In general, there are two basic (and quite different) categories of life insurance: temporary and permanent.

Temporary life insurance, also known as term life, is a no-frills way of insuring yourself for a specific period of time—for example, one, five, or ten years. When the temporary life insurance can be automatically renewed every year at increasing rates, it is called annual renewable term (ART) insurance; when the premiums are constant for a longer term, it is referred to as level premium term insurance. In the latter case, as I explained earlier, your monthly premiums are guaranteed for the term of the insurance, and the insurance coverage ends at the end of the term.

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