Life Insurance for Children

Pros and Cons of Child Life Insurance

Even the best child life insurance plans can have their drawbacks. We encourage you to explore all the pros and cons before deciding. Guaranteed future insurability, access to cash value, and final expenses are enticing. However, you may want to weigh out the disadvantages of the cost and poor rates of return too.

Pro: Guaranteed Future Insurability

As mentioned earlier, it may be beneficial to invest in child life insurance if your child has a serious medical condition or if the family has a concerning medical history. One of the best features of getting a child life insurance policy is the guaranteed future insurability.

Aflac’s juvenile whole life policy allows the child to be covered as long as premiums are paid, regardless of the child’s future health. As long as their premiums are kept current, they will be covered until their 25^th birthday. After that, the insured child can convert their existing in-force policy to an individual whole life policy, with up to double the face amount of their current term policy without having to provide evidence of insurability.

This means that even if your child develops a serious medical condition at a young age, which could make life insurance as an adult cost-prohibitive or difficult to obtain, he or she could still have coverage.

Pro: Your Child May Use the Cash Value Later On

Depending on the policy and company you choose, some life insurance policies for children grant the ability to claim cash value or take loans on the policy’s accrued cash value. If you opt for a policy that allows early access to cash value, the child may be able to use the extra funds to assist with college tuition, help with a down payment on a first home or other essential needs.

Pro: Helps Cover Costs in the Event of Death

While we hope no one faces the loss of a child, help with expenses may be a form of relief in a devastating time. Looking into life insurance for family members may help provide peace of mind. Some child life insurance policies may provide benefits that can help cover funeral costs. In other cases, you may be able to add a benefit rider to an adult plan that can help with these types of final expenses.

Con: Poor Rate of Return

Usually, children have lower rates of mortality, which in turn can create a poor rate of return on whole life insurance plans for children.³ This is something we recommend you consider before taking a leap and expanding your family’s life insurance.

Con: Long-Term Expenses

If you decide that child life insurance is the best route for your child, they may be subject to certain long-term expenses, like life-long premium payments. If you move forward with a child life insurance plan, premiums might stay consistent for the entire life of the child, depending on if you choose a term or whole life policy.

If you have already invested money into a child life insurance plan, it may not make sense financially to forfeit the policy early.⁴ This is another factor to consider before getting child life insurance.

Cost of Life Insurance for Children

Like life insurance for all family members, how much you’ll pay may depend on age, medical history, lifestyle, and location. We recommend chatting with an Aflac agent to get a better idea of the costs.

Aflac Child Life Insurance

Aflac juvenile life insurance offers both term and whole life options for children, with no medical exams required. Learn more about your child’s options with Aflac.