Why?
Plenty of reasons
- Tax advantaged investment (solid alternative to the typical bond allocation)
- Legacy (gift after death)
- Living benefits like LTC insurance
- Estate tax planning: have cash on hand so that executor doesn't need to liquidate assets
- Business key man insurnace: similar concept, take out insurance on business partner so that on death the other partner can pay off heirs without selling the business
and many more
@Dan, have you ever read the piece by Richard Russell "Rich Man, Poor Man" which I've referenced on DDF numerous times?
If you read it and still ask the question as to why financially independent people want to have Whole Life, then there are other issues you might be unaware of, some of which were pointed out by
@yos9694 above.
Also, as one lives and sees things, one realizes the power and value of having something stable and guaranteed as an anchor in one's financial life. There is value in having a death benefit (as in liquid cash, as opposed to an asset that needs to be liquidated) whenever one dies, regardless of age. Usually the wealthier the person, the greater the need for liquidity at that point (often in order to actually preserve the overall value of the other assets).
And while
@yos9694 mentioned Estate TAX planning, I can easily show NON-TAX estate planning reasons that make people WANT to have a life insurance death benefit paid after 120.