One purchases life insurance to ensure the future of the family one leaves behind in the event an individual is taken from the world by death. A sum of money is paid to designated loved ones in order to take care of certain expenses. Expenses that may include college tuition, the clearing of debts, or many other things. In the current marketplace there are some six different policy types to pick from in order to suit any needs that an individual has to consider.

It is sometimes difficult to gain an understanding of what is available due to the confusion one runs into because of the names attached to the various policies. Names such as standard term, endowment, term, return of premium, variable, and whole life insurance. Fortunately once one understands what they all mean then an individual can purchase one that will suit his, or her, family the best.

Term is what is considered by many insurance brokers to be a basic policy. One of its features is it must be renewed once each year and thus can be said to be of a temporary nature. Its one major drawback is that premiums are rather high considering the limited death benefit received by any recipient named in the policy.

An endowment policy on the other hand has a a feature that can be considered a bit interesting. It has a clause in it that allows for the one that holds the policy to be paid an income or a one time sum in the event that he or she lives to be a certain age. If that condition is not met, the principle person dies, then the one that will be paid is the beneficiary. As a result of these terms the payments on this type of policy can be a bit more expensive.

If an individual prefers to avoid the hassle of a yearly renewal there is another option that one can consider. It is called whole life and is active so long as the premiums are paid in full. At the beginning of this lifetime contract, so to speak, those aforementioned premiums seem a bit more expensive than some other choices out there but in the end may end up being the cheaper option.

One variation of whole life is what is called variable life. Its fluctuations are caused by performance during the investment stage in the period of time that the policy is active. By some standards it is considered a contract in securities and is thus required to be sold with an included prospectus. Its death benefit is more often than not guaranteed at a minimum amount but seldom is its cash value.

When one feels concern about the future of their family life insurance is one way people use to give them some measure of security. If the worst should happen then they know that for at least a few years in the future certain expenses, such as those for living, will be met.