A parent dies and leaves the house to three kids. One of you wants to keep it. The other two want their share in cash. Nobody wants to be the reason the house gets sold, and the clock is running because the estate has costs and somebody is paying the property taxes every month.
A policy loan is one of the few sources of money that moves at the speed that situation needs. No application, no credit pull, and no explanation of what it's for. You call the carrier, request a loan against your cash value, and the money shows up in days, which how long a policy loan takes to land in your checking account covers in detail.
Compare that to the alternatives. A cash-out refinance or a purchase mortgage on an inherited property means underwriting, an appraisal, income documentation, and 30 to 45 days, and some lenders won't lend on a property still sitting in probate. A home equity line of credit on your own house takes about as long. Hard money is fast and expensive. Your siblings, meanwhile, are looking at an offer from a buyer who can close. Putting policy money into real estate comes up constantly, and whether you can buy a house with your policy covers the general shape of it.
Say the house appraises at $600,000 with no mortgage on it. Three equal shares is $200,000 each, so you need $400,000 to buy out two siblings. If your policy has $180,000 of accessible cash value, the loan covers a large piece of it and you finance the rest, which is a much easier loan to get because you're borrowing less and you have real money in the deal.
Three things to get right before the money moves.
Get a real appraisal, not a website estimate. Everyone involved has to believe the number, and a licensed appraisal dated near the death also establishes the stepped-up basis. Stepped-up basis means the heirs' cost basis for tax purposes resets to the value on the date of death, so if the house sells years later the gain is measured from that figure instead of from what your parents paid in 1974. Pay for the appraisal. It runs a few hundred dollars and it prevents the argument.
Put it in writing and record a deed. A buyout is a real estate transaction between family members and it needs a deed, a settlement statement, and usually a title company. Handshakes between siblings turn into lawsuits between in-laws. An attorney handles this part.
Set the payback schedule before you borrow instead of after. A policy loan sends no bill, so nothing forces the issue. Pick the monthly amount and the payoff date, write it down, and automate the transfer, which is the whole argument in nobody bills you for a policy loan, set a schedule anyway.
The loan reduces your death benefit and your available cash value while it's outstanding, and it accrues interest the entire time. On $180,000 at 5%, that's roughly $9,000 the first year if you pay nothing. Paying it back over seven years runs about $2,540 a month and clears it. Paying nothing for seven years leaves you owing around $253,000 against a policy that was supposed to be doing something else by then.
Make sure the policy can carry it. A loan that size against a contract that isn't well funded can put the policy at risk of lapsing, and a loaned-up policy that lapses produces a tax bill on the gain. Ask the carrier for an in-force illustration showing the loan at the size you're taking, carried for the years you plan to carry it, so you can see what the policy looks like the whole way through. The times a policy loan is the wrong move covers when the answer is no.
I'm a licensed insurance broker and not an attorney or a CPA. The deed, the estate, and the basis questions belong to whoever is handling the estate. What I can tell you is which of your policies holds how much and how fast it moves. Call the carrier, ask for the current maximum loan available, and take that number to the family meeting. Showing up with a real figure changes the conversation from whether the house gets sold to when you can close.