Term insurance provides protection for a limited number of years.

It will expire without value if the insured survives the stated period. That stated period can be one or more years, but usually policies are written for five to twenty years. Term insurance is the simplest type of life insurance plan. Term life insurance is also called "temporary" life insurance because it provides protection for a short amount of time. Most families buy term insurance to cover the years when children are young. Term policies can be written to provide coverage from their issue date until the end of the year specified or they can be written to cover the insured until he or she reaches a certain age.  There are two basic forms of term insurance. Level term offers a level amount of protection for a specified period and then the policy expires. Decreasing term insurance offers benefit amounts that decrease gradually over the term of protection. Most term policies should also offer the option to renew at the end of the period and an option to convert to a whole life policy.