Overview
Term life insurance is considered to be the least expensive type of life coverage. It implies benefits that are payable only if the insured dies during a specified period (the duration of the term).A term insurance policy usually does not have a cash value. The insured chooses the term (the number of years) he wishes to be insured for and the benefits that will accrue to his nominee if he dies within that term.
In other words term life insurance covers the insured at a guaranteed rate for a pre-determined period of time.
The main features of a term insurance policy are:
- Fixed premiums
- Fixed death benefits
- No cash value
Renewable Term Insurance
This type of insurance is for a specified period of time ranging from 30 days to 365 days or more. For instance, a term insurance policy bought at an airline terminal is worthwhile only for the duration of the flight. It must be renewed with every new flight and at the end of the term, the insurance lapses. However, such renewals are usually at a higher premium and only the airline industry is exempted from a higher premium.Level Term Insurance
In this type of insurance the face value and premiums of the term coverage remain the same during the term of the policy. In this type of insurance the premium is higher than the actual cost of protection in the beginning of the term and less toward the end of the term.Convertible Term Insurance
This policy allows the policy holder to change over to a permanent policy without having to provide any proof of insurability. The age of the policy holder at the time of conversion would determine the premium for the permanent policy.Decreasing Term Insurance
In this type of cover the death benefit steadily reduces over the period of the term and eventually diminishes to almost nothing at the end of the term. As the premiums are lower than what they are for a regular term policy the decreasing term life insurance is most suitable for the young professional with a growing family and a large mortgage.There are many other variants of Term Life Insurance such as:
- Extended Term Insurance
- Renewable Term Insurance
- Deposit Term Insurance
- Annual Renewable Term Insurance
- Increasing Term Insurance
- Extended Term Insurance Option
- Short Term Insurance
