Insurance term life, also called temporary insurance, covers a person against death for a limited time. For example, the term might be until children reach an age when they can fend for themselves, or until your’s or your children’s college is paid for, or until you reach retirement and some other retirement policies kick in. You pay for the policy period and at the end of the term, the contract or policy expires. If you have never made any claims on your insurance term life policy during the term, you obviously don't receive any benefits when the policy expires, just like auto or homeowners insurance. You bought it to provide cover for a particular period. The period came to an end, that’s it. You should consider yourself lucky that you never had to call in the insurance company or be in the position where you had to rely on the payout from the policy. Whole life insurance, also called permanent insurance, is permanent and does not expire like insurance term life, as long as you continue to pay the premiums. It provides coverage similar to insurance term life, but it also provides an investment vehicle. A portion of the premium goes for life insurance, while the rest goes into an investment account. This account can be either an interest bearing account or a variable stocks and bonds investment account. Which is better, insurance term life or whole life? Young families with large financial obligations are usually better off with insurance policies term life. The substantially lower premiums enable them to purchase sufficient coverage to protect against loss of income. Any discretionary investment funds can be placed in other vehicles such as mutual funds, money market accounts, etc., that are likely to generate returns similar to or better than life insurance policies. Whole life insurance is often purchased by people for tax and estate planning purposes. You should consult with your financial advisor. But if you are ever in the situation where you need insurance cover for a particular period or fixed number of years for any reason, insurance term life could be just the thing you need. As mentioned above, the premiums are cheap and the cover can be tailored to suit your particular requirements. I used it once to keep myself covered when I was sent to work in a foreign country on a three year contract.