A term life DPI provides insurance protection for a fixed period of time and may be suitable if you wish to provide for your financial dependants until they become self-reliant. There will be a payout if you pass away, or suffer a terminal illness during the coverage period. Terminal illness is the conclusive diagnosis of an illness that is expected to result in death within 12 months. In comparison, a whole life DPI generally provides life-long insurance protection.
As term life DPI are pure protection policies with no savings or investment feature, they are generally cheaper than whole life products. However, this also means that a term life DPI has no cash value when the policy expires, or if you end the policy early.
Whole life DPI are typically more expensive than term life DPI as their premiums are invested to build up cash value in addition to paying for insurance coverage. If you end a whole life DPI early, there may be a cash value (known as surrender value). However, there may be no cash value if you end the policy in the first few years as most of the premiums you have paid would have been used to pay for the initial administrative expenses incurred by the insurers for setting up the policy. For more information, visit https://www.moneysense.gov.sg/articles/2018/10/buying-direct-purchase-insurance.