Syndicated Financial Columnist, Host of the weekly talk show Steve Savant's Money, the Name of the Game, Scottsdale Arizona
Assuming that the term life insurance was purchased to cover a temporary financial liability, does that liability no longer exists? Never terminate coverage until your debt is retired, future obligations secured and charitable intent completed. If any of these items are ongoing, you should consider converting your tern insurance to permanent life insurance.
A good time to end Term Life Insurance is right before it enters the annually renewable premium at the end of the term. The premium goes up very high then and will continue to go up each year. If the coverage is still needed and health makes it prohibitive or impossible to get a new policy, it is better to convert the Term policy to Whole or Universal Life at that time. If you wait until the Term expires, the *conversion privilege is lost, so it is important to address this before the term ends.
*Some Term policies do not offer the opportunity to convert, and for some, the ability to convert them to permanent ends after a set number of years rather than to the end of the term.
Business Development Officer, T.D. McNeil Insurance Services, Fresno, California
The term insurance plan has a stated end date. Some plans allow you to continue coverage at greatly increased premiums. The best time to terminate the policy on your terms is when your obligations have been fulfilled and no one that you love will suffer financially at your passing. Since these are the primary reasons people buy life insurance it would seem unnecessary to keep the policy if those needs did not exist any longer.
That is a great question! The absolute best time to cancel it is when you no longer need it - if the debt you'd gotten the policy to cover is paid off, cancel it. If you got it to act as life insurance, then try to convert it, or cancel it before the stated term ends - it will increase in cost exponentially after that point. If you need help, please contact me, okay? Thanks for asking!
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*Some Term policies do not offer the opportunity to convert, and for some, the ability to convert them to permanent ends after a set number of years rather than to the end of the term.