Variable life insurance is a permanent life insurance policy with an investment component. The policy has a cash value account, which is invested in a number of sub-accounts available in the policy. A sub-account acts similar to a mutual fund, except it's only available within a variable life insurance policy. A typical variable life policy will have several sub-accounts to choose from, with some offering upwards of 50 different options.

We at Canada Insurance plan, we offers the cash value account has the potential to grow as the underlying investments in the policy's sub-accounts grow - at the same time, as the underlying investments drop, so may the cash value.

The appeal to variable life insurance lies in the investment element available in the policy and the favorable tax treatment of the policy's cash value growth. Annual growth of the cash value account is not taxable as ordinary income. Furthermore, these values can be accessed in later years and, when done properly through loans using the account as collateral, instead of direct withdrawals, they may be received free of any income taxation.

Variable Life Insurance - also called Variable Appreciable Life Insurance - provides permanent protection to your beneficiary upon your death. This type of life insurance is "variable" because it allows you to allocate a portion of your premium dollars to a separate account comprised of various investment funds within the insurance company's portfolio, such as an equity fund, a money market fund, a bond fund, or some combination thereof. Hence, the value of the death benefit and the cash value may fluctuate up or down, depending on the performance of the investment portion of the policy. Variable is a form of whole life insurance and because of investment risks it is also considered a securities contract and is regulated as securities under the Federal Securities Laws and must be sold with a prospectus.

Advantage:

Allows you to participate in various types of investment options while not being taxed on your earnings. You can apply interest earned on these investments toward the premiums, potentially lowering the amount you pay.

Disadvantage:

You assume the investment risks. When the investment funds perform poorly, less money is available to pay the premiums, meaning that you may have to pay more than you can afford to keep the policy in force. Poor fund performance also means that the cash and/or death benefit may decline, though never below a defined level. Also, you cannot withdraw from the cash value during your lifetime.