Taking out a life insurance policy has a variety of different benefits.

In addition to providing financial security to you and your loved ones, life insurance also gives the opportunity to build wealth and transfer wealth, as well as offers various investment opportunities. The options are endless.

The problem is that many people do not even know about the financial possibilities that are abundant in many policies.

An article on about.com by A.M. Hyers, “Transferring wealth with life insurance: advantages of using single premium life insurance to transfer wealth,” discusses the benefits of using this type of life insurance as well as others in estate planning.

If you are a baby boomer, or slowly edging your way to retirement, you may want to think about how you are going to transfer your wealth to children, grandchildren or other loved ones in the future.

One of the best ways to do this is through a life insurance policy.

“Single premium life insurance is a valuable investment when it comes to wealth creation and transfer. With this type of life insurance, a single premium is deposited, creating an immediate death benefit that is guaranteed until the owner passes away. The death benefit will depend on the amount deposited, gender, age and health of the insured. In many cases, the single deposit will be multiplied by a factor of two or more when the death benefit is calculated. Typically the younger the insured, the higher the benefit received.”

In addition to benefiting people when you die, taking out a life insurance policy can also benefit you in the present time.

“Single premium life insurance can also benefit the insured or the purchaser during his or her lifetime. The cash value in a fully funded policy will grow quickly and can provide income to the purchaser if needed. In turn, the purchaser can also surrender the policy for its cash value at any time.”

Not only do certain life insurance policies offer great ways to utilize cash, but they also offer excellent investment opportunities to further build your wealth; either to be used for yourself in the present time, or to be given to beneficiaries for future use.

“There are various investment options in single premium life policies. The most common policy, traditional whole life, has a guaranteed interest rate and is the least aggressive, which makes it very dependable. Other policies such as universal life have different interest rate structures and can use an equity-index or variable engine to increase the policy value. Generally whole life is most appropriate for seniors, while universal life might appeal to younger consumers.”

One issue that may come up with seniors that are trying to take out a life insurance policy to get their financial houses in order is that no one will insure them because they are too old, but this isn’t really true.

“Simplified underwriting allows many seniors to qualify for life insurance. With simplified underwriting, there is no physical or blood work needed. So long as the proposed insured can answer no to a few questions, underwriting can be done using the answers on the application and a quick telephone interview. The fact is single premium life insurance is not difficult to purchase.”

Life insurance is obviously a smart choice for a variety of reason and cannot only benefit your loved ones in the future but can also benefit your everyday life right now.