Whatever your situation, it's worth thinking about the benefits life insurance can give you and your family. There are a number of options, so it's important to find a policy that's right for you.

If haven’t looked at life insurance before, check out our beginner’s guide - What is life insurance?

You can also find out what some of the key terms mean in our life insurance glossary.

Life insurance policies are designed to cover a particular situation or set of events. If you think about it like that, it might make it easier to understand each type of policy.

Say you’re buying or renting a home, or you’ve got young children. You might want to take out a policy to pay off the mortgage or cover the cost of raising your children if you’re no longer around to look after them. Term life insurance - like Tesco Life Insurance - covers you for a set amount of time, which could be the length of your mortgage or until your children are grown up.

Or, you could be close to retirement and want to leave a lump sum to a loved one when you die. Over 50 life insurance, sometimes called ‘whole of life’ cover, is a policy that gives you some cover for as long as you live.

These are just a couple of examples. We’ll explain more about the different types of life insurance below.

This the most common type of life insurance and lasts a set number of years, known as the ‘term’ of the policy.

Tesco Life Insurance is a term life insurance policy and gives you 2 options to choose from: Mortgage Protection or Family Protection.

You’re most likely to buy Mortgage Protection - or decreasing term life insurance - when you take out a mortgage or another loan you pay off over time. It could help to pay off the balance of a repayment mortgage if you die during the policy term and it’s most common if you’re buying a home with a partner. The policy usually lasts as long as your mortgage and the payout normally goes down in line with your mortgage as you pay it off.

Your monthly premiums (the amount you pay) stay the same throughout the term of the policy. So, if you’re paying £12 a month now, you’ll still be paying that at the end.

You can learn more about life insurance and mortgages in our guide - Do you need life insurance for a mortgage?

Level term life insurance, sometimes called Family Protection, is also a term life insurance policy. You can choose how long you want the policy to last, and your cover and premiums will stay the same throughout the term.

This might be suitable if you want to help support your loved ones financially after you’ve gone, especially if you have children. The lump sum could be used to help pay for living costs, or to help your kids through university.

To help you work out how much cover you might need, follow our guide - How much life insurance do I need?

Increasing Term gives you life cover for a set period, but this time the payout goes up during the policy term.

Because of inflation - when the price of goods and services goes up over time - your money won’t buy as much in the future as it does now. With Increasing Term life insurance, your payout goes up in line with inflation - and your premiums generally go up as well, to pay for the cost of the higher cover.

Increasing Term can help support you family in the same way as level term cover. The difference is that you’re protecting the payout from the effects of inflation.

Joint life insurance covers you and a partner on a single policy. It’s sometimes cheaper than buying 2 policies and there’s only one premium to pay each month.

You can buy joint life insurance with a level, increasing or decreasing term, and there’s often an option to add on critical illness cover too.

Bear in mind, though, that joint policies only pay out once - usually to the person you have the policy with, unless you’ve made other arrangements. After that, the policy will end, and there won’t be any cover for the surviving partner.

Tesco Life Insurance lets you take out a joint policy with your partner. And, if you separate later, Aviva, our life insurance provider, might be able to split it into 2 single policies.

Critical illness cover can be bought on its own or at the same time as life insurance. It pays you a lump sum while you’re alive if you become seriously ill with an illness or injury covered by the policy.

It’s more expensive than life insurance, but it can give you peace of mind if you can’t work and rely on your income each month. A lump sum payout at a difficult time could help take the pressure off paying the bills and covering your living costs.

The policy will pay out as long as your illness or injury meets the policy conditions. There’s no cash-in-value at any time, and, if your payments stop, so does your cover.

Over 50 life insurance covers you for the rest of your life. What you pay each month stays the same. And, depending on your policy, you might only need to pay your premiums for 30 years, or until the anniversary of the policy following your 90th birthday.

It could help you to give your family a small windfall when you die. There’s no cash-in-value at any time, and, if your payments stop, so does your cover.

Income protection provides a monthly ‘income’ from the policy if you’re ill or injured and unable to work.

If you’re self-employed, or you’d have to rely on statutory sick pay, income protection could help guard against financial hardship if you’re not earning an income each month.

If you can’t work, regular payouts could help you pay your mortgage or rent, as well as covering monthly expenses like your electricity or gas, broadband, phone bill and food.

There’s no cash-in-value at any time, and, if your payments stop, so does your cover.

It all comes down to your own individual circumstances and what you want the cover for. There’s no right or wrong type of life insurance, and, if you want, you can have more than one type of policy at the same time.

Having the right life insurance cover in place can give you peace of mind that your family will have some financial support after you’re gone.

Our life insurance guides and frequently asked questions.

Everyone has different financial needs, so Tesco Life Insurance comes with 2 types of cover to choose: Family Protection and Mortgage Protection.

At Tesco Insurance, we want to help you with the things that matter most. That’s why Tesco Life Insurance comes with a Big Win and lots of Little Helps.

As well as your Tesco benefits, you’ll also get Aviva DigiCare+ - a health and wellbeing service from Aviva that includes free annual health checks and the Bupa Anytime HealthLine.

Tesco Life Insurance is provided and administered by Aviva, who have a 5-star rating for life insurance and pay out on 98.8% of claims.