(This varies within the company, though. Some may offer a guaranteed term life insurance wherein you don't need to undergo check-ups anymore upon renewal.)
You're protected until the stated age in the contract. (At Sun Life's VULs, it's until age 88.)
3. Cost
Yes, you can set automatic debits to your term life insurance.
Yes, you can also set online automatic fund transfers to your mutual fund account.
I'm speaking from experience: You can do automatic fund transfers to your mutual fund account, but you have to manually to an order ticket online for your mutual fund subscription to be processed. And you know what they say - personal finance is 80% behavior and only 20% skill. So, you should be disciplined enough to manually make mutual fund order tickets every time you want to invest - and you have to do this regularly.
You only need to deposit to one account and your deposit will be divided into payment for life insurance and investment for mutual funds automatically.
CONCLUSION
Nope, you cannot compare BTID vs VUL at all.
BTID is for people with short-term protection needs and super disciplined saving and investing habits.
On the other hand, VUL is for those with long-term protection requirements (because VUL can also have additional riders with hospitalization allowance, etc). It's also best for people who are just getting into the habit of saving and investing.
At the end of the day, BTID is comparable to planting a tree and taking care of it every single day; whereas VUL is letting a trained and professional farmer help you into caring for your tree.
Whichever way you go about it depends on you.
What's most important, though, is that you get started in planting a tree - even though you think you don't need it today, your future self will definitely thank yourself for thinking ahead.
Protect your family AND invest for the future with a VUL like Sun Maxilink Prime.