Parents and grandparents want the best for the little loved ones in their lives—from keeping them healthy and happy to providing for their financial future.

Children’s life insurance is a tool many families use to give their children a financial foundation that they can draw upon when they are older.

The lowest cost life insurance you can buy is the one you qualify for right now: Rates rise with age. It comes as no surprise, then, that rates for a child—as young as two weeks old—is the least expensive insurance you can buy. The low rates make whole life insurance affordable for almost everyone. Because whole life premiums are locked in at the beginning, they will never increase with the child’s age—regardless of whatever health issues may arise.

Whole life insurance has the added advantage of accumulating cash value over time. This cash value is a financial asset that the grown child can borrow against or use as collateral. In addition, the money borrowed is not subject to income tax, whether or not the loan amount is repaid.

By the time the child turns twenty, the cash value of a whole life policy will likely be equal to or greater than the amount of the premiums paid. If you paid $10 a month for a $15,000 policy, after 20 years the policy would have a cash value of $2,400 or more. A $35,000 policy would have a cash value of about $5,700. Some life insurance programs provide for an automatic doubling of the policy’s face value when the child turns 21—without a change in the premium. In addition, you or the adult child may be able to purchase additional coverage on certain policy anniversary dates, also without increasing the premium.

The primary reason for buying any kind of life insurance is to insure against untimely death. This is not something parents or grandparents wish to think about. Nevertheless, consideration must be given to the survivors, including a child’s siblings. Funeral and burial expenses and unpaid medical bills can affect the finances of an entire family at a time when grief and stress are already at an extreme level. Life insurance is a way of protecting everyone.