What Happens If You Outlive Your Term Life Insurance?

end of term life insurance

Term life insurance is a great way to protect your family’s financial future. But if you’re not sure what happens to the money if you outlive your term life insurance, it’s time to find out.

When your term life insurance policy expires, your insurance company keeps the premiums you’ve paid over the term. At the end of term life insurance, you do not get back the premiums you paid, but you do get peace of mind!

Everyday Life’s smart term life policies adjust your coverage and premiums over time based on your unique needs and major life events, keeping more of your money in your pocket instead of the insurance company’s! 

Table of Contents

The Importance of Having Coverage 

Insurance is one of those things as most adults know they need, but don’t really want, and may not have it as a result. 

Part of the reason many Americans feel this way is because we have a bit of an invincibility complex — we think that we’ll likely live a long time and not have anything unexpected happen to us (or at least we tend to live that way). 

We don’t consider that an accident or illness could strike at any moment or that the financial impact of our passing could be devastating for our spouses and kids, so we don’t value the benefits of life insurance. We simply see it as an extra expense in the monthly budget, and many people don’t want to pay that. (It doesn’t help that most plans are super expensive and not affordable for the average family.)

If you pass away, and you have a life insurance plan, the coverage you’ve paid for gets paid to your beneficiaries and can be used for anything from funeral expenses to end-of-life medical bills to mortgage payments to college funds and more.

This is a major benefit — without a policy, you risk your family going into debt because you’re not there to provide for them. 

Where the Money Goes If You Outlive Your Policy 

However, if you buy a term life insurance plan, you may not use it. And that’s a good thing because it means you’re still alive!

At the end of term life insurance, if you outlive your policy, you never see any money back. The coverage and the monthly premiums you paid for the coverage get absorbed by the insurance company. That’s how term life works — you really have to get it to protect your family, just in case. But if your life goes according to plan, you’ll never need it. 

Knowing this gives you a different perspective on how much you should pay for term life insurance. You don’t want to pay higher premiums than you have to or buy more coverage than you need to, because the insurance companies get to keep it if you outlive your policy! 

Everyday Life’s Term Life Plans Keep More Money In Your Pocket

Everyone would rather avoid overpaying for term life insurance. It just makes sense, in the short term and the long term; the less you pay the insurance company, the more money you have in your bank account at the end of term life insurance if you outlive your policy. 

That’s why we created Everyday Life insurance!

Most companies offer an unchanging rate for an unchanging amount of coverage that lasts the length of the term. When you take a closer look, though, that doesn’t make much financial sense.

Over time, people actually don’t need as much coverage. Their children grow up and are nearer to becoming independent; they pay off more of their mortgage and other debts; they increase their savings. Their dependents would not need as much money to replace their income and support if they died. When they pay the same monthly premiums for the same coverage amount for 30 years straight, at some point they are overpaying for coverage they don’t really need. 

Everyday Life Insurance fixed this problem. Our plans are dynamic — they automatically decrease your coverage over time based on major life events like kids graduating and retirement so that at any given point in time, you are only paying for the exact amount of coverage you need.

At the end of your policy, is term life worth it? We say yes… you will have spent less money insuring your life and more money living it, while still getting the peace of mind that your family was covered! 

An Example of How Everyday Life Insurance Works

Take the life of “Samuel” (based on a real Everyday Life customer). He is the classic family man, married with two children. His youngest son is autistic; because of his special needs, he will require a lot of help and resources for his entire life. Samuel is a successful software engineer earning $80K annually and is pretty healthy! 

Samuel clearly needs life insurance. If anything happens to him, his family will no longer have that $80K to provide for their needs. However, he’s pretty healthy and will hopefully live a long and happy life with his family – the ideal term life insurance policy would be inexpensive enough to allow him to spend more on family vacations, special education programs for his son, and more. 

Other companies might recommend bulk coverage, but Everyday Life would recommend a 3-step plan that phases down coverage over the next 30 years. At first, he would be paying $45.81 per month in exchange for $850,000 in peak coverage. But in 10 years, he wouldn’t need as much, so his premium would decrease to $34.76 for $475,000 in coverage. In another 10 years, his premium would go down even more, to $24.24 per month for $200,00 in coverage. This would save him about $18,742 over 30 years compared to a typical plan! 

At the end of Samuel’s term life insurance, he would pocket that nearly $20K. Without a dynamic plan that keeps him from overpaying, that money he worked hard for would end up with the insurance company. 

Get Your Personalized Recommendation Now 

If you’re interested in seeing how much you could save with a dynamic term life plan, use our Ultimate Life Insurance Calculator now to get a personalized plan recommendation (it’s basically a quote, but matched to your unique needs). Get a quote — it only takes a few minutes to complete and you don’t have to provide any contact information.

Disclaimer: The comments, opinions, and analyses expressed at Everyday Life are for informational purposes only and should not be considered individual investment, legal or tax advice.

Thank you!

Here is your personal referral link.

https://www.elifelabs.com/?utm_source=customer_referral&utm_medium={email_address}&utm_campaign=refer_a_friend&referrer={firstname}_{lastname}

Share it with your friends!