Term Life Insurance

Level Term

People who are primarily concerned about survivor needs, paying for college, and/or paying off a mortgage will be best served by purchasing a level term policy.  This is a specific amount of coverage for a specific period of time (5-30 years) where the premiums stay the same for the entire time this policy is in force.  Some policies have different riders that can be added like Return of Premium or Accidental Death.

For businesses, term policies are generally used for Key Person Insurance, as part of Buy-Sell Agreements and more recently for Structured Settlement Buyouts where the settler pays a lump sum in return for an income stream. Click here to read more.

How are premiums determined?
Below are some of the criteria that go into determining the premium.

  • Age
  • Gender
  • Smoker/Non Smoker
  • Height/Weight
  • Family History
  • Travel plans
  • Hobbies

What happens when the term ends?

When your term policy reaches its termination, you might decide that you no longer need to have this insurance policy.

If you still want to have life insurance you have 3 options:

  1. If you are in good health, it will make sense to look for a new term policy.
  2. You may be able to convert your term policy to a universal life policy (permanent insurance). If your current term policy has this benefit, with conversion, medical underwriting is not necessary.
  3. You can keep your current policy in place, but the premiums will be significantly (shockingly) higher than the premium you locked into 5-30 years ago.

As always, I recommend you speak with a knowledgeable, independent agent who can assess your needs along with your health, and recommend the best level guaranteed term life insurance policy available on the market.

More about Universal Life | Whole Life