What Is Adjustable Life Insurance?

Adjustable life insurance is a hybrid of term life and whole life insurance that allows policyholders the option to adjust policy features, including the period of protection, face amount, premiums, and length of the premium payment period.

Adjustable life policies also incorporate an interest-bearing savings component, known as a “cash value” account.

Understanding Adjustable Life Insurance

Adjustable life insurance differs from other life insurance products in that there is no requirement to cancel or purchase additional policies as the insured’s circumstances change. It is attractive to those who want the protection and cash value benefits of permanent life insurance yet need or want some flexibility with policy features.

Using the ability to modify premium payments and face amounts, policyholders may customize their coverage as their lives change. For example, a policyholder may want to increase the face amount upon getting married and having children. An unemployed person may want to reduce premiums to accommodate a restricted budget.

As with other permanent life insurance, adjustable life insurance has a savings component that earns cash value interest, usually at a guaranteed rate. Policyholders are permitted to make changes to critical features of their policy within limits. They may increase or decrease the premium, increase or decrease the face amount, extend or shorten the guaranteed protection period, and extend or shorten the premium payment period.

Adjustments to the policy will alter the guaranteed period of the interest rate, and changes in the length of the guarantee will change the cash value schedule. Decreasing the face amount is done upon request or in writing. However, increasing the face amount may require additional underwriting, with substantial increases requiring full medical underwriting.

Factors That Can Be Adjusted

Three factors can be changed in an adjustable life insurance policy. These are the premium, cash value, and death benefit. All three elements can be adjusted because this policy is a permanent life insurance policy and does not expire, like a term life policy.

Premiums can be changed by frequency or amount of payments, as long as you pay above the minimum cost. The policy’s cash value can be increased by upping your premium payments. You can decrease your cash amount if you withdraw funds or use the cash in the policy to pay the premiums.

Finally, you can adjust your death benefit by decreasing or adding to the amount. If you decide to add a significant amount to the death benefit due to a life event like the birth of a child, your premiums may go up based on the new benefit amount. In some cases, your policy will have to undergo additional underwriting.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Adjustable Life Insurance

Adjustable life insurance gives policyholders more flexibility than term life insurance, but it is more expensive than a simple 20- or 30-year term policy. If you plan on using adjustable life insurance as an investment vehicle, you may be better off with a tool that earns more interest. Adjustable life insurance only provides modest amounts of interest growth.

Guidelines for Life Insurance Policies and Riders

Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 7702 defines the characteristics of and guidelines for life insurance policies. Subsection C of this section provides guidelines for premium payments. The policyholder may not adjust the premiums in a manner that violates these guidelines. Increasing premiums may also increase the face amount to the point that it requires evidence of insurability.

However, many life insurers set parameters to prevent violations. Adjustable life insurance policies typically have optional riders. Familiar ones include the waiver of premium and accidental death and dismemberment riders.

The Bottom Line

Adjustable life policies provide the flexibility that most traditional policies do not. However, the frequency of allowable adjustments is restricted within set time frames. Requests must be made within an allotted period and meet the guidelines set by the insurer.

The variability in adjustments can create a policy that mirrors either term life insurance or whole life insurance. Effectively, adjustable life insurance policies allow policyholders to customize their life insurance to meet current or anticipated needs.

As with any kind of permanent policy, it’s critical to research every firm that’s being considered to ensure that they’re among the best life insurance companies currently operating.

What Is an Adhesion Contract?

An adhesion contract is an agreement where one party has substantially more power than the other in setting the terms of the contract. For a contract of adhesion to exist, the offeror must supply a customer with standard terms and conditions that are identical to those offered to other customers. Those terms and conditions are non-negotiable, meaning the weaker party in the contract must agree to the contract as it is rather than requesting clauses be added, removed, or changed. Adhesion contracts may also be referred to as boilerplate contracts or standard contracts.

Understanding Adhesion Contracts

Adhesion contracts are often used for insurance, leases, vehicle purchases, mortgages, and other transactions where there will be a high volume of customers who will all fall under some standard form of agreement. In an insurance contract, the company and its agent have the power to draft the contract, while the potential policyholder only has the right of refusal; the customer cannot counter the offer or create a new contract to which the insurer can agree. It is important to read over an adhesion contract carefully, as all the information and rules have been written by the other party.

Adhesion contracts are usually enforceable in the United States thanks to the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). The UCC helps to ensure that commercial transactions are taking place under a similar set of laws across the country. Although the UCC is followed by most American states, it has not been fully adopted by some jurisdictions like American Samoa and Puerto Rico. Louisiana stands alone among the 50 states in that it has only adopted parts of the UCC. The UCC has specific provisions relating to adhesion contracts for the sale or lease of goods. Contracts of adhesion are, however, subject additional scrutiny and interpretation under state law.

