What To Do When Your Term Life Insurance Expires? 
When your term life insurance expires , you may have the option to keep paying the premium to keep it in effect . But the price will be much higher than you were paying , and go up every year . Most people look for a new policy when their old term life insurance expires . The rate will most likely be higher than you paid before , because you are older . Your health will also be taken into account . Since you will be paying more , anyway , you may just want to bite the bullet and get at least some permanent insurance . The older you get , the harder it is to qualify for term . But if you want to get a new term policy and can qualify for it , that is what many people do . If you know that your term policy 's expiration date is coming up , you might want to look into converting some or all of your coverage to permanent life insurance -LRB- universal life or whole life -RRB- . This just involves paperwork , no health questions and no exam . But it must be done before your policy expires and according to the conversion period set forth in your term policy . 