Accidental death benefit
Cover that pays a lump sum, or doubles the planned death benefit, when death results from an accident as defined in the policy, that is, a sudden bodily injury from an external cause.
Accidental death cover does not insure death in general but only death resulting from an accident. The policy definition is decisive: an accident is usually defined as any bodily injury not intended by the insured, arising from the sudden action of an external cause. A heart attack, stroke or ruptured aneurysm, however sudden, are illnesses and not accidents, which produces much litigation when the cause of death is uncertain, for example a fainting spell followed by a fall. The cover is sold alone, at a low price, or as an option on a death policy, doubling or tripling the benefit in case of accident, sometimes a road accident. For the insurer, accidental risk is less age-related than illness risk, which allows it to be sold without medical underwriting, but it requires precise exclusions, dangerous sports, intoxication, war.
An insured whose policy provides 150,000 euros on death, doubled in case of accident, dies in 2024 in a fall from scaffolding: the beneficiaries receive 300,000 euros; had he died the same year of a heart attack, they would have received only 150,000.
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