Quick Introduction to Survivorship Universal Life Insurance
Survivorship universal life insurance is a type of permanent life insurance that offers flexible premiums and investment options of a universal life policy. Unlike other insurance policies, survivorship universal life insures two lives – usually a husband and wife – and the policy pays when both insureds die.
Assuming you are a healthy, non-smoker looking for $250,000 of coverage, you can expect survivorship universal life insurance quotes near the following ranges:
| Age (yrs) | Male ($ per month) | Female ($ per month) | ||
| 55 - 60 | $45 | $40 | ||
| 60 - 65 | $50 | $45 | ||
| 65 - 70 | $55 | $50 | ||
| 70 - 75 | $60 | $55 | ||
| 75+ | $65 | $60 |
Provider | Annual Payment | Monthly Payment |
| SelectQuote Life Insurance | ||||
 | $210 | $18 | ||
| Searching for Policies...  | ||||
Survivorship Universal Life Insurance Quotes: Choosing an Insurance Policy
The premium with a survivorship universal life insurance policy is usually lower than it would be for two separate life insurance policies. With other permanent life policies, the death benefit is paid out upon the insured’s death. But survivorship universal life insurance is different in that the death benefit is only paid out when both insureds under the policy die. Wealthy couples are the most likely to opt for this insurance type, but business partners may also opt for it. Often the goal behind survivorship universal life insurance is for the death benefit to cover the cost of estate taxes. In the case of business partners, this insurance may be used to cover the costs of transferring the ownership of a business.
You may also see this policy referred to as a “second-to-die” insurance.
Typically a survivorship universal life insurance policy’s death benefit is used to pay federal estate taxes and other estate settlement costs incurred after your death. However, a federal law allows you a marital deduction so you can leave an unlimited amount of assets – including the cash value of your universal insurance policy’s investment portion – to your surviving spouse. If you choose that route, then no federal estate taxes are owed upon your death. Instead, your assets merge with your spouse’s estate and will be taxed when your spouse dies.
What’s the upside of this survivorship universal life insurance policy? It may help pay or off-set those estate taxes.
Survivorship Universal Life Insurance Quote: Coverage Amounts
This insurance is for the duration of your life and your joint insured’s life, so there is no need to decide on the length of the policy.
Two types of survivorship life insurance policies that are available are:
Survivorship universal life insurance: This is a policy that provides typically tax-free death benefits for your beneficiaries and builds tax-deferred cash value with flexible premiums.
and
Variable survivorship universal life insurance: With this policy you can select a separate cash value account that is tied to the stock market. This value will fluctuate based on the market’s performance, and can allow you to quickly build that cash value within your policy.
Since your premium is based upon the joint life expectancy of both insureds – like you and your spouse – survivorship life insurance is usually less expensive per thousand dollars of death benefits than traditional universal life insurance.
Because two policyholders must die before the death benefit is paid out, qualifying for a survivorship universal life policy can be easier than for a single-insured life insurance. Even if you’re considered “uninsurable” by common life insurance standards – such as a chronic disease or risky profession – you may still find an insurance company willing to give you a policy.
As with any permanent life insurance policy, make sure you ask detailed questions to thoroughly understand your policy. With a survivorship universal life policy, this is very important as the policy covers two insureds. You may want to find out how your policy is affected by a change in estate tax laws or if you get divorced. Some insurance companies may allow you to split the policy into two single-insured policies if you add a certain rider to your policy.
Getting a Survivorship Universal Life Insurance Quote
As survivorship life insurance is a less common policy than other universal life insurance policies, you may need to hunt around for companies that issue this policy. This policy is also called a second-to-die policy.
Since with a survivorship life insurance policy, you’re insuring two lives – you and your spouse or business partner – you likely won’t be able to find a quote online. Additionally, the popularity of this policy has decreased in recent years due to legislative changes.
Instead of getting an online quote, you may need to contact the insurance companies you’d like quotes from and provide the necessary details to a representative.
In order to receive an insurance quote, you’ll provide certain details about yourself and the second person on the policy (spouse or business partner). For both of you, be prepared to provide your zip code, address, date of birth, gender, height and weight. You’ll likely have to answer questions about your health status and personal habits (including whether you’re a smoker or not). Other factors that could affect your survivorship universal life insurance quotes include your driving record, hobbies and occupation.
With survivorship universal life insurance policy, your insurance company only pays out when both insureds – like you and your spouse – die, meaning this type of universal life insurance can be more affordable than other options.
How to Choose the Best Coverage for You
Determine the reason why you need survivorship universal life insurance. Do you need life insurance to cover your estate taxes for your spouse? To provide for your business partner or your spouse’s income? Or perhaps you’d like to provide lifelong care for a special needs child.
Because survivorship universal life insurance is a form of universal life insurance, your beneficiaries will get a guaranteed death benefit. This benefit may pay out in full, even before you have paid off the policy.
Young parents or parents to a growing family might consider survivorship universal life insurance. This policy will protect your family in the event that you both die. Since it’s more affordable than other life insurance options, this is a favorable choice for young families where money may be tight.
When determining how much coverage you need, take into account many different figures, such as your present debts, inflation, your children’s future college education costs and if your beneficiaries need to maintain a certain lifestyle. While there is no hard rule for determining your life insurance coverage needs, a good guideline is to add up your short-term and long-term needs and subtract your resources.
Choosing a survivorship universal life insurance policy is best done under the guidance of a properly qualified estate planning attorney, as this policy is intricately tied to your estate taxes and financial planning in the event of your death.
How to Pick a Life Insurance Company
The number of life insurance companies providing survivorship life insurance has decreased in the past few years, so your options may be rather limited.
John Hancock Life, Voya Financial and MassMutual are some of the biggest providers of survivorship universal life insurance. If you’d like a survivor fixed index universal life insurance policy, check out Allianz Life Survivor.
Life Insurance Study: America's Healthiest Places
SmartAsset's interactive map highlights the healthiest counties across the country. Zoom between states and the national map to see data points for each region, or look specifically at one of the three factors driving our analysis: length of life, health behaviors and healthcare access.
1 Years of Potential Life Lost before the age of 75 per 100,000 residents
2 Primary Care Physicians per 100,000 residents
Methodology Our study aims to find the healthiest places in the country. An individual's health is key to assessing life expectancy, which is the ultimate determinant of the price one pays for life insurance. To find America's healthiest places we considered three factors: length of life, health behaviors and healthcare access.
The first factor we considered was the premature death rate in a county, specifically the years of potential life lost before age 75 per 100,000 residents. This number shows the rate at which people die before the age of 75. Places with the lowest rates of premature death generated the highest length of life index values.
Second, we created a health behaviors index for each county. This reflects the counties with the healthiest behaviors, as measured by three data points: the percentage of adults that are current smokers, the percentage of adults that are obese and the percentage of adults that report binge or heavy drinking. We indexed each of these data points on a scale of 0 to 100, took a weighted average, then indexed the final number to generate the health behaviors index.
Third, we considered access to healthcare as a secondary measure of how healthy each county is, given the impact this has on health outcomes. We looked at the rate of primary care physicians per 100,000 residents. We also looked at the uninsured rate, or the percentage of the population under age 65 without health insurance. We indexed each of these data points on a scale of 0 to 100, took a weighted average, then indexed the final number to generate the healthcare access index.
Finally, we used a weighted average of the three indices above to yield an overall healthiest places score. We used a 50% weighting for length of life, a 30% weighting for health behaviors and a 20% weighting for healthcare access. We indexed the final number so higher values reflect the healthiest places
Sources: County Health Rankings
