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life insurance/assurance

  • 11-02-2014 9:44pm
    #1
    jobeenfitz
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,443 ✭✭✭


    Hi,

    just wondering if anyone can answer a question for me?

    What is the difference between life insurance and life assurance?

    Thanks.


Comments

  • #2
    rubberdungeon
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 611 ✭✭✭rubberdungeon


    As I understand it insurance refers to an occurrence that might happen while assurance refers to an occurrence that will happen.


  • #3
    Henry Ford III
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 17,856 Mod ✭✭✭✭Henry Ford III


    No difference.


  • #4
    Creeby
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 115 ✭✭Creeby


    no difference??

    Life assurance = you are definitley going to die
    Health insurance = you are not definitley going to be healthy


  • #5
    AlexisM
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 250 ✭✭AlexisM


    There is no practical difference in the way the phrases are used - they are used interchangeably - with insurance being a far more common word than assurance.

    If you look at the website of 'Irish Life Assurance plc', you will see they list their products under 3 broad headings on their home page - pensions, investments and life insurance. Whereas if you look at the drop down 'products' menu, they list pensions, investment and life assurance - and then the further split of 'life assurance' is life insurance, income/mortgage protection and 'other life assurance products'. And under the 'other life assurance products', they start with the question 'what is life insurance' - no mention of assurance anywhere...

    I consider 'assurance' to be a bit of an archaic word in the context of life insurance - it doesn't really mean anything that can't be described by using 'insurance' instead. Strictly speaking , the only 'assured' event is death - so only a whole of life 'die to win' policy has a truly assured outcome.


  • #6
    oldyouth
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,754 ✭✭✭oldyouth


    Creeby wrote: »
    no difference??

    Life assurance = you are definitley going to die
    Health insurance = you are not definitley going to be healthy

    What has Health Insurance got to do with the OP's question?

    The life industry uses both Insurance and Assurance to describe it's products. There is no difference. Historically, it was defined that Insurance referred to something that may or may not occur. Assurance referred to something that will happen (death) but there is an uncertainty as to when it will happen, hence the ability to offer cover against the event.


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  • #7
    Leslie91
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,017 ✭✭✭Leslie91


    Yeah I think they used to look at it like this....

    Life Insurance - insuring against death in a specific time period eg. next 20 yrs, sometimes called 'Term' life insurance

    Life Assurance - insuring against a payout until the day of death provided payments are kept up

    But this word 'Assurance' is slowly disappearing and now you will see life insurance without defined time period.


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