What Is Whole Life Insurance? 
Video Transcript : What is whole life ? Whole life is a permanent product that can go all the way out to age 121 . The products that are usually sold today are called ` participating ' . They 're actually returning pieces of the premium you paid , a portion of it , back to you as a dividend . It 's a return of an unused premium . Whole life will give you the coverage that you need for the entire period , usually at minimum to age 100 , and again , out until age 121 . Those dividends , even though they 're not guaranteed , those dividends could be a nice supplemental retirement plan that you can put aside with your qualified plans . Whole life has been around for a long time . If you have a permanent need , whole life should be one of the permanent products that you look at . 