Think about how long you will have your current financial commitments, and use that as a guide to determine how long your life insurance policy should be in effect. You should go with a term length that is long enough to cover all of your major financial commitments. But not so long that you end up paying for protection that you don’t actually require.
For instance, if you have a mortgage with a repayment period of 20 years. You should look for a policy that has a term of at least 20 years in order to cover your mortgage payments. If you have children, you should think about how many years you will need to provide financial support for them before they can become financially independent, as well as how much money you will need to cover their expenses.