#1 CONTROL - is control when you have a whole life insurance product you are signing a contract between yourself and the insurance company. Essentially this is a private contract between you and the insurance company which is a huge benefit for you, because that means you are in complete control. Which unlike other financial products out there you may, or may not have that level of direction of what happens with your account. That includes being able to access it and use it however, whenever you wish. One of our adages is that you don't lose money until you lose control of it, so a nice aspect of whole life insurance is that you maintain control throughout your entire life. 

#2 CASH VALUE -every single time that you make your premium payment cash value accumulates inside your policy. Now there are 2 ways for you to access this cash value; through a withdrawal or through a loan. If you decide to use the loan feature to access your cash value then you do not disturb the compounding inside this policy. This is kind of cool, if you think about it, it is kind of like being in two places at the same time. You can use the loan to accomplish many things; pay off debt, offset market volatility, pay down or eliminate outstanding debt. You are able to do all these things and not disturb the compounding when you take a loan. You can also do a withdrawal but through a withdrawal you reduce the cash value inside your policy.  

#3 DIVIDENDS -these are a non guaranteed portion of your contract premium. If your policy is provided by a mutual insurance company, then you could possibly be paid a dividend each year, Now a dividend is at the end of the year when the insurance company is profitable and they've paid all of their expenses whatever is left is returned back to the policy owners in the form of a dividend. For IRS reporting purposes these funds are classified as nontaxable, so you are not taxed on these dividends. Which is kind of amazing because you don't have to do anything, just own a policy and you are able to share in the profits of that company through the forms of a dividend benefit 

#4 RIDERS -are additional features and benefits that can be added to your policy for your specific needs. There is a terminal illness rider, if you elect this option with your whole life insurance policy and you're diagnosed with a terminal illness a portion of your death benefit can be utilized to take care of your medical expenses. This rider is similar to the chronic illness rider and if you are diagnosed with the chronic illness then a portion of your death benefit can be utilized to take care of your medical expenses while you're still living. Another one is disability waiver, if you get disabled then the company will continue to pay your premiums for the rest of your life. For comparison check and see if your 401(k) plan has this feature. The answer is Not!  

#5 TAXES - because you put in after-tax dollars into a whole life insurance policy the cash value grows at a tax-free rate now what did this mean for you all the years that you have your whole life insurance policy you are not going to be taxed on any of that growth nor the cash value that you utilize as long as you request a loan and the nice thing about adding after-tax dollars into your whole life insurance policy is the fact that you know where taxes are right now you have no idea what taxes are going to be in the future.

Now you know the five benefits of whole life insurance do you know how to use your policy because you can actually use it right now today while you're living by accessing the cash value inside your policy because the thing that you need to know is that you can use your policy right now today and you don't have to wait years in order to access your cash value.