with additional economic security should you die unexpectedly. Generally, life insurance provides
for a fixed benefit at death. However, the benefit may vary over time. In addition, the length of
the premium payment period and the period during which a death is eligible for a benefit may each
vary. Many combinations and variations exist.
When it is time to retire, you may wish to purchase an annuity that will provide regular income to
meet your expenses. A basic form of an annuity is called a life annuity, which pays a regular
amount for as long as you live. Annuities are the complement of life insurance. Since payments
are made until death, the peril is survival and the risk you have shifted to the insurer is the risk of
living longer than your savings would last. There are also annuities that combine the basic life
annuity with a benefit payable upon death. There are many different forms of death benefits that
can be combined with annuities.
Disability income insurance replaces all or a portion of your income should you become disabled.
Health insurance pays benefits to help offset the costs of medical care, hospitalization, dental care,
and so on.
7
Employers may provide many of the insurance coverages listed above to their employees.
VI. LIMITS ON POLICY BENEFITS
In all types of insurance there may be limits on benefits or claim payments. More specifically,
there may be a maximum limit on the total reimbursed; there may be a minimum limit on losses
that will be reimbursed; only a certain percentage of each loss may be reimbursed; or there may be
different limits applied to particular types of losses.
In each of these situations, the insurer does not reimburse the entire loss. Rather, the policyholder
must cover part of the loss himself. This is often referred to as coinsurance.
The next two sections discuss specific types of limits on policy benefits.
DEDUCTIBLES
A policy may stipulate that losses are to be reimbursed only in excess of a stated threshold
amount, called a deductible. For example, consider insurance that covers a loss resulting from an
accident but includes a 500 deductible. If the loss is less than 500 the insurer will not pay
anything to the policyholder. On the other hand, if the loss is more than 500, the insurer will pay
for the loss in excess of the deductible. In other words, if the loss is 2000, the insurer will pay
1500. Reasons for deductibles include the following:
(1) Small losses do not create a claim payment, thus saving the expenses of processing the claim.