I'm not in the insurance business but I do have both term life and whole life insurance.

As you say, term life insurance is cheaper, but obviously expires. My wife and I both have term life insurance to cover the period until the kids will be through college and we get closer to retirement. As the main income earner, my insurance is larger. Term life insurance will be cheaper the younger/healthier you are and the less time you want it to cover you. I got mine for 20 years, $1m of coverage, $0.5m for my wife. The basic idea is that if I die she can still pay off the mortgage and put the kids through college without having to work too much, or be able to afford more domestic help.

Whole life insurance is guaranteed to pay out when you die, so it will support your estate, not you. But if you over-fund it, it then becomes an investment vehicle that can earn relatively good rates of return (especially compared to current market rates). I have a Whole Life policy with Northwestern Mutual that I've had about 10 years (I'm 46). The earlier you start paying into it, the cheaper it is (obviously). Mine is now over-funded, so contributions are now building the equity/cash value that I can later draw on in retirement. It is yielding about 5% currently, which is pretty good when 10 year UST yields are at 1.55%.

I"m a fan of Jonathan Clements (former WSJ financial advice columnist) for his very practical suggestions and here's what he said in his blog:

Next on the snit list are sellers of cash-value life insurance, another group collecting commissions that would make even used car salesmen blush. Arguing with these folks is an exercise in frustration. Mention the high commissions and you’ll be told about the dividends. Pick holes in the need for lifetime insurance coverage and you’ll hear about the loan feature. Discuss the high lapse rate and you’ll be told about the tax-free death benefit. And so it goes on.

cash value life insurance was also #1 on his 51 things NOT to do list.

We don't have life insurance other than my wife has a small policy (~$100k) that comes with her job.

http://www.jonathanclements.com/

RUN!!!. He is selling you cash value life insurance because he makes huge profits on cash value. I would ditch this 'advisor' and run away as fast as possible. He is not doing what is in your best interest but rather his. How are you paying him?

He isn't tell you about all of the additional fees and fine print in that cash value life insurance. If you take the difference between a term life insurance and a cash value life insurance and invest that in an S&P index fund (which he won't sell you) you will make a lot more money.

Yes, I have life insurance, term life by going online and getting a decent quote. As soon as my kids are out of the house or my family is financially stable enough I'm going to drop it.

I also get employer paid life insurance through my employer. I would check to see if your employer offers either voluntary (taken out of your paycheck) or employer paid life. Assess that with your need for life insurance.

David Ramsey covers it here:

https://www.daveramsey.com/...bout-life-insurance/

Also look at bogleheads.org for honest financial advice.

Our advisor is recommending cash value life insurance as a part of our strategy, both for income protection and as one of man\y investment vehicles.

I would recommend it to if I wanted to make a lot of money off you...

One option you may want to look at is a hybrid product like a VUL with a LTC rider. Term can be useful because it's a cheap temporary solution. A permanent solution has other benefits but as pointed out by others a pricier solution. It's about more information then you listed here and probably want to list online. Your advisor should be asking the right questions and have the facts to know what type of insurance you need. If you are not sold on him/her yet make sure they can sell a wide variety of insurance products and are not just narrowed to a few choices. Ask questions on how much insurance he sells, what types of policies ect.

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"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "

mine is level term. figure out how much you need and how long you need it for. i bought 15 year level at age-50, just after getting married (the wife will like that you have life insurance). it's not wasted if i don't die. it's peace of mind every day that i have it.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Thanks for the dave ramsey link. We kind of follow his ideas, but have not really looked at this part before.

I have term through a national group I belong to.

wife 3 teen kids no mortgage.

If I kick wife need do nothing but focus on kids until self sufficient (ie. not work) and should be enough to pay for their cost until then (ie. schooling, living costs without me, etc). When we had a mortgage it was sufficient to square that as well.

Wife has much smaller term which would fund schooling (and minimal child care) for 3 (while I continue to work).

After kids are self sufficient (fingers crossed) wife can decide if she wants me to drop it or if she wants to play the lottery with it for a big pay off.

Depending on your situation I might focus as much or more on disability insurance. The question for me is not whether they are taken care of if I am gone (see above), it is if they are (and how big of a pain in the ass am I ) if I am still around but not productive.

