You might be grateful for a partner who understands you better than anyone else. Maybe you delight in watching your children embrace their talents. Perhaps a recent promotion is giving you the chance to flex some leadership skills.

If all goes according to plan, you’ll pay off the mortgage, put your kids through college and enjoy a long retirement. But you know the unexpected could happen — do you want to help plan for your family’s future if they must go on without you? Life insurance may help lighten their financial burden.

We can show you a number of coverage options you can tailor to your priorities and budget. In fact, life insurance plans may be more affordable than you might think.

Term life is a type of life insurance policy where premiums remain level for a specified period of time —generally for 10, 20 or 30 years. After the end of the level premium period, premiums will generally increase. Coverage continues as long as the premiums are paid. Perhaps this is an option you may want to consider when you’re on a more limited budget and will have significant expenses over a shorter period of time.

You can often pay a lower premium when you select a shorter term — say, 10 years instead of 20. But since premiums are based on risk of death, once you are outside of the level premium period, a term life policy generally gets more expensive as you grow older.

Whole life is permanent insurance — you’re insured throughout your lifetime, or until the policy matures, as long as you continue to pay your premiums per terms of the contract. And those premiums will stay level as long as the policy remains in force. Over time, permanent insurance typically accumulates a cash value that can be accessed1 for a variety of purposes while you’re still alive.

Like whole life, universal life is permanent insurance that may also accumulate a cash value. It offers more flexibility, though. You can tailor a policy to meet changing priorities with flexible premiums2 and face amounts. Universal life also offers you more control over how quickly your cash value grows.

When it comes to life insurance, there’s no such thing as “one size fits all.” Everyone has different needs, goals and financial considerations. That’s why coverage comes in a variety of forms, with a range of features you can tailor to your unique situation:

• Your family is young and growing, so you may be juggling a mortgage, auto loans and childcare costs. While your expenses may continue to expand over time, you may want an affordable life insurance policy that helps you plan for your family’s financial future until the kids are grown and the house is paid off.
• You’re more established in life. In addition to providing a death benefit to your beneficiaries, you may leverage the loan1 or partial surrender features of certain policies to help support things like supplemental retirement income, caring for a family member with a disability or preparing for eventual estate taxes.
• ou’re single and have no children. The death benefit proceeds from your life insurance policy may help support obligations such as the costs of your personal debts, medical bills or final expenses — and may also help leave a legacy to someone you love or a favorite charity.