In today's market the cheapest and simplest life insurance is term life insurance. Term insurance is especially cheap if you are young, and in good health, in this case your premium may be as low as ten or fifteen dollars a month for $200,000 worth of coverage. Although term insurance is more temporary than some people may like, it does offer a reasonable amount of coverage at a monthly premium most people can afford.

You'll get the best deal if you figure out what type of policy will fit your needs. Generally the death benefit should cover five to ten times your annual salary. Life insurance needs are based on the needs of your survivors, so there are other things to consider when determining how much the death benefit should be; for example if you have a child that has disabilities or special needs you may need to increase the amount that will be received in the death benefit to accommodate their needs if you do pass away. You will want to ask yourself questions like; if I pass away how long will the family need to be covered financially before other sources of income can be found? Will any of the children be pursuing higher education and need financial assistance? Is my home paid for? Are there other major debts? How much will the funeral cost? Will my spouse be able to retire? If you do not have dependents, or if you do not have any debts to pay off, you may consider getting a plan that covers only funeral expenses. Making sure you get just enough coverage will ensure that you are not paying for extra money that is not needed.

Guaranteed Cash Values: In case of term life insurance, there are no cash values but with whole life insurance some money will be stored as cash values. If you give up the policy, accumulated guaranteed cash values would be yours.

The next decision to make is to decide if you want renewable term life insurance or level term insurance. With renewable term you have the right to renew the policy (rates may be higher) regardless of the state of your health. This is a major advantage because it allows a person to still have life insurance even if their health would disqualify them from getting any other insurance. With renewable term insurance it is possible to switch a policy to another company if they have lower rates, but you may want to be careful with this practice, some companies do not like to take on people who have a history of changing business often. Level term provides the same premium throughout the life of the policy whether rates go up or down.

3 Variable Universal life insurance. This is similar to universal life insurance with cash account.

Now that you have decided how much you need and what type of term insurance you want, it will make it much easier to shop around for the best deal.

The universal life insurance functions like a high interest bank account because the insurance company puts your premium into an account after deducting nominal charges. The amount so accumulated gets an interest that is also added in the account. The interests are adjusted monthly and not annually. With every premium payment made the accumulation of money in the fund augments. Also the compound interest is earned on the account every month. In universal life insurance withdrawals can be made from cash surrender value. Each withdrawal must be at least $500. You are permitted to withdraw four times in a year. The amount that you withdraw is deducted from the Account Value and the death benefit. While you withdraw or surrender from your account value, you might have to pay surrender charges. The cash surrender value is the Account Value minus any surrender charges and any outstanding loans.