Life insurance can be broadly categorized as

1) Pure risk coverage plan. – purely protection insurance and is designed to provide a benefit – typically in the form of a lump sum payment after a specified event, such as a death. A common form of this type of insurance is Term Insurance. It can be further subdivided into Level Term Insurance, Decreasing Level Term Insurance, Increasing Level Term Insurance, Annual Renewable Term Insurance and Mortgage Insurance

2) A combination of insurance and investment/savings plan, where the main goal is to save money in investments through regular or single premiums. A Common term used to describe these type of policies is called Permanent Life Policy. This can be further subdivided into Whole life, Limited Payment whole Life, Universal life (UL), Variable life (VL), Variable Universal Life (VUL), Unit Linked Insurance Plans (ULIP), Endowment, Limited Payment Endowment, Money Back, and Child's Plans.

More specifically, the classifications are as under: