Life insurance is a contract between a policyholder who agrees to make premium payments and an insurer that agrees to pay a death benefit to named beneficiaries if the policyholder dies. Life insurance premium costs and coverage amounts vary depending on several factors, including the policyholder’s age, gender, health and lifestyle.
Gerber Life specializes in children’s policies, offering the Grow-Up Plan and Young Adult Plan. In both cases, policies offer coverage amounts from $5,000 to $50,000. No medical exam is required, but you must complete a health questionnaire to enroll.
Gerber Life Grow-Up Plan
The Gerber Life Grow-Up Plan is a whole life insurance policy for children between the ages of 14 days old to 14 years old. Coverage amounts automatically double when the child turns 18. For example, a $25,000 policy would double to $50,000 if premium payments are current.
The child becomes the policyholder at age 21 and can continue paying premiums at Gerber Life’s standard adult rates or end the coverage and receive the policy’s accumulated cash value.
Gerber also offers a guaranteed purchase option rider, allowing the policyholder to buy additional coverage at standard adult premium rates for their age at that time. No medical exam is needed, and you can buy up to 10 times the original coverage amount, up to $100,000.
Gerber Life Young Adult Plan
Some whole life insurance policies include a cash value component that functions as a savings or investment account. Accumulated money earns interest, and the policyholder can borrow against it in certain situations.
Gerber Life’s Young Adult Plan is a whole life policy for youths ages 15 to 17. Parents, grandparents and permanent legal guardians can apply for coverage, and the covered teen becomes the policyholder at age 21. The policy builds cash value, and coverage doubles when the owner turns 18.
Gerber Life also offers its Gerber Life College Plan as an alternative to traditional college savings accounts. With the plan, you can guarantee how much money a policyholder will have after 10 to 20 years. It also couples with adult life insurance coverage.
Term Life Insurance
Term life insurance is a policy that allows a policyholder to buy coverage for a specific period, usually 10, 20 or 30 years. However, Gerber offers policies beyond 30 years in some cases. If the insured person passes away during a specified term, the insurance company will pay a predetermined amount to the beneficiaries named in the policy. When the policy period ends, the insurance policy is no longer in force.
Gerber Life’s term life insurance product is available without a medical exam to people up to age 50 in amounts between $100,000 to $300,000. Terms range from 10, 20, and 30 years. People between the ages of 50 to 70 are eligible for coverage between $300,000 and $1 million but must take a medical exam.
Whole Life Insurance
Whole life Insurance is a permanent policy that provides lifelong coverage, as long as premiums are kept up to date. Whole life policies have a cash value component, so you can borrow against the premiums you’ve paid into the policy in most cases.
Gerber Life’s adult whole life insurance product ranges from $50,000 to $300,000 in coverage.
A guaranteed issue life insurance plan is available for people aged 50 to 80 and covers between $5,000 and $25,000. Applicants do not need to take a medical exam or fill out a health questionnaire. Guaranteed life insurance comes with a graded death benefit that restricts the amount paid if the policyholder dies of a non-accident during the first two years of the policy. In such a case, the beneficiary receives all premiums paid, plus 10%.
If you cancel coverage, the payout is the policy’s available cash value minus a surrender charge. Whole life policyholders can borrow against their policy’s cash value at an 8% interest rate if the monthly premiums are paid.
