How does Group Life Insurance Function
Life insurance is available in a wide range of configurations and product variations, and used for both protective and investment reasons. The two major categories of life insurance are temporary life insurance and permanent life insurance, with permanent policies broken down into either whole life or universal contracts.
However, along with these common types of life insurance products, there are also a number of related life insurance products that are tailored to specific markets. Some of the most common variations include group life insurance, joint life insurance, survivorship life, single premium whole life, modified whole life, senior life, and preneed life.
Group life insurance is common all over the world, and is used to provide protection to an entire group of people with a single insurance policy. While group insurance can theoretically be applied to a wide range of different groups, it is usually designed to cover the employees of a company or the members of a union or association. The way that group insurance premiums are calculated is different to individual contracts, with underwriters generally not requiring individual proof of insurability. Instead, underwriters who are involved in group contracts consider the size and turnover of the group along with its financial strength.
However, most group life insurance contracts have a number of provisions so that the terms of the contract are not violated, including specific attempts to exclude the possibility of adverse selection. Most group life insurance policies also come with the provision that all members of the group have access to individual life insurance coverage. In most other ways, group life insurance policies function in much the same way as individual life insurance polices, with the group paying ongoing insurance premiums to an insurer in exchange for the promise of death benefit proceeds at the time of death of insured parties.