History of Adhesion Contracts

Adhesion contracts originated as a concept in French civil law, but did not enter American jurisprudence until the Harvard Law Review published an influential article on the subject by Edwin W. Patterson in 1919. Subsequently, most American courts adopted the concept, helped in large part by a Supreme Court of California case that endorsed adhesion analysis in 1962. 

As with most aspects of contract law, the legality and enforceability of adhesion contracts has been formed over time. The case law and interpretation may vary from state to state, but it is generally agreed that adhesion contracts are an efficient way to handle standardized transactions. Using adhesion contracts saves companies and customers time and money in terms of legal counsel when they are done properly. However, the law around adhesion contracts is always evolving. For example, digital adhesion contracts signed online have been challenged in court for burying clauses or making it difficult to read certain clauses, so a digital adhesion contract must now be as close to a paper contract as possible.

Enforceability of Adhesion Contracts

For a contract to be treated as an adhesion contract, it must be presented as a “take it or leave it” deal, giving one party no ability to negotiate because of their unequal bargaining position. Adhesion contracts are subject to scrutiny, though, and that scrutiny usually comes in one of two forms.

Courts have traditionally used the doctrine of reasonable expectations to test whether an adhesion contract is enforceable. Under this doctrine, specific parts of an adhesion contract or the whole contract may be deemed unenforceable if the contract terms go beyond what the weaker party would have reasonably expected. Whether a contract is reasonable in its expectations depends on the prominence of the terms, the purpose of the terms, and the circumstances surrounding acceptance of the contract.

The doctrine of unconscionability has also been used in contract law to challenge certain adhesion contracts. Unconscionability is a fact-specific doctrine arising from the same equitable principles—specifically the idea of bargaining in good faith. Unconscionability in adhesion contracts usually comes up if there is an absence of meaningful choice on the part of one party due to one-sided contract provisions combined with unreasonably oppressive terms that no one would or should accept. Simply put, if the contract is exceptionally unfair to the signing party, it can be declared unenforceable in court.

The doctrine of unconscionability shifts the focus from what the customer might reasonably expect to the motive of the supplier. Unconscionability is easier to argue if the supplier is making a significant profit from the agreement, especially if the amount of profit is in some way tied to the weaker party’s lack of bargaining power. Some legal experts have pushed back on this approach as it has implications in terms of the freedom of contract—the legal concept that people can freely determine the provisions of a contract without government interference.

What Is an Allowance for Bad Debt?

An allowance for bad debt is a valuation account used to estimate the amount of a firm’s receivables that may ultimately be uncollectible. It is also known as an allowance for doubtful accounts. When a borrower defaults on a loan, the allowance for bad debt account and the loan receivable balance are both reduced for the book value of the loan.

How an Allowance for Bad Debt Works

Lenders use an allowance for bad debt because the face value of a firm’s total accounts receivable is not the actual balance that is ultimately collected. Ultimately, a portion of the receivables will not be paid. When a customer never pays the principal or interest amount due on a receivable, the business must eventually write it off entirely.

Methods of Estimating an Allowance for Bad Debt

There are two primary ways to calculate the allowance for bad debt. One method is based on sales, while the other is based on accounts receivable.

Sales Method

The sales method estimates the bad debt allowance as a percentage of credit sales as they occur. Suppose that a firm makes $1,000,000 in credit sales but knows from experience that 1.5% never pay. Then, the sales method estimate of the allowance for bad debt would be $15,000.

Accounts Receivable Method

The accounts receivable method is considerably more sophisticated and takes advantage of the aging of receivables to provide better estimates of the allowance for bad debts. The basic idea is that the longer a debt goes unpaid, the more likely it is that the debt will never pay. In this case, perhaps only 1% of initial sales would be added to the allowance for bad debt.

However, 10% of receivables that had not paid after 30 days might be added to the allowance for bad debt. After 90 days, it could rise to 50%. Finally, the debts might be written off after one year.

Requirements for an Allowance for Bad Debt

According to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), the main requirement for an allowance for bad debt is that it accurately reflects the firm’s collections history. If $2,100 out of $100,000 in credit sales did not pay last year, then 2.1% is a suitable sales method estimate of the allowance for bad debt this year. This estimation process is easy when the firm has been operating for a few years. New businesses must use industry averages, rules of thumb, or numbers from another business.

Default Considerations

When a lender confirms that a specific loan balance is in default, the company reduces the allowance for doubtful accounts balance. It also reduces the loan receivable balance, because the loan default is no longer simply part of a bad debt estimate.

Adjustment Considerations

The allowance for bad debt always reflects the current balance of loans that are expected to default, and the balance is adjusted over time to show that balance. Suppose that a lender estimates $2 million of the loan balance is at risk of default, and the allowance account already has a $1 million balance. Then, the adjusting entry to bad debt expense and the increase to the allowance account is an additional $1 million.