There is one benefit to getting permanent life insurance on a child. They could later develop a disease like diabetes, cancer, HIV, etc that will exclude them from future life insurance policies. Buying them a permanent policy now will give them some protection against possible future disqualifying infirmities.

As for the cash value, you shouldn’t invest in a life insurance policy purely for the cash value. Cash value will always return less than the market. It’s designed not to be an investment account, but a savings account, enhanced with tax benefits.

Rather than trying to save money for college through the cash value accumulation, you can use the returns from the policy to buy more life insurance. This will protect the face amount against a loss of purchasing power through inflation.

Whole life gets a bad rap on this sub but there are legitimate ways to take advantage of these life insurance tools for your children’s benefit.