Term life insurance is best used to support people who depend on your income to survive, not to leave an inheritance to adults.

If you're already in your 20s-30s, you may already not rely on your parents income, and 30 years from now you really shouldn't be relying on their income.

If your parents want to leave something to their heirs, they should be investing -- that money can be used if they need it in their lifetime, and can be left to you adult children if they don't need their own money.

> their concern is that with 30-year Term if they end up living past that point all of it would go to waste and they won't be able to give anything to their adult(20-30s) children (us).

This is exactly how the salespeople sell these things.

The fact is that you need to see the other side.

This is:

• Term Life with cheaper premiums
• Taking the savings and investing that (following the principles as outlined in the PF Wiki).

Once you perform this assessment, you will very quickly realize the impact of fees/commissions/premiums.

You will very quickly realize that IF you make it to the 30 year mark, you will have MORE money than if you went down the Permanent life pathway. Even though that money to Term Life went to "waste," you're still richer.

The other thing to realize is that Insurance is always going to be a "waste."

Why?

Because Insurance is meant to protect you in case a "bad thing" happens. You don't want any "bad thing" to happen. But you acknowledge that sometimes "bad things" happen and you want to prevent yourself from going bankrupt from those things.

For example... car insurance might be considered a "waste" if you never get in a car accident. You're paying all this money. If you never get in a car accident, then you've paid all this money for nothing.

So what's the smart thing to do?

Go with whoever provides reasonable amount of car insurance for your needs at the cheapest price.

Similarly, you buy a reasonable amount of life insurance NOT for the purposes of leaving an inheritance (this is a sales tactic, this is generally a very inefficient use of life insurance). You buy it because someone depends on your income. If you died, this person would have a very hard time surviving. Usually this is young children.

So you buy a reasonable amount of life insurance for your needs at the cheapest price.

This is what Term is for.

You SHOULD outlive the policy.

By the time the policy ends, you should either:

• Have accumulated enough assets so that your dependent can live even if you died.
• Your dependent has their own assets and no longer depends on your income to survive.

This requires a fundamental unwinding of all the sales tactics that your family has already been convinced of. It requires an understanding that it's okay to pay insurance and get nothing out of it. It means you've actually won the game.

• Health insurance: Never use it? Great! You've won the genetic lottery
• Car insurance: Never use it? Awesome! I hope you never have to.
• Disability insurance: Never use it? Nice! Being disabled is not fun.
• Umbrella insurance: Never use it? Strong work! Avoiding random liabilities!
• Life insurance: Never use it? Amazing! It means you're not DEAD.