The word annual means one year, thus explains the meaning of the policy. The term of an annual renewable term life insurance is one year, the death benefit is payable to the beneficiary if the insured dies within the one year period, there will be no compensation if the insured dies even one day after the expiration of the policy.
There are very few people bought this policy because a person who purchased the policy will die in the period of one year is rare case. When a person contracts a terminal illness during the term but survives until the end of the expiration, he will receive no compensation, but because of the illness he will be considered as uninsurable and unable to renew the policy.
So term life insurance policies has solution for this problem, they have included a condition called re-insurability, which means that if this feature is included in the buyer’s term life policy, the buyer will be able to renew his insurance for as long as he wishes, without the necessity of providing proof of insurability.
Therefore if the buyer contracted a critical illness he is considered uninsurable, but if he has bought Annual Renewable Term he is able to continue the policy. Annual Renewable Term has the similarity as the one year term life insurance, and the policy will be able to continue each year for a given period of time, from 10 years to 30 years or more. A person who purchased this type of policy can renew the policy but at a higher premium, as long as he keeps on paying premiums, the death benefit would still remain.