Whole Life Insurance
Whole life insurance covers you for your entire life and builds a 'cash value' savings component alongside the death benefit. Premiums are far higher than term insurance because part of each one funds that cash value, which grows slowly at a modest guaranteed rate.
Whole life costs several times more than term coverage for the same death benefit, and the difference funds the cash value — which grows slowly, because the policy's own costs and commissions come out first, and which typically shows little or nothing in the early years. Borrowing against it reduces the death benefit until repaid. For most families the need is temporary, covering the years when children are dependent and a mortgage is large, and term insurance matches that shape at a fraction of the cost. Permanent cover has genuine uses: a dependant with lifelong needs, estate liquidity for an illiquid business, or a health condition making future cover unobtainable. Commissions are far higher here than on term, so ask how the person advising you is paid.