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Life Insurance Vs Life Assurance

Since the term "Life Assurance" has been coined, I have always assumed that both Life Insurance and Life Assurance are names for the same form of insurance. But if you belong to my category don't be heart broken because various financial wiz kids have got it wrong too. Life Insurance and Life Assurance perform two different financial roles and are east to west when it comes to costs.

But before we go in the nuances of what are the main differences between the above two forms i.e. Insurance and Assurance. Let's just find out why one needs to get "assured"?

In our youth, planning for our future can be a tedious job plus a time consuming burden. Considering from where one would get the time to shop for such products when one is trying to keep up with the nitty-gritty of work and home life. But even if all things in life were predictable, death for sure cannot be predicted. But if the unthinkable would happen, do you see your spouse and dependants financially secure and healthy for the rest of their life? If not, then a life assurance policy is a must.

Life Insurance has been defined by dictionary.com as an 'Insurance that guarantees a specific sum of money to a designated beneficiary upon the death of the insured or to the insured if he or she lives beyond a certain age.'

But Life Assurance on the other hand is different. Life Assurance is a hybrid combination of insurance and investment. A 'Life Assurance policy' pays out a sum of money equal to the higher of either a minimum underwritten by the policy's insurance clause or its investment valuation. Thus, making the value of your investment reliant on the insurance company's performance with respect to investment and growth.

Each year the insurance company adds an annual bonus to the guaranteed value of your assurance policy and there is a terminal bonus at the end of your term. Therefore, as years go by your assurance policy increases in value as investment bonuses keep adding on. But unlike life insurance if you were to die during the life assurance's term, the insurance company would pay out the higher of either the guaranteed minimum sum or the accumulated value of the annual investment bonuses.