What are the principal types of life insurance? There are two major types of life insurance�term and whole life (insurance life medical no) insurance life quotation term Whole life is sometimes called permanent life insurance, and it encompasses several subcategories, including traditional whole life, universal life, variable life and variable universal life (insurance life medical no) insurance life quotation term In 2003, about 6 (insurance life medical no) insurance life quotation term4 million individual life insurance policies bought were term and about 7 (insurance life medical no) insurance life quotation term1 million were whole life (insurance life medical no) insurance life quotation term Life insurance products for groups are different from life insurance sold to individuals (insurance life medical no) insurance life quotation term The information below focuses on life insurance sold to individuals (insurance life medical no) insurance life quotation term Term Term Insurance is the simplest form of life insurance (insurance life medical no) insurance life quotation term It pays only if death occurs during the term of the policy, which is usually from one to 30 years (insurance life medical no) insurance life quotation term Most term policies have no other benefit provisions (insurance life medical no) insurance life quotation term There are two basic types of term life insurance policies�level term and decreasing term (insurance life medical no) insurance life quotation term Level term means that the death benefit stays the same throughout the duration of the policy (insurance life medical no) insurance life quotation term Decreasing term means that the death benefit drops, usually in one-year increments, over the course of the policy�s term (insurance life medical no) insurance life quotation term In 2003, virtually all (97 percent) of the term life insurance bought was level term (insurance life medical no) insurance life quotation term For more on the different types of term life insurance, click here (insurance life medical no) insurance life quotation term Whole Life/Permanent Whole life or permanent insurance pays a death benefit whenever you die�even if you live to 100! There are three major types of whole life or permanent life insurance�traditional whole life, universal life, and variable universal life, and there are variations within each type (insurance life medical no) insurance life quotation term In the case of traditional whole life, both the death benefit and the premium are designed to stay the same (level) throughout the life of the policy (insurance life medical no) insurance life quotation term The cost per $1,000 of benefit increases as the insured person ages, and it obviously gets very high when the insured lives to 80 and beyond (insurance life medical no) insurance life quotation term The insurance company could charge a premium that increases each year, but that would make it very hard for most peop

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