Take the difference of what you were going to spend on a whole life, or a universal life insurance policy and invest it in a decent mutual fund with a good track record. By the end of the 30 year term, you should be "self insured" in that you will have a pile of money there that will be more than what the death benefit would have been.

Make sure you check rates from at least 4 different insurers. Things are very competitive right now.

See the hypocrite fundies answers here. They have no desire to help any one other than themselves.

The length of term and the amount is dependent on the reasons. If you are only making sure that kids get taken care of, how old are they? If they are 10 years old, you will only need a 5 or 10 year term (after that their old enough to fend for themselves). If they are infants, you'll want something closer to a 20 or 25 year policy to make sure it covers them until they are old enough to take care of themselves.

If you are looking at taking care of debts, chose a term that covers the period of time it is expected to pay off the debts.

If you are looking at covering funeral costs, go with whole life, since that cost will not go away whether you die tomorrow or 50 years from now.

As for the amount, again, depends on the reason and the age of teh kids.

You're best bet is to contact an insurance broker, they will be able to do a needs analysis with you that will help give you a better idea of how much you need and what product fits best. They will also be able to search the market to find the product that suits your situation best.

To Andrew: In my experience, $250,000 is barely enough to cover the expenses of childcare and education over time for one infant child, let alone 2, not even factoring in any debts that they may have. Which problem would you rather have: Too much money for the family or not enough and having them suffer? Better to make them mistake of buying a little too much rather than not enough in my opinion. It is impossible to suggest a proper amount or term without knowing more details about his situation, what the intentions are for the insurance, and what his family goals are and whether the insurance will help them acheive that.

"if you are pre-born, you're fine. If you're pre-school, you're f****d."

These Conservatives only care about kids before they come out of the womb. After that, they want no funding for things like WIC, food stamps, or child care. Amazing logic, isn't it?

You probably don't need the term policy for the kids. Depending upon their ages and health a smaller permanent policy may be better for them, if any at all. Many people don't agree with a life policy on kids but I like to see a permanent policy because that way if something goes wrong with their health and they become uninsurable they've at least got the permanent policy.