What is life insurance?

To put it simply, life insurance protects those who depend on your paycheck. If you die prematurely, life insurance provides your dependents with ongoing income to replace yours, until (or unless) they can live comfortably without it. It can also provide a timely emergency fund for medical, legal, and funeral costs, should family savings not be adequate to cover them.

Life insurance is not a good way to strike it rich for "pennies on the dollar." It's not the surest way to leave a life of luxury for future generations of your clan. In fact, even though some life insurance policies are combined with a savings plan (in "cash value" policies), the savings plan is essentially independent. The life insurance component of these cash value policies retains its fundamental purpose: income protection for your dependents after die.