The waiver of Premium (WP) is a special feature that can be added to your insurance contract for an additional fee. It ensures that the life insurance policy continues to grow if the payor (usually the owner of the policy) becomes disabled and unable to continue the payments. It comes into effect if the payor becomes disabled for a minimum period of time, depending on the company. It can also cover the premiums in the event of the payor’s death, for example if a parent owning a policy on a child dies prematurely. The waiting period is usually six months, and the coverage period often extends to age 60 or 65, with various definitions of disability (usually total disability) .
With most companies (but not all), the Waiver of Premium will not cover the Additional Deposits Option. Further to this point, some companies will flat out terminate the Additional Deposits option if you exercise the Waiver of Premium option. You may be able to potentially restart the Additional Deposits, but you will be subject to underwriting approval… and as you would be coming off a major disability, you most likely would not be approved at that point.
The Waiver of Premium is not a disability insurance. It will take care of your policy premium expense if you are disabled, ensuring that your Cash Value continues to rise along with your Death Benefit (as long as Dividends are being declared by the insurance company every year), but it won’t replace your income. To ensure the best degree of flexibility and protection for your Premiums and Additional Deposits option, you may want to consider a standalone disability insurance policy if your budget allows it.
Not everyone gets approved for this Waiver of Premiums, so if you do, you should accept it, or at least ensure that you have some outside disability insurance to be able to continue to pay premiums if you ever become disabled. Whole Life insurance is a great product and has a number of built-in guarantees, but if you cannot pay for your premiums as scheduled, the policy will not perform at its best and in a worst case scenario, it could lapse leaving the client without coverage.