Definition:

There are three general types of life insurance; term life insurance, whole life insurance and universal life insurance. Term life insurance is the most commonly sold life insurance, and tends to be the least expensive as well.

Term life insurance is straight life insurance, without the bells and whistles. It' simply provides a death benefit in exchange for a premium. As long as you're paying the premium, you're covered for life insurance. Stop paying the premiums and you'll no longer be insured.

The premiums for term life insurance also increase as you age ¨C in other words as your risk increases so do your premiums. As a result for younger ages term insurance can be quite affordable, as you get much older premiums can increase substantially to the point of being unaffordable. That makes term insurance well suited for shorter term needs (where shorter term may actually be 30 years or longer) because it's cheap when you're young and expensive later when it's assumed you won't need it.

As term life insurance is frequently shopped for by price, insurers price their products accordingly. This makes this type of insurance well suited for online term life insurance rates and quotes. It's a simple matter of visiting a website such as FinancialOne.com and running your own instant quote.

That's not the end of the story however. A good broker will then review your quote and help guide you amongst the least expensive companies helping you narrow the search based on such factors as company strength and customer service. In addition many companies employ different underwriting criteria so you while you may not qualify for the least expensive rates at one company, you may find that the next least expensive company will cover you. Again, a licensed insurance broker can help you make these choices.