Double indemnity is a clause or provision in a life insurance or accident policy whereby the company agrees to pay the stated multiple (i.e. double) of the face amount in the contract in cases of death caused by accidental means. This includes murder by a person other than, and not in collusion with, the beneficiary of the insurance policy, and most accidental deaths. It excludes suicide, and deaths caused by the insured person's own gross negligence, as well as natural causes, such as cancer or heart disease.
In 2006, 5.01% of all deaths in the United States were declared accidental. For this reason, double-indemnity clauses are usually relatively cheap and often aggressively marketed, especially to people over 45. Children and people in dangerous jobs, such as heavy construction, are the exceptions.
Famous quotes containing the word double:
“... the next war will be a war in which people not armies will suffer, and our boasted, hard-earned civilization will do us no good. Cannot the women rise to this great opportunity and work now, and not have the double horror, if another war comes, of losing their loved ones, and knowing that they lifted no finger when they might have worked hard?”
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)