BuckBassKing, I suggest you research the "New" term Life Policies they are offering now in the industry. They are set-up so that if you do not cash them in, meaning you die, they will pay you back ALL the premiums you have put into them at the end of the term. I will agree with you on one thing here, you will not be able to buy that same amount of insurance at that price again when the give you your money back, but like Geo said in his post, that is where developing a "complete" plan comes into play. Most people do not NEED high amounts of insurance when they get to that retirement age because they have had their lives to accumulate assets and pay them off.
Remember here people life insurance, in its most basic sense, was orginally meant to "bridge the gap" between your working years and retirement years in case something happened to you. I carry enough to pay off all my "debts" for my family, plus college, weddings, ect. that I will not need money for when I am say 65 and all this is paid off. IF you are not set-up to have your family taken care of, lets say you have not saved properly and started a family "later in life", then carrying that insurance past 70 (when Soc Sec now pays out fully) is not a bad idea. I would STILL reccommend Term Life at that point because you probably will not have time to "accumulate" cash value in a whole life policy at that point anyway. Again, these are my views and what I have done/suggested to my clients in the past, doesn't mean there are not a few exceptions, but I would not know what to tell someone to do without sitting down and talking to them about their individually situations.
I again am offering to help anyone who would like out for FREE. I don't work for ANY company now and thus you know you will get my honest UNBIAS opinion to consider. All you gotta do is ask and I will do what I can to help.

Rob