How Does Life Insurance Match Up?

Both offering peace of mind these two insurance products, for life and for travel, may often be held simultaneously by customers, so let's compare and contrast them.

The term for life insurance is often used with the term; life assurance. The clarification refers to any certainty of the policy being called upon. For example, insurance relates to events which might happen, such as car crashes or illnesses. Whereas assurance is concerned with events which will definitely occur; in particular that we will not live forever. However, assurance tends to be used less in product names, as consumers are increasingly familiar with the other.

Timescale is another separator, because travel cover is available for relatively short periods. This includes individual cover for short breaks, maximum holiday periods of 30 days or 45 days in some cases. And the longest duration available is presently only one year.

Contrast this with life policies where ideally the period covered would reflect the name and provide security for the remainder of one's life, although shortened temporary cover is available for times of transition at certain stages of our lives.

An equally shared concept is that of misrepresentation. Meaning that if details given when the policy was purchased are later found to be incorrect, it can be grounds to nullify the contract and not pay the beneficiaries.

Health stands out as a major factor which influences both types of insurance: Providers are commercially interested in whether customers smoke, drink alcohol, are taking medication, have pre-existing medical conditions and other details which allow employees to create a profile determining if someone is a high or low risk. Due to the longer periods for which a life policy runs, the level of detailed investigation carried out is that much higher.


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