[wdfifteen]

I’ve had bad experiences with insurance companies and insurance sales people. I don’t trust them.

I understand the sense of security you get from giving your money to someone who has gained your trust to take care of for you vs managing it yourself. There is so much to know about money management, it’s boring, who has the time? You could make mistakes.
IMHO it is Better to make a few inexpensive mistakes that you can recover from as you learn than to make one colossally expensive mistake that you can’t recover from.

In your shoes I would put the $4k/year in a trust for the kids (you CAN pass assets on to them now), invest it in a simple index mutual fund for them, and buy term life insurance until they are adults. That’s just me.