Life Assurance

Have undertakers become underwriters?, in the old days when I studied Commerce at school, I was taught that a Life could not be insured because death was a certainty, so life had to be "Assured". Everywhere I look now I see ads for "Life Insurance", so it must follow that in the forty years or so since I exited the Commerce classroom, death is no longer a certainty, well that's bloody good news.

Re: Life Assurance

I've also studied Commerce and Business Studies and I'm ashamed to say I hadn't made the connection but you are quite right.

I remember being told that with life policies (see how I got out of that one ), it's a case of they'll bet you'll live and you bet you won't; if you don't then you win!

Re: Life Assurance

From Wikipedia....

The specific uses of the terms "insurance" and "assurance" are sometimes confused.
In general, in jurisdictions where both terms are used, "insurance" refers to providing coverage for an event that might happen (fire, theft, flood, etc.), while "assurance" is the provision of coverage for an event that is certain to happen.

By some definitions, "insurance" is any coverage that determines benefits based on actual losses whereas "assurance" is coverage with predetermined benefits irrespective of the losses incurred.