Your whole life policies are the foundation of your banking system. Policy Stack tracks them as living records that grow and change over time. Term and convertible-term policies are also supported as part of the broader insurance picture, with a different (and lighter) record because they have no cash value to track.
The Add Policy Wizard Starts with a Type Picker
The first step of Add Policy is a policy-type picker with three choices:
- Whole Life — permanent coverage with cash value. The core of a whole life banking system. Routes through the full wizard (details → spec page → history → current snapshot → summary).
- Term Life — temporary coverage for a fixed period. No cash value, no policy loans, no snapshots. Routes through a single term-details step that captures the carrier, policy number, term length, expiration date, and annual premium.
- Convertible Term Life — term coverage with the option to convert to a whole life policy later. Same term-details capture plus the conversion window (end date) and a conversion status.
The rest of this article — and most of the Policies section — focuses on whole life, because that's where the banking system mechanics live. Term and convertible-term policies are recorded for completeness (carrier visibility, death benefit visibility, conversion tracking) but they don't have snapshots, cash value, or loans.
What Is a Whole Life Policy?
A whole life insurance policy is a permanent life insurance contract issued by a carrier. It provides a guaranteed death benefit and builds cash value over the life of the policy. When issued by a mutual insurance company, the policyholder participates in the company's divisible surplus through dividends.
In the context of your banking system, your policies serve as the for your capital. The cash value is the pool of capital available for policy loans and deployments.