Changing life insurance

HLN Money Expert Clark Howard.

HELP ME CLARK!
From HLN's Money Expert Clark Howard

NATASHA:
My husband is 50 years old and a smoker. We are looking to increase our life insurance to $300,000 plus. Should we get term life insurance or whole life insurance?

CLARK:
Term life insurance is almost always my choice for someone, although there can be rare circumstances where another type of insurance would be the right one.

With term insurance you can buy level term that will cover pretty much the rest of a working lifetime, a 15-20 year term is probably appropriate. As a smoker, the rates will be surcharged and you'll pay quite a bit more than you would otherwise, although some companies discriminate against smokers more than others which is why it's really important to shop multiple companies.

Level term is a very simple product. You pay the same premium through the 15 or 20 years and all it does is pay if you die.