Do term life policies accumulate cash value?

Term life insurance policies are designed primarily to provide a death benefit for a specific period, or "term," rather than to accumulate cash value over time. The fundamental structure of term life insurance is to offer protection with lower premiums compared to permanent life insurance options, which do build cash value. With term life insurance, the policyholder pays premiums, and if they pass away during the term, their beneficiaries receive the death benefit. However, if the term ends, the policy does not have any cash value and essentially expires.

This differentiates term life policies from whole life or universal life policies, which are types of permanent insurance that include a savings component leading to cash value accumulation. As a result, the answer indicating that term life policies do not accumulate cash value is indeed correct.