As the name implies, whole life insurance will cover you for your entire life, as long as the policy is kept in force. In general, to keep a policy in force, means that the premiums are paid or that the policy is paid up. Contrast this to term life where the policy is only set to last for a period of time, usually between 10 - 30 years. A term policy does not usually grow any cash value, and once it has expired, the contract has no more value to the formerly insured person. And of course, the problem with this is that the coverage tends to expire right when a person is older, may have developed health problems, and will have a harder time obtaining affordable coverage.

Whole of Life Insurance does build up a cash value. Some people use this value to pay off the policy after a set amount of time, sometimes 10 or 20 years. That way, they can have the security of coverage in their old age without making more payments. In addition, the cash value can also be used as an asset to borrow against if the need comes up. Of these types of cash value policies can even be cashed in after a set amount of years in case the need for money comes up.

Most of the time, life insurance for children or life insurance for seniors are really whole life policies. Term policies tend to be marketed to working age adults. It is usually very cheap to buy a policy for a child or grandchild, and this gift gives that child the security of lifetime protection at a low premium. The senior coverage has been designed to be issued without lots of health questions, and is usually issued with small face values to cover final expenses like funerals and debt settlement.