Life insurance has long been considered a safe investment for people who want to protect their loved ones against future uncertainties. Many policies also offer a low-risk method of saving for retirement. However, some insurers have taken steps to raise premiums in such as way that the investment aspect of these policies has been compromised. In doing so, these insurers have come under considerable scrutiny.

For many people, the world of insurance is something you have little incentive to understand in great depth—once you have your chosen policies in place, it’s easy to file them away and pay them little mind beyond paying your annual premiums. Individuals with universal life insurance policies, however, should review their policies, assess how their investments are performing, and check their premiums.
Realizing you don’t fully understand how your policy works? Here is a quick primer on universal life insurance to get you started.

If you have been struck with steep increases in your universal life insurance policy, you may feel faced with two equally unappealing options: You can either pay what for many policyholders amounts to thousands of dollars a year in premium costs, or you can forfeit the policy and lose both the death benefit and all the hard-earned savings you’ve contributed to your account throughout your lifetime. (Read more about universal life insurance fraud.)

As we recently reported, life insurers across the U.S. continue to face legal action from policyholders who are filing class action lawsuits based on fast-rising, allegedly unjustified cost-of-insurance increases. (Read more about why some policyholders are suing their universal life insurers.)