One of the most basic and popular types of life insurance policies available is the whole life insurance policy
. Whole life insurance policies pay out a death benefit over your entire life, unlike term policies which only pay for a certain period of time. In addition, they accrue cash values. Life Coverage in A Whole Life Policy Whole life (or permanent life) insurance policies generally require medical underwriting and offers a death benefit for you entire life, as long as you pay your premiums in full and on time. If your health changes and you become uninsurable, it won't matter as long as you keep your policy in-force. That is one of the benefits of a whole life insurance policy over a term life insurance policy, which will stop paying a life insurance policy after a pre-determined number of years. Cash Value Growth and Accumulation When you have a whole life insurance policy you pay more than just the cost of insurance. The additional premiums that you pay are put toward the accumulation of cash values. These cash values give your policy an added benefit that just a death benefit. Cash values can offer tax-free loans to the policy owner, a cash value given when the owner surrenders the policy and a source of funds for applied premium loans if the policy owner neglects to pay their premium. Fixed Growth of Cash Values One of the best aspects of a whole life insurance policy is that the policy's cash values grow at a fixed rate. That means that instead of dealing with the ups and downs and general volatility in the stock market, you get fixed, guaranteed growth that is honored by the insurance company. In order to ensure that you choose an insurer that can both pay claims and keep your cash values growing according to the illustration, take the time to check the insurance company's rating on AM Best. AM Best is a company that assesses the financial strength of insurers and assigns a letter rating representing their financial strength. When you choose a financially strong company then you can rest assured with the knowledge that your claims and cash value requests will be honored.