Term life insurance

Because term life insurance is a pure death benefit, its primary use is to provide coverage of financial responsibilities for the insured or his or her beneficiaries. Such responsibilities may include, but are not limited to, consumer debt, dependent care, university education for dependents, funeral costs, and mortgages. Term life insurance may be chosen in favor of permanent life insurance because term insurance is usually much less expensive[1] (depending on the length of the term), even if the applicant is higher risk, such as being an everyday smoker. For example, an individual might choose to obtain a policy whose term expires near his or her retirement age based on the premise that, by the time the individual retires, he or she would have amassed sufficient funds in retirement savings to provide financial security for the claims.

The simplest form of term life insurance is for a term of one year. The death benefit would be paid by the insurance company if the insured died during the one-year term, while no benefit is paid if the insured dies one day after the last day of the one-year term. The premium paid is then based on the expected probability of the insured dying in that one year.

Because the likelihood of dying in the next year is low for anyone that the insurer would accept for the coverage, purchase of only one year of coverage is rare.

One of the main challenges to renewal experienced with some of these policies is requiring proof of insurability. For instance the insured could acquire a terminal illness within the term, but not actually die until after the term expires. Because of the terminal illness, the purchaser would likely be uninsurable after the expiration of the initial term, and would be unable to renew the policy or purchase a new one.

Some policies offer a feature called guaranteed reinsurability that allows the insured to renew without proof of insurability.

A version of term insurance which is commonly purchased is annual renewable term (ART). In this form, the premium is paid for one year of coverage, but the policy is guaranteed to be able to be continued each year for a given period of years. This period varies from 10 to 30 years, or occasionally until age 95. As the insured ages, the premiums increase with each renewal period, eventually becoming financially inviable as the rates for a policy would eventually exceed the cost of a permanent policy. In this form the premium is slightly higher than for a single year's coverage, but the chances of the benefit being paid are much higher.

More common than annual renewable term insurance is guaranteed level premium term life insurance, where the premium is guaranteed to be the same for a given period of years. The most common terms are 10, 15, 20, and 30 years.

In this form, the premium paid each year remains the same for the duration of the contract. This cost is based on the summed cost of each year's annual renewable term rates, with a time value of money adjustment made by the insurer. Thus, the longer the period of time during which the premium remains level, the higher the premium amount. This relationship exists because the older, more expensive to insure years are averaged, by the insurance company, into the premium amount computed at the time the policy is issued.

Most level term programs include a renewal option, and allow the insured person to renew the policy for a maximum guaranteed rate if the insured period needs to be extended. The renewal may or may not be guaranteed, and the insured person should review the contract to determine whether evidence of insurability is required to renew the policy. Typically, this clause is invoked only if the health of the insured deteriorates significantly during the term, and poor health would prevent the individual from being able to provide proof of insurability.

Most term life policies include an option to convert the term life policy to a Universal Life or Whole Life policy. This option can be useful to a person who acquired the term life policy with a preferred rating class and later is diagnosed with a condition that would make it difficult to qualify for a new term policy. The new policy is issued at the rate class of the original term policy. This right to convert may not extend to the end of the Term Life policy. The right may extend a fixed number of years or to a specified age, such as convertible to age seventy.

A form of term life insurance coverage that provides a return of some of the premiums paid during the policy term if the insured person outlives the duration of the term life insurance policy.

For example, if an individual owns a 10-year return of premium term life insurance plan and the 10-year term has expired, the premiums paid by the owner will be returned, less any fees and expenses which the life insurance company retains. Usually, a return premium policy returns a majority of the paid premiums if the insured person outlives the policy term.

The premiums for a return premium term life plan are usually much higher than for a regular level term life insurance policy, since the insurer needs to make money by using the premiums as an interest free loan, rather than as a non-returnable premium.

Both term insurance and permanent insurance use the same mortality tables for calculating the cost of insurance, and provide a death benefit which is income tax free. However, the premium costs for term insurance are substantially lower than those for permanent insurance.

The reason the costs are substantially lower is that term programs may expire without paying out, while permanent programs must always pay out eventually. To address this, some permanent programs have built in cash accumulation vehicles to force the insured to "self-insure", making the programs many times more expensive.

As a norm from Income Tax under Section 10(10D), when the beneficiary receives the death benefit under a term life insurance policy, they are not subject to pay tax on the amount received. The death benefit received is not added to taxable income. However, any interest that it accumulates over or any estate additions caused by it is liable to be taxed.

Other permanent life insurance policies do not have built in cash values. In these cases, the policy owner may have the option of paying additional premium in the early years of the policy to create a tax deferred cash value. If the insured person dies and the policy has a cash value, the cash value is often paid out tax free, in addition to the policy face amount.[5]

A scaled back underwriting process that is simplified. Coverage amounts are lower than traditional fully underwritten policies. Simplified issue policies typically do not require a medical exam and have fewer application questions to answer. Many of these policies can be approved within several days.[6]

A life insurance policy that is guaranteed approval. Coverage amounts will be lower than traditional policies. Premiums will be considerably higher. Since there are no medical questions and everyone is approved, these policies will have a waiting period before benefits are paid out. If the insured dies during the initial waiting period, only premiums plus interest will be returned. Once the waiting period has been satisfied, the full death benefit will be paid out to the beneficiary.[7]

Most state laws require that a carrier make payment for life insurance claims that happen past two years of coverage for suicidal death. It is in the best interests of the policy owner for them to report depression or any use of anti-depression medication during the physical exam or for underwriting even if the policy owner receives a less than a favorable rate. All individual life insurance policies have a suicide clause in them. If suicide is not covered, more than likely a return of premium is owed to the beneficiary.

• Family income benefit insurance
• Life Insurance
• Permanent life insurance
• Theory of decreasing responsibility
• Universal life insurance
• Variable universal life insurance
• Whole life insurance
• Internal Revenue Code section 79