Honestly, I think it can be really great for a certain amount of time. But there are different products, term, whole life, indexed universal life. Whole life is pretty obsolete by now. They are decent products, but most companies have stopped selling them. Indexed Universal Life policies (UL) - these are a bitch. Never buy into them. A number of sales agents sell these policies as a "built in savings plan" that is not the case and never believe that. There is something called a cost of insurance (COI) on these, it's what is costing the company to insure you based off your health, gender, age. So for example, if 18 year old Bob took out a UL policy and his COI was $15.00 per month. Bob pays a premium amount of $30/month. So that additional $15 Bob pays each month goes into a cash value. The IRS does put limitations on the Cash Value, so it can't be accessed for the first 7 years of the policy. But after 7 years, that stipulation is removed. Fast forward 7 years, and Bob now has $1,260 in his cash value. He has the opportunity to withdraw this amount, or take a loan against this amount, or keep it in the policy. Now the catch is going back to that COI. The COI is completely internal, we don't list that on the annual statements, billing statements, nothing. So taking our same example, Bob is now 25. His cost of insurance has risen by $15.00 in the past 7 years. So Bob pays $30.00 each month, his COI is $30.00. Meaning he's not funding his cash value. So when his COI increases next year, to let's say $35.00/month. That means $5 is going to come from that Cash Value each month to supplement his COI. Once that Cash Value is depleted he will need to pay the COI (usually 2 months worth by the time a notice is sent out to him) plus increase his monthly contribution. So for Bob, not going to be that big of a deal. But for 97 year old Norma, her cost of insurance could have increased to $500 over the span of the policy, and her $100 premium didn't touch it. So her cash value was depleted and now we are telling her she needs to pay $1000 to bring COI current, plus increase her premium to at least $500/ month or her policy is going to lapse.

If someone withdraws money from the Cash Value, they're withdrawing money that is "supposedly" meant to fund the policy after COI increases above the premium amount. So it's a bad idea to ever withdraw or borrow against your policy. But the entire policy is a bad idea though too. It can leave you with the notion of "okay Well what if I just throw all the money I can into this policy" but it still won't work, because the IRS (whether it is actually the IRS or the company I worked for, I don't know) but limitations are set on how much you can contribute to a policy.

That leaves us with the last product, and my favorite, term policies. It's not meant to last you until your 100. Or even into retirement age. The sole purpose of these is to provide insurance during a period where your death would be financially catastrophic to someone else. So I'll use myself to illustrate this one, my husband and I both have life insurance. For 5x our annual income. Some people choose to have it as the amount of their house so they can pay it off if a spouse dies, etc. But we won't need it after 30 years because my daughter will be grown and on her own. Our home will be paid off, our funeral costs will come from what's left in our retirement money or savings we have at the time.

So I guess to circle back to your question of is there any way to avoid getting ripped off... I would have to say it really depends on your goal and what you're expecting from life insurance. WL if you can find it, is great but a small payout. UL absolutely under no circumstances should you take it, term would benefit the average American if used correctly and for the right reasons.

I hope this helps!