Not All Life Insurance Is the Same

Not all life insurance you can buy is the same. The group type you get from a company program is generally term insurance; that’s the what pays off in death benefits only and has no cash value option.
The usual life insurance available on the market can be whole life (with  cash values included) or term. The cash value-included contracts have higher premium charges, so if protection against premature death of the insured is the primary aim, go for the term variety.
Whole life policies offer relatively small investment returns on the portion of the premium set aside for investment. unless a portion is placed in the general stock market in some fashion (universal or variable life.)
Before you decide on which policy to buy, go over all the ramifications of ownership. Whether you use a commissioned agent or buy direct from the company, remember: whole life policies pay more commissions than do term policies. They will have higher termination costs. Whole life policies do have interesting, useful options, once the contracts are in place, with positive possibilities for the insured that most policyholders are not aware of. (See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments.)