There are two major types of life insurance: Term and Whole life insurance. Whole life is sometimes called permanent life or straight life insurance, and it encompasses several subcategories, including traditional whole life, universal life, variable life and variable universal life.

Life insurance products for groups are different from life insurance sold to individuals. Given here is the information for individuals.

Term

Term life is considered the simplest, easiest and the most affordable form of life insurance. It is payable only in case of the insured dying during the term of the policy, which is usually from one to 30 years.

There are two basic types of term life insurance policies-level term and decreasing term.

Whole Life/Permanent

Whole life or permanent insurance is the insurance that pays a death benefit after your death, irrespective of if the policy is still active or the term is over.
Most popularly known are the three major types of whole life or permanent life insurances-traditional whole life, universal life, and variable universal life, and although you may be able to get a mixed bag within these policies.

A traditional whole life insurance is wherein both the death benefit and the premium stay the same throughout the policy term.

During the period of 1970s, life insurance companies inducted two editions on the traditional whole life product-universal life insurance and variable universal life insurance.