Term life insurance is the simplest and least expensive type of life insurance policy that a person will find. It covers a person for a certain amount of time and is pure insurance with no cash value account. A term life insurance policy has only one function which is to pay a specific sum of money to whoever a person designates when they die. The death benefit and the policy limit are the same, so however much a person pays in their life insurance policy, they will get as their death benefit. The policy protects that person's family by providing money they can invest to replace any salary income, as well as to cover final expenses incurred by their death.

Other types of life insurance provide both a death benefit and a cash value account.  These policies also extend much longer than a term life insurance policy. Their premiums are larger than term life insurance premiums, because they fund the savings account in addition to buying insurance. These policies are known as permanent life insurance policies. They include whole life insurance, variable life insurance, and universal life insurance.  Each of these will have their advantages and disadvantages, depending on the situation. 

Whole life insurance provides permanent protection for a person's dependents while building a cash value account. With this type of life insurance, the insurance company manages the policies various accounts.  Until it is redeemed, the cash will continue to get saved up.  It pays a death benefit to the beneficiary that the person names and offers them a low risk cash value account and tax-deferred cash accumulation. In addition, the premiums will never increase throughout the person's life.  Whole life insurance also provides the option to receive dividends from the policy or to apply them to reduce payments.

The drawback to the whole life insurance is that it doesn't offer the account flexibility to invest in separate accounts such as money market, stock, and bond funds. It also doesn't allow the account flexibility to split the person's money among different accounts or to move that money between accounts.  It also doesn't offer premium flexibility.

Universal life insurance provides permanent protection for a person's dependents and is more flexible than whole or variable life insurance. It pays a death benefit to the beneficiary that the person names and offers low risk cash value account and tax deferred accumulation. It allows someone to earn market rates of interest on their cash value account.  One benefit is that it provides the right to borrow or withdraw from the policy during the person's lifetime. However, it doesn't offer a person the account flexibility to invest in separate accounts such as money market, stock, and bond funds.

Variable life insurance provides permanent protection for a person and is the type of life insurance with account flexibility for the more risk-oriented policy holder.  It pays a death benefit to the beneficiary that they name and offers a low-risk, tax-free cash accumulation.
It allows the death benefit to vary in relation to the fund returns of the cash value account. Some drawbacks to variable life insurance are that it offers no guarantee to the amount of cash value during the person's lifetime and does not offer any premium flexibility.