Can I Get Life Insurance on My Boyfriend?
Who Would Own the Policy?
Let’s say you have an insurable interest and the answer to “Can I get life insurance on my boyfriend” is yes. Your next step is to decide who will own the policy. You might not realize it, but life insurance can have up to four distinct roles:
The insured person. This is the person whose life insured – your boyfriend, in this case. Their death is what sets the policy in motion in terms of filing a claim for the death benefit.
The policy payer. This is the person responsible for making the policy’s payments. Usually this is the same as the insured, but it doesn’t have to be. You could pay for the policy, rather than your boyfriend.
The policy owner. This is the person responsible for making administrative decisions about the policy. What kind of administrative decisions are there? Updating beneficiaries, for one. The policy owner is also the person responsible for making decisions like adding riders, converting a term to a permanent policy, and managing the policy’s cash value (if applicable). In most cases, the insured person is also the payer and the policy owner, but that doesn’t always have to be the case. This could also be you, making you the owner and payer.
The beneficiary(ies). These are the people who are eligible to claim the death benefit. Only the people on the policy’s official beneficiary list can claim some or all of the death benefit. The policy owner is the only one who can update this information after the policy’s purchase. The policy owner can also specify what percentage of the death benefit each beneficiary should receive. That’s why it’s super important to keep track of your policy over the years. If you marry, divorce, have kids, adopt kids, or have other important changes in your family composition, make sure your life insurance beneficiary list gets updated, too!
Insurable interest is only an issue if the owner and/or payer is the beneficiary but not the insured. If your boyfriend takes out a life insurance policy on himself and names you as a beneficiary, for example, there is no issue. In this example, he’s the owner, payer, and insured while you are the beneficiary.
However, if you want to be the owner and payer and beneficiary on a policy that insures your boyfriend, the insurance company will need proof that his death would cause you financial harm. Your boyfriend would also have to consent to being insured, as we mentioned above.
If you have consent, an insurable interest, and are willing to be the owner and/or payer for the policy, you can get life insurance for your boyfriend. Let us help you get that policy in place! Call us at (800) 521-7873 or click the button below for a free term life quote.
