Term or whole

Two products, and one of them is right far more often.

Term: Cover for a set number of years. If you die inside it, it pays. If you do not, it ends and you have paid for cover you thankfully did not need — the same as with car insurance.
Whole life: Cover that never expires, with a savings component inside it. Several times the premium, a large charge in the early years, and a surrender value that takes a decade to catch up with what you put in.

You have young children and a mortgage
Buy term
You need a large amount of cover for a defined number of years, at the lowest cost. That is exactly and only what term does.
You want cover and you want to invest
Buy term
Buy the term, invest the difference somewhere with lower fees. The combined outcome beats a whole life policy for most people, most of the time.
Somebody told you it is a tax-free retirement plan
Buy term
It is a life insurance policy with an investment attached and a large charge on the front. If retirement saving is the goal, this is an expensive way to do it.
You have a disabled dependant who will need care after you die
Whole is right
Cover that never expires is genuinely the right instrument here, because the need does not expire either. This is one of the few clear cases.
You own a business with partners and a buy-sell agreement
It depends
Depends entirely on how the agreement is written and how long the partners intend to hold. This is a conversation, not a table row.

If somebody has already sold you whole life, that is not a disaster and it is worth a second opinion before you cancel anything.

Surrendering early is usually the worst of both outcomes. Send the policy over and I will read it and tell you plainly whether keeping it beats replacing it — including when the honest answer is keep it.

Send a policy over