I do estate planning but also sell life insurance, typically to fund their taxes, trusts, etc. The typical commission is anywhere from 50% to 90% of the first year premium.

I own (7 figure amount) and prefer level term. Typically 20 years. The thing with cash value life insurance is that you typically only get one or the other, the cash or the death benefit.

What Kay said.

1) term is cheaper and covers you if you die. Each year it gets more expensive. Its a good short-term way to provide for your family if you die young.
1) whole life is more expense early on, but the rates don't increase and at some point, the cash surrender value is greater than what you paid - so if you live long enough, its like keeping money in the bank. The "break-even" period is not very long. Yes, other investment tools may have a better return on investment - or not depending on what you chose.

2) yes

3) got married, had kids - wanted them to have enough money if I died to live comfortably through college and into the decent earning years of their lives.

4) Both - see above.

5) A pension, 401k and savings are also good things to have.

I make enough money to not be eligible for a Roth IRA, to give you an ideal of my situation. I'm also 55

My kids are gone and married. I have a loan on my house that I'm paying a lot extra on, 2 car payments, and 1 credit card with not much on it (less than $5000). I have 2 different 401K's, 1 is 25 years old and currently dormant, the other is 5 years old with max contributions every month and actively managed. I am retired Navy and took the basic SBP, not the enhanced.

I have a professional financial advisor.

My work has group term life insurance that is part of my employment package. It equals 2.5 times my last 5 years average salary. On top of that I have a term rider that is 110% of the remaining mortgage on my house. The rider value is changed every November when we redo our benefits. The life insurance goes to my wife, the rider goes to my son with instructions to immediately go to Chase and pay off the loan in the event of my death. My Will says the same thing. That is because I have no faith in my wife to make sound financial decisions if I die, and the loan is only in my name and VA backed. It is considered a Jumbo Loan and no one in my family could qualify to assume the loan, so I expect my son to go down and pay it off before the VA realizes I'm dead and calls in the loan.

After that my wife should have a home, my vested retirement from work (which is technically a 401K), a small portion of my VA retirement, social security, and whatever the two 401K's are worth by that time. I figure that if she needs to she can sell whatever car I have and pay her car off.

All of this is based on the financial planners advise, which has changed over the years a little but not much, essential because my annual salary was about $55K when I retired from the Navy, and that is about my tax bill these days. She should be fine.

As far as final expenses, I have all the instructions in my Will to use the VA.

My financial planner has never discussed a Life policy, never even offered it as an option, and the group I use is nationally know and well respected.

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"...the street finds its own uses for things"

Used to be in this industry before I woke up. From that lens I would say the negative comments many are saying are valid. To answer your questions:
1.) Quick rundown of pros vs. cons of cash value insurance vs. term insurance. Others covered this, your advisor should too (though I would be skeptical). Lots of bells and whistles with cash value, none of which you need, most of which designed to confuse you and pay the advisor and the insurance company.
2.) Do you have life insurance? YES
3.) If so, why did you choose to get it? Kids, wife. Figure if something happens to me in the next 15yrs or so they will have college/house/etc taken care of and enough left over for a head start. If I am still around then they will still have all those things taken care of driven by my income and savings. I am fine with the fact that I might drop ~$15,000 on premiums and not die, seems like a fair deal to me.
4.) If so, what type and why? $1MM 30yr term and then another ~$1MM with my employer. It simple, I pay $80/month and don't even notice its going on. It doesn't change over time, its just there. One thing you hear a lot about is how cash value can self-fund itself over time. So can any policy, just have some money saved up which pays enough in interest/dividends/etc to cover your premium. The nice thing is term doesnt change as you age...whereas the insurance cost of a cash value policy increases over time, so eventually you will be 20yrs older and instead of $80/mo it will be more than that (i dunno the amount, ~$400/mo?).

I won't call it a scam, but I will say its a suboptimal deal for 99% of people.

1) No pros to anything other than term.
2) Yes
3) When I signed up I had a mortgage and my investments were not at a level my wife could live off of
4) Term, because it's the smart choice

When my term expires, I likely will not renew. By that point, between survivor's benefits for my pension and social security, plus the money we have in 401k, Roth IRA, and other investments, term insurance would merely allow my wife to buy a bunch of expensive purses, gigolos, etc. She'll be a rich widow with the money on the books right now.