Term Life
The most direct way to protect your family during the years they depend on you most: a high benefit for a set period, with the most efficient cost structure there is.
What term life is
Term life covers a set period: you choose how many years you need protection and the benefit your family would receive if you died within that window. It's where most people start, precisely because it lets you reach a high benefit without straining the household budget.
The logic is simple. There's a stretch of life when your family depends on your income: while the mortgage is being paid, while the kids are in school, while the debts are still being cleared. Term is built to cover exactly that stretch. When it ends, the need should have ended with it, because those obligations are behind you.
How it works, no fine print
Using the DIME method we work out how much your family would need and for how many years. That number is the starting point, not a guess.
Every company prices differently depending on your age and your profile. Because I hold several contracts, I run that comparison for you and tell you which one works out best in your case, with the reason in writing.
You complete the application along with a health questionnaire. Depending on the benefit amount and your age, a medical exam may be required. Approval is the insurance company's decision.
As long as the premium is paid and the term is still running, your beneficiaries receive the benefit free of federal income tax in most cases.
- Young families with a mortgage and children at home.
- Anyone who needs the most coverage on the tightest budget.
- Anyone covering a specific debt with a known payoff date.
- Anyone buying their first policy who'd rather start simple.
- The coverage ends when the term does. If you still need protection after that, you have to renew or convert, and the older you are the higher the premium.
- It builds no cash value: if the term runs out and nothing has happened, there is no refund of premiums.
- Some policies include the option to convert to permanent coverage with no new medical exam. It's worth checking whether yours does.
- The benefit, the premium and the approval all depend on the insurance company's underwriting.
Let's talk about whether term life is right for you
I walk you through your options openly, compare the insurance companies I work with, and tell you plainly if a different coverage suits you better. No obligation and no pressure — the decision is always yours.
About term life, specifically
The coverage stops. Many policies let you renew year by year, but at whatever age you are by then, which pushes the premium up. Others let you convert to permanent coverage with no new medical exam. It's one of the clauses I go over with you before you sign, because twenty years out it makes a large difference.
It depends on when the financial dependence ends. If your youngest is 16 years from finishing college and the mortgage has 22 left, the sensible term is 20 or 30, not 10. We work that out together in the consultation.
Yes, and sometimes it's the most efficient structure. It's called laddering: a 30-year term for the mortgage and a 15-year term for the college years, instead of one large policy for 30 years. It prices differently and covers each goal better.