When a death occurs — we hope for one due to old age, but dead is dead, and the company pays (except suicide
in the first one or two years, or one of the
few exclusions that may be
in the
policy, such as war or act of war, military service, flying an airplane, or certain hazardous occupations or hobbies — many
policies only have the suicide
exclusion), you can think of the death benefit
in one of two ways.
There are a
few common
exclusions in a term
policy including a 2 - year suicide
exclusion, which means if the insured dies as a result of suicide within the first two years of being insured, there is no payout (one year
in some states).