to do your own research, read the fine print, and make sure you're seeking objective advice from somebody that doesn't have financial skin in the game. And that's our two cents. If you have any experience with term or whole life insurance, share it with us in the comments section.