What Is Cash Surrender Value? How It Compares to Cash Value

Cate Deventer is a writer, editor and insurance professional with over a decade of experience in the insurance industry as a licensed insurance agent. Amelia Buckley is an insurance https://business-accounting.net/ editor, covering auto, home and life insurance. She emphasizes creating informative, engaging and nuanced content to support readers in making personalized insurance decisions.

The rest of the cash value is the amount you paid in and will not be taxed at this point because it will have previously been part of your taxable income. This taxable portion also includes interest gained on your policy’s cash value. For instance, imagine you have a twelve-year-old life insurance policy with a cash value of $7,000 in it. After your insurance company adjusts for their surrender fee of 20 percent, you receive $5,600, and the company takes $1,400 in fees. The amount you receive is the cash surrender value, while the initial amount is the base cash value.

Should You Get a Policy With Cash Value?

When determining your cash surrender value, you must consider any fees your company will charge for removing your money funds. In order to determine how much money you will receive in a cash surrender, you must add up all the payments you have made to the policy and then subtract the fees and possible penalty withdrawal charges.

You’ve done the work to get another life insurance policy with a better rate and fee structure and no longer need your original policy. Just make sure you get the new policy in place before you cancel your existing policy so that there is no gap in coverage if you were to die in between. If your net cash surrender value is higher than the amount of premiums you paid into the policy, the overage is considered taxable income. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer or other company, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. All information, including rates and fees, are accurate as of the date of publication and are updated as provided by our partners. Some of the offers on this page may not be available through our website.

What is the difference between cash surrender value, cash value, and face amount?

If you have an annuity or life insurance policy, it’s essential to understand the cash surrender value. In this guide, we will explain what the cash surrender value is and how it works.

Joshua Cox-Steib has two years of experience in writing for insurance domains such as Bankrate, Coverage.com, The Simple Dollar, Reviews.com, and more. His insurance writing career has spanned across multiple product lines, with a primary focus on auto insurance, life insurance, and home insurance. Mandy earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and Management from the University of Baltimore and her Master of Business Administration from Southern New Hampshire University. While you can withdraw or borrow against the policy’s cash value, any outstanding balance, including interest, will be deducted from that cash value. Paid-up additional insurance is whole life insurance that a policyholder purchases using the policy’s dividends.

Reasons to Surrender Your Life Insurance Policy

They can also discuss the implications of taking out a loan or if your policy has an ADB provision that you can use. Each company sets surrender fee schedules for its permanent life insurance plans, which can differ by product. Comparing surrender fee schedules and how much of the premium goes towards the cash value can help you decide which permanent life policy to choose. Cash surrender value is the money you will receive after fees when you voluntarily cancel your permanent life insurance policy or annuity. Don’t overestimate your surrender or cash value, which is not reflective of the amount of coverage you have taken out for the death benefit. A cash value is tied to the policy as a benefit to help offset the rise in premiums as you grow older and offers policyholders access to money they can borrow.

• Policyholders are responsible for the taxes on portions of the surrendered cash values that represent cash value earnings.
• During this time, the insurer will assess a penalty if you decide to surrender the policy according to a surrender fee schedule listed in the policy.
• She emphasizes creating informative, engaging and nuanced content to support readers in making personalized insurance decisions.
• You can also use the withdrawal to make your premium payments if you can no longer afford them.
• All of our content is authored by highly qualified professionals and edited by subject matter experts, who ensure everything we publish is objective, accurate and trustworthy.
• However, once cash value is withdrawn from the policy , you may owe taxes if you receive more in surrender value than the sum of premiums you paid into the policy.

Life insurance policies fall into two broad categories, term life and permanent life. Term life policies last for a limited number of years, such as 20, and only pay a death benefit if the insured dies within that time. But permanent life insurance is designed to last your entire life and builds a cash value within the policy in order to do so. Only permanent life insurance policies, whole and universal, What is Cash Surrender Value [in Life Insurance?] have a cash value that can be accessed if you surrender your policy. Another alternative to surrendering your life insurance coverage is taking a policy loan that uses your policy as collateral for the loan. If you still owe money at the time of your death, that amount will be subtracted from your death benefit. 2 Policy benefits are reduced by any outstanding loan or loan interest and/or withdrawals.