10, 20, or 30 years: how to pick a term length

The 10-year term is the cheapest quote on the screen, and that is exactly why people pick the wrong one. Term length isn't a price decision — it's a duration-matching decision. The question isn't what costs least this month. It's how long the need you're insuring actually lasts, and what happens to you if the policy runs out before the need does.

This guide walks through how Canadian term policies actually behave at the end of their term, the options most buyers never hear about, and a method for choosing a length that fits your household rather than a round number. The rules below come from the carriers' own product pages and guides, and they differ more than most people expect.

A term policy pays a death benefit if you die within a set period, for a premium that stays level for that period. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada puts the trade-offs plainly: premiums are set according to the length of the term, they may increase when you renew, and term policies carry no cash value — so there is nothing to get back if you cancel.

What happens at the end of the term is where most of the decision actually lives. Coverage usually doesn't simply stop. Instead you typically have three paths:

• Renew. The policy continues automatically with no medical questions, at a new premium based on your age at renewal. Most carriers allow this to age 85; a few go further.
• Convert. Exchange the term coverage for a permanent policy without new medical evidence — but only before a deadline written into your contract.
• Let it lapse. Stop paying and the coverage ends. With no cash value, nothing is forfeited except the protection itself.

List what the insurance has to outlive: the years left on the mortgage, the years until your youngest child is financially independent, and the years until your savings could carry the household without your income. The right term covers the longest of those horizons. The expensive failure isn't paying a little more per month — it's coverage expiring while the need is still alive, forcing you back into the market years older and with years more medical history.

The mortgage is usually the anchor. The maximum amortization for an insured mortgage in Canada has long been 25 years, and since December 15, 2024 the federal government allows 30-year amortizations for all first-time buyers and all buyers of new builds. A first-time buyer on a 30-year amortization who picks a 20-year term has quietly left the last decade of the mortgage uninsured.

Worked through: you're 35, with a two-year-old and 24 years left on the mortgage. Your child is independent around your 57th birthday, the mortgage is gone at 59, and your savings are plausibly sufficient by 60. The longest horizon is about 25 years — which points to a 25-year term, not the 10-year term the monthly comparison nudges you toward. Run the same method at 48, with teenagers and eight mortgage years left, and the horizons compress to 10–15 years. Now the shorter term is the honest answer, not merely the cheap one. Same method, different inputs, different product.

The 10/20/30 framing is a convention, not a constraint. Several Canadian carriers now sell term coverage in almost any length, which means you can match the policy to your actual amortization instead of rounding. Canada Life's My Term runs any whole number of years from 5 to 50; RBC's YourTerm runs 10 to 40 years in one-year increments; and iA's Pick-A-Term runs 10 to 40. If your mortgage has 23 years left, a 23-year term is a real product, not a compromise between 20 and 25.

Renewal is priced at your age at the time of renewal, and it is deliberately steep. It exists as a safety net for people who can no longer qualify for new coverage, not as a plan. The useful detail most buyers miss: those renewal premiums aren't a surprise. Carriers set them in advance, and your contract includes a premium schedule showing what each renewal will cost. RBC's own term pages describe exactly this — a schedule in the policy listing all premiums payable, including renewal premiums, guaranteed for the life of the policy.

You'll see articles claiming renewal premiums "double or triple." We don't quote a multiplier, because no Canadian carrier or regulator publishes one — the jump depends on your age, the carrier and the product. The honest instruction is simpler and more useful: before you buy a short term, find the renewal premiums in the schedule and read them. If the need plausibly runs 20 years, stacking a 10-year term through a renewal is generally the more expensive way to buy those years, and replacing it with a fresh policy assumes your health cooperates a decade from now.

For a sense of scale on the initial premium, RBC Insurance publishes an example of roughly $19.85 a month for a healthy 35-year-old female non-smoker and $25.78 for a male, for $350,000 of 20-year term (retrieved September 21, 2026). That's one carrier's illustration, not a comparison — your own quote depends on your age, health and the coverage you choose.

If you choose short and your needs grow — another child, a bigger house — two contract features can rescue you without new medical evidence. They are different mechanisms with different deadlines, and the deadlines are the part to note.

