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November 4, 2025 12 mins

What Is Premium Life Insurance?

Think life insurance is just money your family gets if you’re gone? We flip that script by breaking down return of premium term life insurance—coverage that protects your loved ones now and returns every dollar of premium if you outlive the term. It’s simple, clear, and powerful for people who want a big death benefit today and a guaranteed lump sum tomorrow.

We walk through the nuts and bolts in plain English: how ROP term compares to standard term and whole life, why premiums are higher than basic term but far lower than whole life, and how to choose a term length that mirrors your real risk window—mortgage years, kids at home, and business obligations. Tim shares a real-world example from his own policy, what the monthly cost looks like, and how that end-of-term check can be repurposed for college, retirement, or a paid-up policy. We also explain how carriers make money—investing pooled premiums—and why honest underwriting matters for pricing and approval.

If you’re in your 20s to early 50s and want strong protection with a built-in exit plan, this conversation lays out the tradeoffs and the upside. You’ll learn when ROP term shines, when standard term may be better, and how to evaluate quotes so the numbers match your goals. Ready to stress less about “use it or lose it” and start planning for a future check?

If this helped clarify your options, follow and share the show, and leave a quick review so more families can find it. Want tailored guidance? Call or text 423-417-2070 for a free 20 minute consultation.

To learn more about The Walters Agency visit:
https://www.brightway.com/agencies/tn/knoxville/0237/team
The Walters Agency
7009 Asheville Hwy
Knoxville, TN 37924
423-417-2070

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:03):
Welcome to the Walters Agency Podcast, where
insurance makes pizza five.
Hosted by Licensed InsuranceAgency Owner Timothy Walters, we
are here to help families,homeowners, and small business
owners throughout East Tennesseeprotect what matters most.

Our mission (00:19):
creating win-win-win solutions for
insurance.
Let's dive in.

SPEAKER_01 (00:27):
Return of premium life insurance is just about
death.
Think again.
What if your policy could be astrategic asset, a tool to
protect and preserve everythingyou built?
In this episode, we reveal howreturn of premium insurance is
helping to move families' basiccoverage to secure their
financial legacy and stay incontrol no matter what.

(00:49):
Welcome back everyone.
Skip Monaco slash producer backin the studio with Timothy
Walters, owner of the WaltersAgency.
Timothy, how's it going?

SPEAKER_02 (00:59):
It's going well, Skip.
How are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 (01:02):
Doing just fine and uh a bit confused on uh I'm not
familiar with return of premiuminsurance, so I'm I'm uh eager
to learn what exactly is thatand and uh how's it beneficial?

SPEAKER_02 (01:16):
Yeah, well, um honestly, Skip, it is fairly
simple.
It's a fairly simple product.
It's one of the reasons I likeit.
Um so I think a lot of peoplewho maybe have you know checked
into life insurance, they theyknow about whole life versus
term life.
And if you don't know, what Ialways say, call your agent, uh

(01:36):
talk to them about it.
But uh those are the two basickinds of life insurance that are
commonly available on themarket.
So return a premium is a termlife product.
Uh so technically you call it areturn of premium term policy,
okay?
Mouthful, right?
So, you know, I just call them areturn of premium or uh ROP or

(01:58):
whatever.
Um, but basically what it is isuh you take out a policy that
goes for a certain amount oftime, which is the term.
It can be five years, it couldbe 10 years, 15, 20, sometimes
even 30 years, and you have aspecific, you know, death
benefit for you, you know, yourbeneficiaries, typically your
family, but it could really beanybody.
Um so you know, I see themanywhere from$100,000 to$500,000

(02:23):
uh, you know, death benefit.
And like term policies, normalterm policies are about the
least expensive uhmonth-to-month uh policies that
you typically find on themarket.
Um, so they have the benefit ofbeing less expensive on average
for the same death benefit asyou would have with a whole life
policy.
And whole life is you knowpermanent as long as you pay the

(02:45):
premium, you know, the term goesuntil you die, uh, and then your
beneficiaries get paid.
Um, you know, it's lessexpensive than a whole life
policy typically, but at the endof the term, if you survive, and
you know, of course, I thinkmost of us would want to survive
at the end of the term.
I certainly do.
I I have a return on premiumpolicy on myself.

