Whole life insurance can be a wonderful financial instrument. The barrier is “sticker shock” because the premium for whole life (or universal life) is so much more expensive in the initial years than term life. To compare whole life/universal life and term life insurance think about a level premium vs. one that is much less initially but becomes much more expensive (term) as you get older.
As an analogy, with whole life you’re overpaying now to “underpay” later. In order to do this, part of the “overpayment” is held in reserve by the insurance company and earns interest (tax deferred). This is called cash value. You can access your “reserve” or cash value through loans or if you drop your policy. Another analogy that’s been used that’s not entirely inappropriate is to compare whole life vs. term to leasing vs. buying. One costs more initially, gets but you get to use it for life and develop equity — whole life or owning. One is temporary and with housing inflation gets more expensive — renting or term.
You might consider permanent life insurance such as whole life or universal life insurance as part or all of your life insurance portfolio.