You have made a wise, responsible decision when you have decided to purchase a life insurance policy.

Life insurance can be an expensive purchase, too; because of this, many people choose not to pay for something they are not required to purchase. However, life insurance is important to both you and your beneficiary.

There are two basic kinds of life insurance - term life insurance and whole life insurance. There are also different kinds of term and whole life insurance policies, which means potential policyholders have a variety of options.

Therefore, consider doing a little research on the different kinds of life insurance policies, and purchase the one that best suits your needs, as well as the needs of your beneficiaries.

Term life insurance policies:

• Are pure life insurance, meaning they normally do not offer any other benefits other than death benefits.

• Offer life insurance protection for a specified amount of time.

• Are generally less expensive than any other kind of life insurance policy.

• Can be purchased as level term life insurance policies, which offer the same death benefit the entire duration of the policy, or decreasing term life insurance policies, which offer death benefits that decrease each year over the duration of the policy.

• May be purchased as "return of premium" policies, which means the policyholder will receive all or a portion of the premium paid over the course of the policy.

Whole life insurance policies:

• Offer not only life insurance coverage, but provide a savings component as well.

• Offer life insurance protection for the rest of the policyholder's life.

• Are generally more expensive than term life insurance policies.

• Can be used as estate planning tools.

• Can be purchased as traditional whole life insurance policies, universal whole life insurance policies, or variable universal whole life insurance policies, which gives the policyholder a wider range of options from which to choose.