My 17 yr old daughter and I want to know if we can cash in all her death benefits up to her 18th b_day in Oct?

We Live in Pennsylvania and I am her payee because she is a minor and we heard that we could but we really dont know...we would appreciate any answers that may help us out.|||I have to assume that this is a whole life policy, such as Gerber. The short answer is no, you cannot cash out the death benefit or face value. The only amount you can cash out is the cash value, also known as the surrender value. Unfortunately, you will probably not recoup your premiums and you will lose some of the cash to surrender fees, also it may take up to 6 months to get your money. These are all good reasons why a term life policy is best. If this is a term life policy, you will only cancel the policy and nothing will be returned to you.... Sorry about your loss. What have you done with the survivor benefits? Are they invested in savings or another type of saving vehicle? Becuz when you say cash in I am thinking there is a form of savings- IRA,CD,Mutual Fund... Is this correct?