Term life insurance is the simplest form of life insurance, wherein the coverage spans a specific period. In the event of death within this specific period, your beneficiary would receive the insurance benefit amounting to the face value amount of the policy. However, in case you are alive at the time of the expiry of your policy, you will not get back anything. So remember, you cannot consider this policy as an investment component.

Whole life insurance is a type of insurance wherein the term is your entire lifetime. Contrary to term insurance, whole life insurance is cash value insurance and premiums remain consistent throughout the policy term. In this insurance, the insurance carrier can invest a portion of your premiums and might even share the proceeds from the investment with you in the form of a dividend.

Universal life is an advanced form of whole life insurance. Similar to whole life insurance, it is cash value insurance and you do not get to choose how your premium money is being invested by the insurance company. Unlike whole life insurance, universal life insurance offers you flexibility in terms of the premium amount. You are free to decide the amount and time of the premium within the broad premium guidelines. Based on financial circumstances, you can also directly change the benefit of your policy, again within the policy norms. The changes to the premium amount, however, have a direct impact on the growth of the cash value and maybe the death benefit.

Variable life insurance is just like another type of permanent life insurance. The only difference is this type of insurance gives you the flexibility to choose the way your insurance company invests your cash value. Under this policy, you can decide on having your money invested in a wide range of investment products, including stock funds, fixed interest sub-accounts, and highly-volatile international growth sub-accounts.