From Insurance for Dummies by Jack Hungelmann

All permanent policies have three components: mortality costs, expense charges, and cash value. Insurers offering permanent insurance compete in three ways: lowering mortality costs, lowering expense charges, and having better investment yield on the cash value.

Permanent policies vary by

• Whether they guarantee mortality and expense costs
• Whether they guarantee the yield on the cash value

Three types of permanent life insurance are on the market: whole life, universal life, and variable life. Every life insurance company offers hybrids of these three. See the table below for a quick overview of how they compare.