Many term policies contain a right to exchange the contract for permanent cover without a new medical exam. The privilege carries conditions, and most of them are time-based.
The right is written into the contract
A conversion privilege obliges the insurer to issue a permanent policy on request, using the health class established when the term policy was originally underwritten.
No new evidence of insurability is required, so a deterioration in health after issue affects neither eligibility nor the class the new policy is priced at.
That is the entire value of the feature, and it exists only where the contract explicitly grants it.
Some term policies carry no conversion right at all, and others limit it to a fraction of the original death benefit rather than the whole amount.
Deadlines are stricter than buyers expect
Conversion is usually limited to the earlier of a stated age or a set number of policy years, often well before the level period itself ends.
Once that window closes the right disappears, even though the term policy continues in force and premiums continue to be collected.
Someone who develops a condition after the deadline has no route back to permanent cover at their original class.
Not every permanent product is available
Insurers restrict conversion to a specified set of policies, and the contents of that set can change over the life of the term contract.
The product actually on offer may be more expensive or less flexible than the insurer's main permanent range sold to new buyers.
Asking which policies are currently open for conversion gives a more accurate picture than the general wording in the contract.
The premium is priced at attained age
Conversion preserves the underwriting class, not the premium. The permanent policy is priced at the insured's age on the date of conversion.
That is a substantial increase, because permanent cover costs more than term at any age and the insured is older than when the term policy began.
Partial conversion is often permitted, allowing part of the death benefit to become permanent while the remainder stays as term.
That keeps the new premium manageable while preserving the original class on the converted portion, which is usually the point of exercising the right at all.
It functions as an option on future insurability
The privilege is most valuable to someone whose health has deteriorated, since it is the only route to cover at a class they could no longer earn.
For someone still in good health it is usually cheaper to buy a new policy on the open market than to exercise it.
Treating it as an option that expires, rather than a feature that is simply present, is what determines whether it gets used before it lapses.