Skip to main content.
Cheap Insurance Quotes UK Insurance Online

Single life polices

These are the most common, where there is only one 'life insured' and on whose death the policy would pay out (assuming that all other cover conditions are met). The person who takes out the life insurance policy is called the Insured. This is the person who contracts with the insurance company.   The insured and Life insured can be the same person, and in these cases the policy sum insured would be paid to the Insured’s estate or some other such arrangement that had been agreed with the insurer. These are called own life policies.

The Insured and life insured do not have to be the same. As long as there is an insurance interest Person (or legal entity) 'A' can take out a policy on the life of person 'B'. These are called a "life of another life insurance policy".

Joint life polices

These polices have more than one life insured. Usually two lives are insured, but technically it would be possible to have any number of lives insured if an insurable interest existed to support such a contract.

The joint life polices can be arranged in one of two ways.
  1. Joint life first death policy. These policies insure two lives but pay out when the first of those two people dies. These policies are commonly used for family protection or house purchase protection.
  2. Joint life second (last) death policy. These policies insure two lives but pay out only when both insured lives die and they pay out the full amount on the second death and nothing on the first death. As a result these are sometimes known as last survivor polices and can be used for the protection of inheritance tax.
Joint lives first death polices attract a higher premium as the risk is greater. 
next - Types of Life Insurance Policy Arrangements