I only sell Term Life policies. Life insurance should be simple. That's what Term Life is. The purpose of Life Insurance is to provide financial security to your family, in the event of premature death. Term Life is the simplest and most cost efficient way to accomplish that goal. You choose the death benefit and term. You pay the premium, which is constant, until the term is complete or death. If you outlive the coverage term, than you stop paying the premium. If you are looking for an investment vehicle, than you are better off investing in an IRA, 401k or mutual fund.
Whole Life or Universal Life policies are a whole lot more complicated and cost 2-4 times more than a 30-Year Term Life Policy. Many shoppers who are steered towards the permanent life policy will end up with the double whammy of stretching their insurance budget too far and purchasing inadequate death benefit.
If you cannot keep up with the premium, which needs to be paid over the life of the policy, you run the risk of the policy being insufficiently funded and it will cancel. If you take money out of your whole life policy, fees and interest are charged. If you don't pay the loan back, you run the risk of underfunding the life policy again.
Life Insurance should provide financial certainty to the policy holders family and ease of mind to the policyholder. Permanent Life products fall short of this goal.