When Does Life Insurance Have A Cash Value? 
Life insurance that has a cash value is called permanent insurance . Permanent insurance includes all variations of Whole Life and Universal Life . Some policies have lots of cash value ; some have little to none . You need to look at the policy carefully when buying permanent life insurance . Term Life insurance rarely has a cash value . Return of Premium -LRB- ROP -RRB- Term does build up some cash value in the later years of the policy . 