Permanent life insurance is a form of life insurance such as whole life or endowment, where the policy is for the life of the insured, the payout is assured at the end of the policy (assuming the policy is kept current) and the policy accrues cash value.

This is compared with term life insurance where insurance is purchased for a specified period (typically a year, 5 years, 10 years or 20 years) where a death benefit is only paid to the beneficiary if the insured dies during the specified period.

Permanent life insurance originally was offered as a fixed premium fixed return product known as whole life insurance . This offered consumers guaranteed cash value accumulation and a consistant premium. As consumers became more savvy, they wanted more flexibility which was offered in the form of universal life insurance. Universal life insurance allows consumers flexibility in when premiums are to be paid and the amount that they would be. Universal life policies also allowed consumers to permanently withdraw cash from the policy without the interest associated with the loan provisions in whole life policies. Universal life policies retained the fixed investment performance of whole life policies. Variable life insurance follows the mold of whole life, but it shifts the investment risk to the consumer along with the potential for greater returns. Variable universal life insurance combines this with the flexiblity in premium structure of universal life to create the most free form option for consumers to manage their own money (at their own risk). Variable universal life insurance policies are popular with investors in the United States due to the favorable tax treatment of all permanent life insurance policies and their potential for significant returns.