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Endowments are policies that combine savings with life insurance.
In an Endowment you pay the premium for a given term, and during that time, if you die, you get the greater of the life cover or the fund value. ( Until the final few years this will always mean the life cover amount. Only towards the end of the policy term will the investment value of the policy exceed the life insurance value.)
This made endowments ideal for mortgage repayment and they were very popular throughout the 1980's for this purpose.
Since then however things have changed and endowments are much less suitable for most people. ( See in mortgages for discussion ).
These days endowments are normally restricted to those investors who need a With Profits investment, or who are purchasing a Second Hand Endowment policy.
With Profit investments are investments where you take part in the overall profitability of the company as a whole, and where the vagarities of the stock market are to some extent smoothed out. This is the kind of policy that accumulates by means of bonuses over the term so that you always have a growing and guaranteed fund.
There is also a lot of confusion about what to do with old policies that have not yet matured, but which you no longer need, or which you want money for becuase you need some cash.
First of the best thing to do is keep it, and wait for it to mature. This way you get all the benefit and avoid any surrender penalties
If you need money ask your insurer about a Policy Loan, which is when you borrow ( normally at a very low rate of interest compared to other loans) from them, with your policy as security.
If this is not good enough and you have a With Profit policy you should look into selling it, not surrendering it. Selling normally gets a better price, provided that it meets certain requirements, see Second Hand Endowment. Only if you have no choice (eg your policy is Unit Linked, and loans ets are no use) should you consider surrender, but you will not get good value for money.