Traditionally, there are two kinds of insurance policies - whole life plans and endowment plans. Whole life insurance plans have premiums that are paid for the lifetime of the insured and the proceeds of the plan are paid to the beneficiaries upon the insured death. In endowment life insurance plans, the premiums are paid for a certain period of time and after that the profits are paid back and an additional period of life insured without payments.

Whole life insurance policies have their merits and demerits. The biggest merit is they provide full death benefits to the survivors of the policyholder. The events of mortality and other expenses are not changed against the cash value of the policy. This policy provides access to cash at any time. Last but not the least, there are fixed annual premiums that make it possible for the policyholder to have resources ready to pay the premiums.

But the last advantage can also be a disadvantage. Having a fixed annual premium leads to rigidity in the policy. The terms cannot be changed and market indices will not influence the policy rates. The premiums will remain constant till the death of the policyholder.

Interest rates on whole life insurance policies run higher compared to other life insurance policies, especially term life. In fact, in some cases, the internal rate of the policy may be so high it may seem less economically advisable compared to other savings plans.

Whole life insurance policy rates are not very transparent. In some cases, the situation is so convoluted that it is difficult to understand how much of the premium goes towards the insurance and how much is an investment.

These may be the reasons why whole life insurance policies are not that popular. With such high rates, and premiums almost threefold that of term insurance policies, it is no wonder that more and more people are opting for term life insurance policies.