160+ Free, Nearly Free Summer Movies in Ventura County!


Free Concerts All Summer Along In and Around Ventura County!

Frozen Yogurt in Ventura County

Help End Breast Cancer! Saturday, July 28th at Gardens of the World in Thousand Oaks

All Trades Ready Construction: Reliable, Quality Work Serving Ventura County (805) 584-0804

Open Weekends Until Further Notice!! 805/405-2182

Attractive Abstracts by local artist Chuck Trunks

Tell Me More About CVG!

Moms Clubs in Ventura County

 


Stay Cool in the Pool! Community Pools In/Around Ventura County

Upcoming FREE Ventura County Area Events!!

Local Crime Alerts/Updates

 Wanna horse around? Here's where to go in Ventura County!

Tell Your Friends About Conejo Valley Guide!!

 Over 160 Summer Camps In and Around Ventura County!!

Have a SWEET Birthday Party!!

 

Kids Eat Free in VC!

 

Ventura County Area Jobs!

Local VC Charities 

Marathon Running Tips and Tales

Ventura County Runs/Walks!

Site Search

Compilation of FREE Stuff!


Ventura County Batting Cages

« Time to Carpool (or at least start thinking about it!) | Main | Fifty Ways to Leave Your Gas Pains »
Saturday
Jun282008

Life Insurance for Babies?  Worthwhile?

So I'm sitting here in my family room with my young boys, TV blaring in the background.  A commercial for Gerber Life Insurance, the "Grow-Up" plan, appears on the screen.  What the?  Why would I want to spend money on life insurance for a baby??  Does this make any sense to consider?

The plan is summarized at www.gerberlife.com.  It is a whole life policy with coverage ranging from $5K to $35K.  You can buy the policy for a kid (or grandkid) anytime between the age of 14 days and 12 years. At age 21 the policy automatically doubles in value as long as the premiums are paid.  At age 28 your kid can increase coverage by a factor of 10 at the then applicable rate.

I took a closer look at the $30K policy, with a monthly premium of $20.46.  They say that after 20 years the "cash value" of the policy equals or exceeds the premiums you paid.  That would be $4900 in year 2028.

If you took that $20.46 each month and invested in a college savings plan and it earned an average of 5% or 8%, you would have $8400 or $12K in year 2028.  To me, that makes a lot more sense than an insurance policy.

Would this Grow Up plan make sense for anyone?  The policy makes sense if your child dies, as the payoff would pretty much cover the funeral and burial costs; not much more than that.  Statistics in the U.S. indicate a death rate of 1 in 5000 children aged 1 to 14 and 1 in 1400 for teens ages 15 to 19 (the California rates are roughly 10% to 15% better than these averages). 

Seems to me that the premiums are better spent on college savings then the possibility of death at an early age.

One last argument for the policy is that it guarantees your child the ability to increase coverage by a factor of 10 at age 28.  This would only pay off for someone who otherwise is unable to get life insurance at that age.  To me, this is not worth forking out 27 years of premiums for.

PrintView Printer Friendly Version

EmailEmail Article to Friend

Reader Comments

There are no comments for this journal entry. To create a new comment, use the form below.

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.

My response is on my own website »
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>