Does life insurance ever ‘expire’ or ‘end’?

All lie insurance policies, with the exception of a final expense policy, have definite expiration dates when the policy is considered to be matured. For term life insurance, this is the date specified in the policy. For permanent life insurance policies, it is when you reach a specific age, usually between 101 and 106 years old. You can terminate any type of life insurance policy by canceling the policy, giving you the option of ending a life insurance policy as desired.

Final expense life insurance is designed with a single goal: to pay for your funeral and interment costs. Unless you cancel the policy or stop making premium payments, final expense insurance will never expire, regardless of how long you live. It is the only type of permanent life insurance policy that does not have a maturity age written into the policy, because the provisions of final expense insurance are dedicated to the inescapable fact of dying.

Other permanent life insurance policies, including whole life, universal life, variable life, and all of their variations, have provisional ages of maturity for the policy. These policies usually set the maturity date somewhere between 101 and 110 years old, but the specifics vary by company, state, and policy type.

Term life policies are only purchased for a specific number of years. The problem with a term life policy is that instead of maturing, it expires. When a term policy reaches the term, you will either have to renew the policy or convert to some type of permanent life policy, at an additional cost. This is why term policies are typically used to meet temporary life goals rather than circumstances that last a lifetime.