Term life insurance is for a specific time period that is 12 months, if the policy is not claimed within the time period, it expires and to continue with the coverage you need to procure new policy after every 1 year from the date of policy purchased. It can be bought by an individual above the age of 18 till 60 each year by paying a very low premium against a very high coverage. Whole Life Insurance is provided by multiple companies, it is a long term commitment and has a policy maturity period around 20 years,, the covered amount can only be claimed once the policy has matured or you die, in that case the monetary benefit is provided to the person nominated.