A whole life policy has a premium-paying period written into the contract. Pay to 100 means premiums are due until age 100, at which point the policy endows. Paid up at 65 means the same coverage with premiums compressed into fewer years. So each year costs more and the obligation ends when the paychecks do.
There are usually several versions: paid up at 65, at 20 years, at 10 years, and single premium, which funds the whole thing at once and immediately creates a MEC. The shorter the period, the higher the annual premium and the faster the guaranteed cash value climbs.
Early cash value tends to favor the shorter designs. Long-run cash value often favors pay to 100, because more premium dollars flowing in over more years means a larger base compounding. That's the trade. Money available sooner, or more money eventually.
The number that decides it is usually neither of those. It's what happens to the premium at 66. On a pay-to-100 policy, someone retiring at 65 has three choices. Keep writing the check out of retirement income. Use dividends to cover it. Or cut the death benefit down to a paid-up amount. All three work. All three are decisions made at 66 instead of decisions made now.
Dividends complicate the comparison in a useful way. On a participating policy, dividends can eventually cover the premium. People describe that as the policy paying for itself. That isn't guaranteed, and it depends on the dividend scale holding up. It happens often enough, though. A pay-to-100 policy funded with paid-up additions can stop needing money out of pocket well before 100.
For a policy built to maximize cash value with a PUA rider, the base premium period matters less than the mix. A pay-to-100 base with a large PUA rider often produces better early cash value than a paid-up-at-65 base with no rider, because PUA dollars carry far lower expense loads than base premium dollars do. Comparing two designs on the base premium period alone misses where the money actually goes.
Shorter pay periods do lock you in harder. Paid up at 10 means a large annual commitment for a decade. And a year you can't make it turns into a policy loan, a reduced paid-up election, or a lapse. Match the schedule to the income you're confident about rather than the income you're hoping for.
Dividends aren't guaranteed and illustrations are projections rather than promises. Run the guaranteed column on both designs and see which one you'd still be comfortable with if nothing goes right.