Most people think of life insurance as something that just provides a death benefit when you die. You probably think you only need it when you're actively working and have young children at home. And yes, that is an invaluable use for life insurance. But it's not the only use for it. In reality, it is capable of SO much more than that.

But what else can you do with life insurance if your children are grown and gone? You no longer have a mortgage on your house? You have little debt. When you hit your 60's, what reasons could there be for you to either consider purchasing permanent life insurance or hold onto what you already have?

Here are 20 reasons why:

1) Pay costs associated with death

2) Pay final expenses

3) Leave funds for your family to pay estate and inheritance taxes

4) Pay off debts

5) Offset the loss of retirement income to a surviving spouse at death (pension maximization)

6) Add flexibility to your estate plan

7) Provide a financial gift to grandchildren

8) Provide a gift to a favorite charity at death

9) It allows you to leave a legacy to your children or grandchildren, even if you've depleted your retirement accounts

10) In most states it's creditor proof

11) Provide care for a child, spouse, or other family member with special needs, etc.

12) Offset the loss of a key person in a small business by providing funds to keep it running

13) Provide the funds to buy out the ownership of a deceased business partner's family or interest holder

14) The dividends from a policy can be a tax-free source of supplemental retirement income

15) Cash built up in the policy can be accessed throughout your life as needed

16) Cash surrender values can be annuitized to provide additional guaranteed lifetime income

17) Allows you to balance uneven distributions of property or business interests to children

18) It can be used as collateral for loans. As we live longer, we tend to take on more debt or debt that has a longer amortization. Life insurance is an asset.

19) It can be designed to provide an "inevitable gain", no matter when you die

20) Provides income to cover taxes in respect of a decedent's IRA's, 401(k), etc.

As you can see there are plenty of ways that you can leverage a life insurance policy outside of just using it as a death benefit. These are powerhouse products that can be custom-built to do whatever you need it to do.

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