if it's to cover a mortgage, you might want to buy a 30 year, 20 year, and 10 year term policy each at ~1/3 of the mortgage amount

if it's to cover college for a kid, try to guess how much college will cost x years in the future and buy a term policy for approx. that amount with a term length that would last until your kid is ~22

if it's not to cover a specific expense, then you probably want to think about it in terms of how many years of salary you want to provide to a spouse

if you want to use life insurance as an investment vehicle or to generate retirement income, then you might want universal life (likely either indexed UL or if you have high risk tolerance, variable UL) - then think about how much money you want to invest and get as little face amount as allowed by the tax code for that level of premium. this will minimize death benefits, but maximize how much your money can grow

if you're super wealthy (assuming that means none of us posting here) and trying to get around estate taxes and such, you'll want to buy a joint life policy


if i was buying a term policy, i personally wouldn't want deal with a financial advisor/agent - the policy is really not that complicated and you can research and buy online

but if you get into the more complicated products and/or you have significant wealth, you probably have little choice.