What Does Term Life Insurance Cover? 
Video Transcript : Today 's question is : What does term life insurance cover ? Remember first of all , if we 're using term , it only covers that period in time . If you buy a 20-year term , as an example , it 's only going to cover you for 20 years . If you buy $ 1/2 million dollars of death benefit , you 'll have it for as long as you pay your premiums on time ; you 'll have that coverage . What is it good for ? How does it cover ? It 's going to cover anything that you think that you need . Let 's say , at $ 1/2 million , you had a mortgage at $ 250,000 , you had credit card debt , you had car debt , you had educational debt . You want to cover that so that your spouse or your beneficiaries will not be actually saddled with your debt if something happened to you . When I 'm looking at , ` What does term life insurance ? ' it 's the time zone , how long do I have , what obligations would I have , and how can I relieve my beneficiaries from any of those obligations if something happens to me ? 