For most people the right answer is term, and it is cheaper than they think.
Personally owned term and permanent life cover, sized to the debts and the income it has to replace rather than to a formula.
Tell us the situation.
A licensed human replies the same business day — not an auto-responder, and not five producers calling at once. We shop it across our carriers and tell you if the policy you already have is the right one.
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What life insurance businesses actually need.
Term life
A fixed benefit for a fixed period — 10, 20 or 30 years.
Without it — The mortgage and the years of income a family was counting on both survive the earner.
Permanent life
Cover that does not expire, with a cash value that accumulates.
Without it — Term expires, and buying cover again at 65 costs many times what it did at 35 if it is available at all.
Riders
Waiver of premium, accelerated death benefit, child and conversion riders.
Without it — A terminal diagnosis or a disability leaves the premium payable out of a reduced income.
What life insurance operators ask us.
Term or permanent?
For most people, most of the time: term. It buys the largest benefit for the smallest premium, and it covers the years when the need is real — while there is a mortgage and children at home. Permanent earns its place for a genuinely permanent need: a special-needs dependant, an estate tax liability, a business buy-sell agreement, or a final-expense policy. Be wary of anyone who reaches for permanent first, because it pays considerably more commission, and be equally wary of dismissing it when the need really does not expire.
How much cover do I need?
Start with the debts that would remain — the mortgage in particular — then add the income to be replaced for the years it is needed, then any specific costs like education. Ten times income is the usual shorthand and it is a starting point, not an answer: a family with a paid-off house and grown children may need far less, one with a young family and a large mortgage considerably more. Existing group life through an employer counts, but only while you work there, which is the part people forget.