Who Can Cash Out A Life Insurance Policy? 
Only the owner of a life insurance policy can cash it out , which of course means surrender it , and terminate its coverage . This leaves you with no life insurance . A far better thing to do would be to borrow against it , which you can only do with Whole Life Insurance , never term , whish has no surrender or cash out value . If you instead borrow against it , the policy stays in force , with a diminished death benefit , but you can always repay the loan and return to the full death benefit , which will have grown , since it grows even as if the loan had not taken place , due to accumulation . To get the major part of the death benefit however you do have to repay the loan when the emergency is past . Talk to an experienced agent . Gary Lane , Registered Representative and Agent , New York Life . 949 797 2424 . Thank you . 