Term life insurance, as its name suggests, is basically a sort of life insurance policy. At its simplest level, it promises your payment will be fixed at a set rate for a set period of time. This is known as the “term.” After this “term,” though, your payments are likely to change leaving you with no choice other than to meet them or to stop with that policy.
It is purely a life insurance policy in that it will not pay out if you are injured or something similar. It will only pay out in the event of your death. Payout will be to your named beneficiary in most cases, unless there are reasonable legal grounds for a dispute.
There are certain circumstances in which term life insurance policies will not pay out even if the holder does indeed die, as there are with most insurance policies. An example would be if the premium payments were not up to date at the time of death or if there were any breaches of the policies terms. With most life insurance policies, there is also a clause that will deny payment if the death was a result of suicide.
However, what they are useful for is situations where the policy holder fears that, in the case of his or her death, there would be no means of covering any expenses. Such expenses include debts held by the policy holder, mortgages, the care of any dependents the policy holder may have and, of course, funeral expenses.
Term life insurance policies often end up being much less expensive than a permanent life insurance policy would and, as such, many people use them as a “bridge.” An example of this could be someone approaching retirement age, who is concerned that their untimely death might leave their family with a massive financial burden, but who believes that when they reach retirement, they would have enough money to cover said expenses anyway. They may use term life insurance just until they reach that point.
Find out more about term life insurance.