Life insurance contract: who are the stakeholders?

On a life insurance policy, the insurer, the subscriber, the member, the insured, the life beneficiary, the beneficiary (ies), and the deceased are involved. Find below more information on these speakers.

Depending on the different legal structures of the life insurance policies, subscribers and members will have their identity differ. This distinction will be made between individual and collective contracts.The insurer

  The insurer is an approved corporation whose role is to define and manage the risk associated with the life of the person. This is materialized by the guarantee of a capital either in case of life, or in case of death of the insured. The insurers are directly attached to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and are represented by the FFSA (French Federation of Insurance Companies) for commercial companies or GEMA (Mutual Insurance Companies Group) for mutual societies .

The subscriber

As part of individual life insurance policies

The subscriber is the owner of the contract (the customer). The life insurance policy is a subscriber's own property. As such, he and he alone has the ability to designate beneficiaries in case of death he wishes. He holds the exclusive ability to manage his contract as he wishes. He is therefore the only party to be able to make arbitrations on his contract, to ask for the total purchase or the partial withdrawal, an advance, etc ... He is also the premium payer. Only he can make payments on his contract. As the owner of the contract, he also has the right to information about his contract at any time.

In the context of group life insurance contracts

The subscriber is the legal entity subscribing the contract on behalf of its clients (who will therefore be the members). Thus, the subscriber, necessarily a legal person, will set the rules of membership. Similarly, the insurer can not change the terms of the contract without the agreement of the subscriber. In group contracts, it is the participant who holds the prerogatives of the subscriber of the individual contracts.The memberIn individual life insurance contracts, the client is underwriter-insured. The two elements are therefore linked.In group life insurance policies, the client is a separate insured-insured member of the subscriber. The two elements are therefore distinct.

The insured

It is the physical person (compulsorily) on whose head is the risk related to the human life. The insured does not have any special prerogatives on the contract. Not all natural persons can be insured.

Three categories will be excluded:

•     minors under 12 years
•     legally incapacitated adults
•     people placed in a psychiatric facility.

The beneficiary in case of life

This is the person who receives the capital at the end of the life insurance policy.The beneficiary in the event of deathIts role is to collect the capital in case of death of the insured. The beneficiary in the event of death being THE centerpiece of the life insurance chessboard.Conditions and specificities

Subscriber / insured

    Physical person
    individual
    major
    able
    French and foreign *
    contract: own property domiciled in France
    signatory of the subscription check
    can not change

* conditions

Beneficiary

    natural and legal person *
    many *
    born or to be born
    can change
    can accept *
    in case of life of the insured at the end of the contract *
    in the event of death of the insured during the contract