About Life Insurance
By Tim Strye
Life insurance is an agreement between the insurance buyer and the insurance company, where the insurer approves to pay a sum of cash upon the instance of the policy owner individual's or individuals' passing or other action, such as terminal affliction or critical illness. In return, the policy holder accepts to pay a stipulated cost usually called a premium, at recurrent intervals or in one large amount. In some cases bills and passing expenses plus catering for after funeral expenses should be included in the insurance policy Premium. In the u.s., the common form simply specifies a lump sum to be dispersed on the covered's end of life.


As with most assurance policies, life insurance is a contract between the insuring company and the policy owner whereby a benefit is given to the set beneficiaries if an insured occurrence occurs which is covered by the life policy. To be a life policy the covered action has to be based

upon the lives of the persons named in the insurance policy.

Life insurance policy owner legal circumstances that may be covered under the policy include:

Grave sickness
Life insurance documents are legal contracts and the terms of the deal specify the limitations of the covered episodes. Certain exclusions are often printed into the contract to limit the liability of the insurer; for example, claims relating to suicide, fraud, war, riot and civil commotion.

Life-based contracts mostly come in two types:

Life protection policies - made to arrange for a benefit in the episode of specified happening, typically a lump sum of cash payout. A common form of this type of insurance is variable life insurance.
Investment policies - where the main objective is to facilitate the growth of capital by single premiums. Common forms (in the US anyway) are whole life, universal life and variable policies.
Insurance Tim is an advocate for aarp term life insurance and life insurance for seniors over 50.