An exchange (or term-change) option lets you swap to a longer term. The windows are tight: RBC allows it before the earlier of the 8th policy anniversary and the anniversary nearest age 70; BMO within the first five years; Sun Life within the first five to seven years depending on product; Foresters before the earlier of the 5th anniversary and an age cap. Not every carrier offers one.

A conversion switches term coverage to permanent insurance with no medical questions, before a deadline age. Age 71 is the most common deadline, but the real range runs from 60 to 75 depending on carrier and product — Desjardins' term-to-65 must convert by 60, while Sun Life, Empire and Assumption allow conversion to 75. Some carriers also permit partial conversion, keeping part of the coverage as term. A conversion deadline is effectively insurance on your future insurability; it's worth knowing yours before you need it.

These are the published terms from each carrier's own product pages and guides — renewal ceiling (the age coverage can renew to) and conversion deadline. They describe how the products work, not which is cheapest, and your contract governs.

• Canada Life (My Term): any length 5–50 years · to age 85 · convert by 70
• Sun Life: 10, 15, 20, 30 (Evolve 5–40) · renews to 85 · convert by 75
• RBC Insurance (YourTerm): any length 10–40 · renews to 100 · convert before 71
• iA Financial Group (Pick-A-Term): any length 10–40 · renews annually after the first term · convert by 71
• Desjardins: 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and term to 65 · renews to 85 (term to 65 does not renew) · convert by 70, or by 60 for term to 65
• BMO Insurance: 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 · to age 85 · convert before 71
• Empire Life (Solution Series): annual renewable, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 · renews to 85, paid up at 100 · convert by 75
• ivari: 10, 20, 30 · Term 10 and 20 renew to 80 · convert by 71
• Foresters Financial: 10, 20, 30 · renews to 85 · convert before 71
• Wawanesa Life: 10–30, term to 80, term to 100 · renews to 85, then a final renewal to 100 · convert before 71 (term to 100 does not convert)
• Assumption Life (FlexTerm): 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 · renews to 90 · convert by 75

Retrieved September 21, 2026 from each carrier's published product pages and guides. Carriers revise products; confirm current terms in the contract you're offered.

Needs don't all expire at once, and coverage doesn't have to either. A common structure pairs a larger policy on a shorter term — for the years when the mortgage and young children overlap — with a smaller policy on a longer term for income replacement that must run to retirement. In round numbers: instead of one $1,000,000 30-year term, hold $600,000 for 20 years alongside $400,000 for 30. The household has the full million for the first twenty years, then carries only what the remaining need justifies. The figures are illustrative; the structure is the idea. Some carriers make this easier by letting you combine several term lengths under one policy.

Longer terms come with lower maximum issue ages, because the term has to end before the policy's renewal ceiling. Empire Life's Solution Series shows the pattern cleanly: a 10-year term can be issued up to age 75, a 20-year term up to 65, and a 30-year term only up to 55. ivari's limits follow the same shape — 70, 60 and 50. The practical effect is that the 30-year decision is largely a decision for your 20s to 40s. Waiting costs more than a higher premium; past a certain age, the longest terms simply aren't available.

Two variants sit outside the numbered terms. Term to 65 (offered by Desjardins, among others) fits a need that genuinely ends at retirement — but read the fine print, because some are not renewable and carry earlier conversion deadlines. Term to 100, offered by RBC, BMO, Empire and Wawanesa, is effectively lifetime coverage at a level premium with no cash value, and suits needs that never expire, such as final expenses or estate costs. If that describes your need, it's a different conversation from choosing a term length.

Because term carries no cash value, you can cancel at any time without a surrender penalty — which is one more reason to favour the longer term when in doubt: you can always shorten coverage by cancelling, but you can't always lengthen it by re-qualifying. Many carriers also give a free-look period after purchase with a full refund. And in Ontario, a missed premium doesn't end coverage immediately: the Insurance Act provides a 30-day grace period, and a death during that period is still covered, less the overdue premium.

Matching term length to your household's actual horizons — and pricing a ladder against a single policy — is exactly the analysis a licensed life insurance advisor runs. This article is educational, not individual advice; product terms vary by carrier, and your contract governs.