A joint life insurance policy means exactly what it suggests – it insures two lives with a single policy.
So who can joint life policies?
- Married couples
- Civil partners who are registered
- Partners that life together and have financial obligations that involve both.
When you take a joint policy, you decide on the term cover or the number of years you want the policy for and you pay a fixed premium amount. During that time, if either partner dies, the surviving partner will get the payout of the insurance amount. Most joint insurance policies are based on a 'first death' basis – which means, the insurance amount is paid to the one who survives after the first one dies. This works well when there are only two people who are dependent on each other and they want either one to be financially all right after one dies.
Some joint policies are tailored to include a 'second death' where both deaths are covered and an insurance payout is made even when the second one dies. However, many people prefer taking two single life insurance policies in this case.