Life insurance products in the Philippines are covered by The Insurance Act.

The Insurance Commission is

the government agency that makes sure all these products in the country are fair and conform to our
laws. There are many types of life insurance products out there, but all of them have the following key
elements.

Insurer is the insurance company in the Philippines that offers life insurance products.

Insured is you, the person whose life the insurance covers.

Policy is simply the contract between you and the insurer. It contains everything that concerns the
product.

Policyholder is the person who owns the policy.

Beneficiariesare the people who will receive the money after you’ve passed on.

Sum insured is the amount of money that the insurer promises to give to your beneficiaries.

Premium is the amount of money you pay to the insurer so that your policy is enforced.

Period of coverage describes how long the policy is in effect.

Riders. Riders are supplementary contracts. They can be attached or removed from the main policy,
adding more options on customizing your plan to better suit your particular needs.

Insurer

The insurer is the insurance company. It writes the policy, receives the premium, keeps it enforced as
long as the premium is paid, and pays the sum insured to the beneficiaries when conditions of release
are met.

The Insurance Commission keeps a list of all duly registered life insurance companies. Or, you may want
to read the top insurance companies in the Philippines according to Insurance Commission.

Insured

The insured is the person whose life is covered by insurance. Meaning, when the inevitable happens and
all requirements of the policy are fulfilled, the insurer would then go ahead and pay your beneficiaries.
It’s not true that anyone can be insured. People of certain age (either too young or too old), profession,
state of health, and other factors who may be denied from being insured.

Policy

The policy is simply the contract between you and the insurer.

It lists down all the things that concern your coverage such as your and insurer’s duties, the insured
amount, payment of premium, steps in making a claim, and other important details.

Policyholder

The policyholder is the person who owns the policy. Unlike the insured, the policyholder must be at least
18 years old.

If you have insured your life, then you are both the policyholder and insured. However, there are also
cases where the policyholder is not the same as the insured such as when a parent buys an insurance
cover for a child or employers for their workers.

Beneficiaries

Beneficiaries are the people who will receive the money from the insurer. While generally anyone can be
your beneficiary, the most common are your spouse, children, family members, descendants, heirs,
guardians, employers and business partners.

You can also name companies, such as banks and lenders, and charities as your beneficiary. However,
there are people who are not allowed by the law to receive insurance proceeds.

Sum insured

The sum insured is the amount of money that beneficiaries could receive when the insured passes away.
There are insurance covers, such as a term policy, where the amount of the sum insured stays the same
throughout the length of the contract. On the other hand, a policy with investment can possibly have
higher sum insured than what is originally written, depending on the returns of the investments.

But how much insurance do you need? You can talk to your advisor on the level of cover that you
require.

Premium

Premium is the amount of money that you, as the policyholder, pay to the insurance company in
exchange to be insured and for the policy to remain in effect.

Many providers offer flexible payment terms.

You can pay annually, semi-annually, quarterly, or monthly. Making your payment is also made
convenient. Depending on the insurer, you can pay through the banks and payment centers. You can
even have your premiums paid automatically straight from your bank account.

There are many factors that affect the amount of premium. Usually, these are the same factors that
affect your insurability that you will end up paying including age, health, profession, or even place where
you live.