General Life Assurance

General Life Assurance: Don’t Get Confused!

Explaining the Uncertainty

Because of the many types of insurance policies available in the market today it is very easy for people to get lost and confused when trying to get some sort of insurance policy for themselves. Without the proper knowledge, it is highly possible that people will waste a countless number of hours looking for the particular policy they need when this could have been done in a few minutes.

The term general life assurance usually causes some confusion for most people. There are basically two types of insurance policies: life and non-life. Obviously life assurance covers the lives of policy holders while non-life covers everything else. Non-life policies are also known as general insurance. However, there are also some companies that call their life insurance policies as general life insurance. This is where the confusion begins. This article will try to bring clarity to this matter.

Life Assurance

In its simplest form a life assurance policy is a contract between the insurance company and the policy holder where the insurer agrees to pay the beneficiaries of the insured a predetermined amount of money should the policy holder die or acquire some sort of fatal illness. For his part the policy holder will need to pay the insurance company a certain amount of money every month to be able to maintain the policy—this is what’s known as the premium.

Much confusion is caused by some companies that name their life insurance policies as general life assurance. Although this usually pertains to a general type of life assurance deal, a lot of folks end up confused because of the mix-up.

General Assurance

As mentioned earlier general assurance is anything and everything that does not involve coverage of one’s life. This includes the likes of automobile, home, business, and even pet insurance. Much like life insurance, policy holders are given a lump sum payout should there be a loss of any of the insured subjects. Although it is more commonly known as casualty or property insurance in the US, it is called non-life insurance here in the UK. The Legal & General Group, Norwich Union UK, and Churchill Insurance Company are just a few of the biggest insurance companies in the UK that do not only sell life insurance but general assurance as well.

It is always important to remember that life assurance is different from general assurance; they are actually quite opposite. Understanding these two concepts should help an individual know what it means if he comes across the term general life assurance. GP