If it’s your first time looking at life insurance, then chances are you’re going to go for the term insurance. This is the most basic kind of policy, and is easy to understand. The ” term ” in its name denotes that it is for a fixed period of time, usually five, 10, 20 or even 30 years.

Some agencies have automatically renewing policies. This makes it legal for them to continue to collect premiums from you without question. This might not be such a problem for 20- year policies, but for a shorter term contract, it can be very frustrating to find out that you’re still paying the company something you never agreed to in the first place.

Other agencies will try to intimidate you into getting a longer term policy by saying that you’ll have to re- qualify after the initial term is over. They’ll say that there’s a chance you won’t get the new policy due to health or legal issues. In reality, if you’ve passed the first qualifying test, then chances are you’ll pass the same one a few years from now.

Just because a term insurance is easier to understand doesn’t mean you should go for it immediately. There are other variations of this contract depending on the company. Your best bet is to ask for more options aside from the basic contracts. You’d be surprised at the number of potentially more beneficial policies there are nowadays.