Life insurance is a contract between an insured (insurance policy holder) and an insurer or assurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money (the “benefits”) in exchange for a premium, upon the death of the insured person. Depending on the contract, other events such as terminal illness or critical illness may also trigger payment. The policy holder typically pays a premium, either regularly or as a lump sum. Other expenses (such as funeral expenses) are also sometimes included in the benefits.

Life policies are legal contracts and the terms of the contract describe the limitations of the insured events. Specific exclusions are often written into the contract to limit the liability of the insurer; common examples are claims relating to suicide, fraud, war, riot, and civil commotion.

Life-based contracts tend to fall into two major categories:

  1. Protection policies – designed to provide a benefit in the event of specified event, typically a lump sum payment. A common form of this design is term insurance.
  2. Investment policies – where the main objective is to facilitate the growth of capital by regular or single premiums. Common forms are whole life, universal life, and variable life policies.

Parties to contract

There is a difference between the insured and the policy owner, although the owner and the insured are often the same person.The policy owner is the guarantor and will be the person to pay for the policy. The insured is a participant in the contract, but not necessarily a party to it. Also, most companies allow the payer and owner to be different.

In cases where the policy owner is not the insured, insurance companies have sought to limit policy purchases to those with an insurable interest. For life insurance policies, close family members and business partners will usually be found to have an insurable interest. The insurable interest requirement usually demonstrates that the purchaser will actually suffer some kind of loss if the insured dies. Such a requirement prevents people from benefiting from the purchase of purely speculative policies on people they expect to die.The beneficiary receives policy proceeds upon the insured person’s death. The owner designates the beneficiary, but the beneficiary is not a party to the policy. The owner can change the beneficiary unless the policy has an irrevocable beneficiary designation. If a policy has an irrevocable beneficiary, any beneficiary changes, policy assignments, or cash value borrowing would require the agreement of the original beneficiary.

Contract terms

Special exclusions may apply, such as suicide clauses, whereby the policy becomes null and void if the insured commits suicide within a specified time (usually two years after the purchase date; some states provide a statutory one-year suicide clause). Any misrepresentations by the insured on the application may also be grounds for nullification. Most US states specify a maximum contestability period, often no more than two years. Only if the insured dies within this period will the insurer have a legal right to contest the claim on the basis of misrepresentation and request additional information before deciding whether to pay or deny the claim.

The face amount of the policy is the initial amount that the policy will pay at the death of the insured or when the policy matures, although the actual death benefit can provide for greater or lesser than the face amount. The policy matures when the insured dies or reaches a specified age.

Costs, insurability, and underwriting

The insurer (the life insurance company) calculates the policy prices with intent to fund claims to be paid and administrative costs, and to make a profit. The cost of insurance is determined using mortality tables calculated by actuaries. Actuaries are professionals who employ actuarial science, which is based on mathematics (primarily probability and statistics). Mortality tables are statistically based tables showing expected annual mortality rates. It is possible to derive life expectancy estimates from these mortality assumptions.

The three main variables in a mortality table are commonly age, gender, and use of tobacco, but more recently in the US, preferred class-specific tables have been introduced. The mortality tables provide a baseline for the cost of insurance, but in practice these mortality tables are used in conjunction with the health and family history of the individual applying for a policy to determine premiums and insurability. Mortality tables currently in use by life insurance companies in the United States are individually modified by each company using pooled industry experience studies as a starting point.

Most of the revenue received by insurance companies consists of premiums paid by policy holders, with some additional money being made through the investment of some of the cash raised from premiums. Rates charged for life insurance increase with the insured’s age because, statistically, people are more likely to die as they get older. The insurance company will investigate the health of an applicant for a policy to assess the likelihood of incurring a claim, in the same way that a bank would investigate an applicant for a loan to assess the likelihood of a default. Group Insurance policies are an exception to this. This investigation and resulting evaluation of the risk is termed underwriting. Health and lifestyle questions are asked, with certain responses or revelations possibly meriting further investigation. Life insurance companies in the United States support the Medical Information Bureau (MIB), which is a clearing house of information on persons who have applied for life insurance with participating companies in the last seven years. As part of the application, the insurer often requires the applicant’s permission to obtain information from their physicians.

Underwriters will determine the purpose of insurance; the most common being to protect the owner’s family or financial interests in the event of the insured’s death. Other purposes include estate planning or, in the case of cash-value contracts, investment for retirement planning. Bank loans or buy-sell provisions of business agreements are another acceptable purpose.

In the USA, life insurance companies are never legally required to underwrite or to provide coverage to anyone, with the exception of Civil Rights Act compliance requirements. Insurance companies alone determine insurability, and some people, for their own health or lifestyle reasons, are deemed uninsurable. The policy can be declined or rated (increasing the premium amount to compensate for a greater probability of a claim).

Many companies separate applicants into four general categories. These categories are preferred best, preferred, standard, and tobacco. Preferred best is reserved only for the healthiest individuals in the general population. This may mean that the proposed insured has no adverse medical history, is not under medication for any condition, and the family (immediate and extended) have no history of early-onset cancer, diabetes, or other conditions. Preferred means that the proposed insured is currently under medication for a medical condition and has a family history of particular illnesses. Most people are in the standard category. People in the tobacco category typically have to pay higher premiums due to the inherent health problems that smoking tobacco creates. Profession, travel history, and lifestyle factor into whether the proposed insured will be granted a policy, and which category the insured falls. For example, a person who would otherwise be classified as preferred best may be denied a policy if he or she travels to a high risk country.Underwriting practices can vary from insurer to insurer, encouraging competition.

Death proceeds

Upon the insured’s death, the insurer requires acceptable proof of death before it pays the claim. The normal minimum proof required is a death certificate, and the insurer’s claim form completed, signed, and typically notarized. If the insured’s death is suspicious and the policy amount is large, the insurer may investigate the circumstances surrounding the death before deciding whether it has an obligation to pay the claim.
Payment from the policy may be as a lump sum or as an annuity, which is paid in regular installments for either a specified period or for the beneficiary’s lifetime.

Insurance vs assurance

The specific uses of the terms “insurance” and “assurance” are sometimes confused. In general, in jurisdictions where both terms are used, “insurance” refers to providing coverage for an event that might happen (fire, theft, flood, etc.), while “assurance” is the provision of coverage for an event that is certain to happen. In the United States both forms of coverage are called “insurance” for reasons of simplicity in companies selling both products. By some definitions, “insurance” is any coverage that determines benefits based on actual losses whereas “assurance” is coverage with predetermined benefits irrespective of the losses incurred.

Life insurance may be divided into two basic classes: temporary and permanent; or the following subclasses: term, universal, whole life, and endowment life insurance.