Life Insurance Act of War

First and foremost, our hearts go out to the people of France. It is a terrible tragedy and we stand with them in grief. As members of the life insurance community, we have these types of discussions regularly about “what if” scenarios and it is tragic to see it play out in real life. There are countries on a “watch list” where you would have to pay significantly more premium if you travel there. But what if you were traveling in Paris and tragically died? Is that any different?

This begs the question, what if you or your loved one dies during an “act of war?” Will the life insurance company pay? In light of the recent world events and those taking place in France that were deemed “act of war” it is important to consider how this would affect your life insurance.

An “act of war” is an act of aggression by a country against other with which it is nominally at peace.  When situations are deemed an act of war, there may be more resources to fight the war. However, this may adversely affect your life insurance.

Most life insurance policies have an act of war clause. This means that if you were killed in such terrorist attack that was determined to be an act of war, your life insurance policy would not pay your death claim. There are exceptions to this and it is up to each individual company to determine whether or not they would pay.

For example, 9/11 was called an act of war. There were thousands of life insurance policies that had an act of war clause and the life insurance companies paid out each and every one of those claims. They have the authority to overrule this clause.

For more information about life insurance and act of war, please contact Set for Life  Insurance.