Well...I am no expert by any means, but assuming you are young and healthy, why would you buy a term-insuarnce? Term insurance, as the name implies, expires after a certain term (5 yr, 10yr, etc). The beneficiary gets the "benefit" if a certain event, death in this case, takes place within that period. In my opinion, this is a kind of policy that you would consider buying if you are old, hopelessly ill--or in cases where you think you don't have much time left for survival yet want to provide some benefits to your beneficiaries. Term insuarnce is a short-term insurance, of course depending upon the duration of the term.

Whole life is an insurance policy that is in-effect for as long as you live, but then again you will be paying premiums for it as long as you live! If you stop paying premiums in the middle, you lose the coverage! It's a good policy to have, since we are certain to die one day, but then again how much are you willing to pay. Basic economics stuffs-cost vs benefit. So, if you are young and healthy, then most likely you will be paying premiums for coulple of decades! It ultimately comes down to how much are you willing to pay for benefits many years down the road.

But then there are other interesting mix of insurances, where you can even sell your insurance to "buyers." For instance, you are a  75 year old and have a history of heart diseases in your family and no one in your family has survived beyond age 85, then you will find people who will gladly buy you a $500,000 house, pay the insurance premiums for you and do a lot of other good stuffs, if they get to collect the benefits!! This is complicated stuff, but you get the point.