By that age, the kids are grown, and your net worth/survivor’s benefits (government & private) should be sufficient to cover the surviving spouse’s financial needs (no need even for burial insurance)

People who buy whole life usually drastically underinsure, and often the whole life policy is abandoned altogether (making it a very expensive term policy)

With very few exceptions, there is a limited (roughly 20 years) timeframe where insurance needs are greatest – to replace income when kids are young & net worth is too low to replace the breadwinner’s income by itself.

If I had bought whole “life” insurance when I was younger, I’d be stuck with it and its term component even though I presently need no death (let’s call it what it really is)insurance now that I have no dependents. A person’s need for death insurance tends to vary with age.

So who’s going continually buy 10-year term policies for the same amount throughout their lifetime? Including into your 70s and 80s? Answer: the financially less sophisticated, such as those who spend more on burial policies over their lifetime than the coverage they get.

When I’m in my 70s and hopefully 80s, I’d rather have the added funds from investing the difference myself.

At the root, all insurance has the same cost. If I want to buy $250,000 of insurance, the cost of insurance is the same, whether I buy 1-year, 10-year, 20-year, whole life, universal, or variable. If I die the day after I buy the policy, the insurance company pays the same amount regardless, and my likelihood of death does not change if I buy 10-year or whole life insurance.

So why is a 5-year term policy cheaper than a 20-year term policy? Because every year that passes, I am more likely to die. So ignore the cash value buildup in whole life policy, and think of it as term insurance that goes to age 100 (for a 30-year-old, it is equivalent to buying a 70-year term policy).

To offer another apples-to-apples comparison, compare the lifetime cost of continually buying 10-year term policies or buying a whole life policy at age 30. You will find that by the time you reach your 50s or 60s, the cost is even, and in the 70s and 80s, the whole life is far less expensive — if you are even healthy enough to get a new term policy at that age!

The truth of the matter is, buying whole life is like buying a house, and buying term is like renting. Both term and renting can be cheaper in the short term, but in the long run they are the fool’s choice.