(03:05):
Uh, it was a 20-year policy.
I bought when I was about 30years old, so I've got six years
left on it, I think.
Uh hopefully I make it.
You know, it's I think it, Ithink it's like around 50 or 60
bucks a month.
So that's more expensive than asimilar regular term premium
would have been for the samedeath benefit.
But at the end of it, you know,when I turn about 50 years old,

(03:28):
I'm gonna get a very nice checkfrom the insurance company uh
for all of the premium that Ipaid in during that 20 years.
I think it's gonna, if Iremember the math right, I'm
gonna hopefully get about a$15,000 check from the insurance
company uh around about my 50thbirthday.
So, you know, from an economicalstandpoint, uh I like them

(03:49):
because you do get a very, youcan get a very big death
benefit.
Like you can typically gethigher death benefits for a much
lower premium than you can witha whole life policy.
And if you get a return ofpremium policy when you're in
your 20s or your 30s, uh,they're typically, you know,
reasonably priced.
You can get a great deathbenefit for your family.
And at the end of it, you'retypically not going to be

(04:11):
terribly old when the when theterm runs out.
So you can take that money, youcan either reinvest it into some
other type of insurance product,you know, maybe like a single
paid whole life policy or investit or you know, splurge on a
vacation, help pay for yourkids' college.
I mean, you can, it's yourmoney.
You can do whatever you wantwith it.
And the only thing that you'velost over that period of time,

(04:32):
that term, is the utility of themoney right then.
You know, you know, technicallyspeaking, you could have spent
that money on a cheeseburger,right?
Or a pack of cigarettes.
I mean, whatever your advice is.
You know, if you do buy a policylike this, you've got that life
insurance protection for yourbeneficiaries, your family.
Um, and it's a great product.
I mean, it really is.

(04:53):
Um, and and I I do I do like totalk to people about them.
Some people accuse me of pushingthem.
Uh, I don't really pushanything.
I try I try to examine, youknow, people's actual situation
and what's going to work forthem.
But I think they are a reallygood product.
Uh, you know, they offer greatprotection for a reasonable
price.
And at the end of it, you know,if you make it to the end of it,
which I hope you do, if you'rewatching this and you have a

(05:15):
policy, I hope you make it.
Uh, just like I hope I make it,uh, you know, you do get that
money back, which is a greatdeal, I think.

SPEAKER_01 (05:23):
Yeah.
Well, and it blows my mindbecause you get all of your
premiums back.
How does the insurance company,the the holder of the policy,
how do they make money, I guess,off the interest or investment
of it?

SPEAKER_02 (05:35):
Oh, the investment.
Uh, that's how insurancecompanies make their money.
Uh, I I think we maybe talkedabout that once uh in a in a
prior episode uh when we talkedabout life insurance.
That's really how most lifeinsurance companies make their
money.
They take the your the premiumthat you pay them and they
invest that, you know, ininvestment portfolios and the
stock markets and and I assumemaybe other things, uh maybe

(05:55):
precious.
I don't know.
I mean, I'm not a, you know, Idon't I don't I don't hold stock
in any insurance companies, butuh uh that's what I know is how
they basically make their money.
They take the premiums and ofcourse they've got to pay their
overhead costs, you know, theiremployees, their, you know,
their equipment, you know,everything you gotta have to run
a business uh in insurance, uhand whatever remainder uh is,

(06:17):
they typically invest that inuh, you know, again, the stock
market.
And these companies, a lot oftime, a lot of them have been
around for you know over ahundred years.
You know, they know uh prettywell, they have a pretty good
idea of what works and whatdoesn't when it comes to
investments.
So uh, like if you if you lookat some of our companies like
AIG or Cincinnati, uh uh Mutualof Omaha, I mean, these are

(06:39):
companies that have been aroundfor decades, if not hundreds of
years, um, and they they knowhow to invest this money, and
that's how they make theirprofits.

SPEAKER_01 (06:47):
Well, typically term life runs out at 70, right?
Is that correct?

SPEAKER_02 (06:52):
Well, term life uh is gonna run out at the end of
the contracted term.
Now, if you purchase a term lifepolicy and you're older,
sometimes there's stipulationswithin them uh that says, you
know, something's gonna happenwith uh with with the uh
coverage after a certain age.
Uh, but again, most companiesare not going to write a term

(07:13):
policy um, you know, that goespast a certain threshold anyway.
I mean, that's that it's notthat that's when they become
unprofitable, right?
If you're writing like a hundredthousand dollar life insurance
policy for somebody who's intheir 70s, and they've already
almost crossed the mortalitythreshold, right?
Um, so you don't see a lot ofcompanies writing term anything

(07:33):
uh past a certain age.
Uh there's some specialtycompanies, of course, that do.
Um, but uh for your regular,like what most regular people
are are getting in the market,um, you know, you're not gonna
see term policies, affordableterm policies, uh much past the
age of, say, 50 or 55.
You know, term policies arereally good for uh younger

(07:56):
people, again, because you canget that high death benefit for
a very low uh cost.
And again, the return ofpremium, I like them because not
only are you paying for thebenefit of, you know, if you do
pass away, if you get hit by abus, you know, your family gets
whatever the contract to deathbenefit is.
But at if you do survive, youdon't get hit by the bus, then
you get that money you paid infor that five, 10, 15, 20, maybe

(08:20):
30 years, you get that back andyou can use it for other things.
And that's that's really nice,as opposed to a regular term
policy when you know you don'tget any money back, uh, you just
bought that protection for thatperiod of time.

