When a couple buys a cash value policy, James goes through who will own it. The owner is the person who can take loans and withdrawals, assign the policy as collateral, and change the beneficiaries. He talked through how he handles that question on LIFE Pod Ep 95 with Carlo Viqueira.
Often one person in a couple handles most of the money. If that person plans to reach the cash value regularly, a single owner can make moving money simpler, so James may suggest not putting both names on the policy. There are good arguments for both spouses owning it, too, for reasons that have nothing to do with moving cash. So ease of use points one way, and your other reasons may point the other way.
An insured or a beneficiary has no right to the policy information. They can't call the insurance company and ask how much cash value is there. If your spouse is only the beneficiary, your spouse will need you to share those details.
Carlo offered a way to split the difference. A collateral assignment means the owner pledges the policy to a lender as security for a loan or line of credit. If the single owner sets up an outside line of credit that way, it may be possible to give someone else access to those funds. Check with the lender, since each one sets its own rules. Money borrowed that way still has to be paid back, and the lender has a claim on the policy until it is. A loan taken from the policy itself reduces the cash value and death benefit while it's outstanding.
Ownership can also change as your use of the policy changes. James owns 13 policies right now, and he won't need the cash value in all of them forever. Once he's done using a policy for cash, his plan is to move it into an irrevocable life insurance trust, called an ILIT, where it will sit and wait to pay a death benefit. The reason is estate tax. A policy you own on your own life counts toward your estate when you die, and moving it to the trust takes it out. He'll keep the policies he's actively using in his own name, because he can't be the trustee of an irrevocable trust. Being trustee would mean he still controlled the policy, and it would stay in his estate.
Trusts add complexity and professional costs, and most people won't need one. If your estate may pass the estate tax exemption, which is the amount it can be worth before estate tax applies, ask a trust attorney in your state how the timing of a move affects the result.
James is a licensed insurance broker, not a CPA or an attorney, so the tax and legal parts belong with your own advisors. Before you sign an application, decide who will actually be making the loan requests, because that person needs to be an owner.