Traditional insurance policies before such as whole life, limited pay life, endowments have cash values. Cash values came from your premium payments, coupled with investments, it increases each year as it reaches toward maturity. At maturity, say a 20 year endowment will mature after 20 years, cash value is already equal to the insurance coverage. In between now and maturity, in case of emergency, you badly need cash, you can borrow the cash value of your policy in the form of a policy loan. I hope it makes sense to you now even with all the technical jargon.