SPEAKER_01 (08:33):
So for somebody like me, I'm 58.
So if uh would would a return ofpremium policy be something I
could look at, or would it bejust kind of ridiculously
expensive?

SPEAKER_02 (08:43):
Yeah, I mean, I I think I think we could probably
I say we you could probably geta quote on one.
Uh I really can't think of acarrier right off the top of my
head because they do really,they really are more geared
toward younger folks, uh,probably in their, like I said,
young people or people in theearly middle age uh bracket.

(09:03):
Um, but yeah, you can still getterm and uh possibly return a
premium uh term policy.
It would be more expensive.
Like I said, I mean, the olderyou get, of course, you know,
the more expensive lifeinsurance is gonna be.
Um, but I mean, it's still apossibility.
And again, you know, you canalways you know talk to an
insurance guy like me.
Uh, and if you're watching this,even if you don't want to talk

(09:25):
to me, there's plenty of lifeinsurance agents out there.
Uh, we're thick on the ground.
Uh, you know, just call one, askthem what the possibilities are,
you know, be honest with, say,don't lie to them about your
age, don't lie to them aboutyour medical conditions or
anything like that.
Because everything comes out atthe end.
You know, there's always there'susually some kind of
underwriting uh for these typesof policies.

(09:48):
Um, there's no point in line.
Um, but uh if you want an honestanswer, you know, and a
reasonable uh timeline, thenyeah, just call an agent, ask
them, hey, you know, here's mysituation, here's what I'm
looking for, you know, what kindof protection are you looking
for your family?
You know, uh, do you have debtsthat you're trying to make sure
are settled, or you just want tomake sure your kids are able to
pay for college without, youknow, taking out, you know,

(10:11):
onerous student loans?
You know, do you want to makesure your spouse can keep the
house, pay the mortgage, youknow, without the income that
you provide?
Uh, you know, talk about whatyou're trying to do, and that'll
help an agent kind of determinewhat products might work best
for you.
You know, or we're trying topremium is not the best product
for everybody.
I happen to like it, but it'snot the best product for
everybody.
And it's not even available forsome people, depending on,

(10:34):
again, age, medical condition,you know, certain circumstances
might uh make it uh anineligible product, uh,
depending on the situation.

SPEAKER_01 (10:42):
So gotcha.
Wow.
Well, I always learned somethingon these podcasts about
insurance, and uh you definitelyblew my mind with this one.
I I had no idea that that evenexisted.
So guys, anybody of ourlisteners, viewers, check it
out.
Because if you especially ifyou're young to middle age, uh

(11:03):
definitely check it out becauseit sounds like it's a heck of a
deal.

SPEAKER_02 (11:06):
Yeah.
Like I said, I bought mine whenI was 30 years old.
If I bought it just the yearbefore, I probably would have
paid, you know, maybe$10 or$15less per month.
Call somebody, get something putin place.
It's a great time at that age touh to look into it if you
haven't.
And even if you're older, if youif my age or your age, if you
haven't looked into it before,never hurts to ask.

(11:28):
Call the agent, find out what'sout there in the markets.
There's plenty of offerings outthere.
I mean, they're on TV, you know,you see some of the TV
advertisements on the the UTBalls games, uh, you know, for
for life insurance policies, youknow.
Those are legit, you know.
I mean, that just, you know,reach out and uh, you know, talk
to somebody, see what the prosand cons are, and see if it's

(11:49):
something that would fit youryour situation.
I mean, it's you but you have toask.
You have to ask the questions.

SPEAKER_01 (11:54):
Well, Tim, appreciate it.
Uh again, learn something newevery every time I'm on the
show.
Appreciate it.
And we'll look forward to seeingyou on the next one.

SPEAKER_02 (12:02):
Thank you, Skip.
I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 (12:07):
That's a wrap on this episode of the Walters
Agency Podcast.
Ready to find the right coveragefor your home, business, or
family?
Call or text 423-417-2070 for afree 20 minute consultation.
Until next time, stay covered,stay protected, and keep winning

(12:27):
with the Walters Agency.
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