What Is Term Life And Whole Life Insurance? 
Term life insurance is life insurance that is active only for a set period of time . Typically term life insurance will be active for 10 , 20 , or 30 years . Term life insurance policies typically do not accumulate a cash value . Whole life insurance is permanent insurance . It typically will not expire as long as premium payments are made as required . A whole life policy also will normally accumulate cash value over it 's existence which could be borrowed from or will in most cases raise the death benefit . 