In a lot of ways, the story of Whole Life is the story of life insurance itself. Whereas later iterations of life insurance such as term insurance and universal life maintained something of an arms-length relationship between the product and the insurer, Whole Life is arguably the foundation of what it means to be a mutual life insurance company. In virtually every other product category, it is possible for a client to have a great policy written by a bad company. In fact, this happens all the time.