What Does It Mean If A Life Insurance Policy Is A Participating Policy? 
A life insurance policy is `` participating '' if it pays dividends , which can be considered a return of premium -LRB- or profit , depending on semantics -RRB- . Typically , dividends are not guaranteed and are payable yearly . They can purchase more insurance or accumulate at interest on whole life plans . They can also be paid in cash and must be approved . Many older policies have large amounts of accumulated dividends . 