Term Insurance Opportunity Cost — The Real Math Behind "Return of Premium"
ROP plans market themselves as risk-free: pay higher premiums, get all of it back if you survive. The catch is the time value of money. The difference between an ROP premium and a pure-term premium, compounded at even a modest equity return, almost always dwarfs the nominal refund.
Buy term, invest the difference. The death benefit is identical; the upside is everything you would have surrendered to the insurer's investment book.