Transamerica announced today that effective immediately (as of today, February 4, 2015), the carrier will no longer be offering their no-lapse universal life and no-lapse survivorship universal life products as part of theiir life insurance product portfolio. Single life, no-lapse universal programs are commonly referred to as “Guaranteed Universal Life” (GUL) – for survivorship life policies, they are referred to as “Guaranteed Survivorship Universal Life” (GSUL).
TransAce is the carrier’s product name for these two types of programs. Under a guaranteed universal life policy, the coverage features a “no lapse guarantee” that allows the coverage to continue even if the cash value is at $0.00. In doing so, this gives you permanent coverage that can be guaranteed to keep the premium the same for as long as you keep the policy (can be kept for the rest of your life, up to age 121, if desired) and maximizes your dollar being spent on the death benefit side of the policy.
Other types of universal life insurance do not feature these guarantees and therefore, if the cash value reaches $0.00, the policy would lapse as there would not be any funds in the policy to pay the cost of insurance charges takes out each month. While whole life features premium guarantees, it is the most expensive type of coverage available.
So how does this affect me?
If you have a term insurance policy with the carrier, it changes your policy conversion abilities. When you purchase term life insurance, you have a conversion period available for a specified amount of time where you can convert all or a portion of the face amount (the death benefit) of the policy from term insurance into permanent insurance. What type of permanent product you can convert to is determined by the types of products offered by the carrier at the time the policy is converted. Other types of permanent coverage (such as indexed universal life, current assumption universal life, and whole life) typically require much higher premiums than guaranteed universal life programs and can offer very different coverage guarantees under the policy (if any).
Even if you already have life insurance in place or are interested in purchasing new coverage, give us a call at 1-888-972-0024 to speak with a live agent today or CLICK HERE to e-mail us 24/7 with any questions you may have.
It’s always a good idea to review your coverage periodically and consider what options are available to renew/extend the term length guarantee of a policy! We never charge any fees for our services and can shop the case for you among numerous insurance companies to make sure you’re paying the lowest possible cost for your life insurance benefits.