“Life Insurance is a form of Insurance in which the insurer would cover against the risk of death of the insured person”. There are three parties to Life Insurance: the insurer, the insured and the owner of the policy (the latter two can at times be the same person). There is another important person who is, however, not a party to the contract – the beneficiary, i.e., the person who would be compensated in case of death of the insured person. The cover money pays for the funeral, and the upkeep of the beneficiary to replace the support earlier derived from the insured person.
Life Insurance has an old history, as the early Roman ‘burial club’ provided for funeral expenses and helped survivors monetarily. Modern Life Insurance started in England when the lives of traders, ship-owners, etc, were insured against death. Life Insurance is sometimes confused with Life Assurance, although today the difference has practically faded. The test of whether a policy is assurance or insurance is that with an assurance policy the insured event will definitely occur (at some point) whereas with an insurance policy there is a risk the insured event might occur.
Life Insurance can be divided into two main types – term insurance and permanent insurance. Permanent Life Insurance can be further subdivided into Whole Life Insurance, Universal Life Insurance, Limited Pay Life Insurance, Endowments and Accidental Life Insurance Policy. In this section of the webdirectory, we provide a comprehensive list of vendors and other resources for all your Life Insurance needs.