Life insurance exists to replace income for the people who depend on it if you die. How long you need that protection, and how much complexity you want along with it, points most people toward one of two very different products.
Term life insurance
Covers you for a fixed period — commonly 10, 20, or 30 years. There's no cash value; it's pure insurance, similar to auto or homeowners coverage. That simplicity is why premiums are much cheaper than permanent insurance for the same death benefit. If you outlive the term, the coverage simply ends (some policies offer renewal or conversion options, usually at a much higher rate). For most people who need coverage while a mortgage is outstanding or kids are still dependents, term is the generally recommended default.
Universal life insurance
A type of permanent life insurance, meaning it's designed to last your entire life rather than a fixed term. Part of every premium goes toward a cash value component that can grow over time and, in many policies, be borrowed against. That flexibility and lifelong coverage comes at a cost: premiums are significantly higher than term for the same death benefit, and the policies themselves are considerably more complex, with fees, interest crediting rates, and rules that vary widely by insurer.
These three policies cover the property and liability risks most people carry day to day. They sound similar but protect different things.
Homeowners insurance
Covers the physical structure of your home (the "dwelling"), your personal belongings inside it, and liability if someone is injured on your property. Mortgage lenders almost always require it as a condition of the loan, since the home is their collateral too.
Renters insurance
Covers your personal property and liability, but not the building itself — that's covered by the landlord's own policy. Because it doesn't insure the structure, renters insurance is often surprisingly cheap, frequently a few hundred dollars a year or less for meaningful coverage.
Auto insurance
Liability coverage — paying for damage or injury you cause to others — is required by law in nearly every state. Beyond that minimum, optional coverage like collision (damage to your car from an accident) and comprehensive (theft, weather, other non-collision damage) protects your own vehicle.
Most working-age adults get health coverage through an employer, which makes it easy to forget it's actually one of the more expensive and complicated types of insurance to buy on your own. That becomes very real the moment employer coverage goes away.
Employer coverage
Most employers that offer health insurance cover a meaningful share of the premium, which is part of why it's usually the cheapest coverage you'll have access to. Plans are commonly structured as either a PPO (broader network, more flexibility, generally higher premiums) or an HDHP, a high-deductible health plan (lower premiums, higher out-of-pocket costs before coverage kicks in, but the only plan type that makes you eligible for an HSA).
The gap before Medicare
Medicare eligibility generally starts at 65. If you retire, or otherwise leave employer coverage, before then, you have to cover health insurance yourself, in full, unless you're covered under someone else's plan, such as a spouse's employer coverage. This is one of the most overlooked costs of retiring early, and it's worth pricing out well before you actually leave a job.
Health coverage resources
The official ACA Marketplace, for comparing individual health plans and checking subsidy eligibility.
Verify an insurer
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners' directory links to every state's department of insurance. You can also just search "[your state] department of insurance."
Your state's department of insurance can confirm whether an insurer or agent is licensed to sell in your state and show you its complaint history — similar in spirit to how FINRA BrokerCheck lets you verify a financial advisor.