A Simple Guide To Life Insurance

by Terry Edwards

In this article we will look at an overall view of life insurance. Life insurance is basically a contract between an insurer and the owner of the life insurance policy. The insurer's obligation in the contract is to pay a sum of money upon the policy owner's death. The policy owner's obligation in the contract is to pay a certain premium at a regular interval or a lump sum or sums at specifieds times.

In the case of the death of the insured the insurer pays a sum of money to the beneficiary named in the contract. Typically, the different insured events, as they are related to life insurance, deal with the area of death, accidental deaths and sickness. Within each contract, specific exclusions and inclusions will be written as to the liability of the insurer.

One such exclusion to many life insurance policies would be suicide - in this case if the insured died because of suicide within the first 2 years, the beneficiary would not collect a sum of money.

There are two different basic life insurance policies. The first is a term protection policy where a benefit is to be provided to the beneficiary on the occurrence of a specified event.

The second type of life insurance policy is in investment policy. Here, the aim of the policy owner is to invest in the policy to get a return on their capital. The most common types of these policies are whole life, universal life in variable life policies.

In most cases, the policy owner and the person insured by the contract are the same. Usually, the person who takes out the policy will do so in their own name. So they will be both the owner of the policy and the insured. However, it is possible to buy a policy on somebody else. For example, if you purchase one for your spouse you would be the owner and your spouse would be the insured.

In most cases, the owner will be allowed to change who the beneficiary of the life insurance policy is unless otherwise stated within the contract. This is typically referred to as an irrevocable beneficiary designation. In this case, the beneficiary would first have to agree to any beneficiary changes.

In conclusion, I have given you some of the basics as to what life insurance is to help you get a better understanding of this type of insurance.

About the Author
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