What is universal life insurance?
Universal life is permanent insurance, which has the potential to accumulate cash value. However, it offers additional features and options as well. For example, you can increase or decrease your policy's face amount to accommodate your changing protection needs. You can also increase or decrease the dollar amount of your premium payments and make additional lump sum payments to your policy.

Why would I want it?
Because you want to ensure that your family will have the money necessary to live in comfort, purchase a home, pay for college, and so on, should something happen to you. At the same time, you want flexibility and control.

You want a policy that's permanent and accrues cash value, which you can borrow against for any purpose. You want the option to skip premium payments, which you can do if your account has accrued sufficient value. You want the potential to earn a higher rate of return than a whole life policy, even though there's a risk that your rate of return could drop.