life assurance

term assurance

At their most basic, these are policies where you have a fixed sum assured for a fixed period of time, eg £100,000 for 20 years.

If you survive the term, you get nothing. There is no element of investment.

As a rule, if you need to make any changes these will be at the discretion of the insurance company, (though some contracts will allow special occasion changes, such as being allowed to increase cover if you have a child).
Cost – they are cheap, and if you have a requirement for a simple insurance of this nature you get maximum value for money.
You can if you wish add Critical Illness as part of the policy, which means that if you suffer a specified illness or condition and live eg. some forms of heart attack (the policy and conditions can often be complex and depend on the severity of the heart attack etc.) then regardless of whether you return to work the sum assured could be paid out