Unlike term life insurance policies, which have a set end I just want to drink wine watch Hocus Pocus and eat all my kids Halloween candy tshirt, whole life insurance lasts for as long as you pay the premiums. Instead of just being a straight insurance policy, there’s also a cash component that is basically a savings vehicle and can gain (or lose) value. This sounds great, but all of the involved fees can cause whole life policies to cost up to four times as much as a comparable term life insurance policy. Generally speaking, you can usually get a better return by investing the difference on your own than relying on the cash value component of the whole life insurance policy.