This is especially common in the case of whole
life insurance policies, where technically it is a
requirement to pay the premium every year (unless the policy was truly a limited - pay policy that is fully paid up), and if the policyowner stops paying premiums the policy will
remain in force, but only because the
insurance company by default takes out a loan on behalf of the policyowner to pay the premium (which goes right back into the policy, but now the loan begins to accrue loan interest).