It depends on the type of life insurance policy you own.

There are two basic types of life insurance: -

1. Term Life Insurance - these typically don't have any cash value (some may have a return of premium at the end of the policy term). 

2. Permanent Life Insurance - these include whole life, universal life, indexed universal life and variable life insurance plans.  These will typically have some level of cash value that builds up inside the policy over time.

The life insuranc...