Meaning & use
straight life policy
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountablefinance
A type of permanent life insurance in which you pay the same premium for your whole life and your beneficiaries receive a fixed amount when you die.
Grammar: Countable; often used with 'a' or 'the'.
Patterns
- take out a straight life policy
- a straight life policy with level premiums
- the death benefit of a straight life policy
He bought a straight life policy to ensure his family would be provided for.
With a straight life policy, the premium stays the same year after year.
She compared a straight life policy with a term life policy before deciding.
Word forms
| plural | straight life policies |
|---|
Common combinations
- take out a straight life policy
- They took out a straight life policy when their first child was born.
- level premiums
- A straight life policy has level premiums that never increase.
- fixed death benefit
- The straight life policy offers a fixed death benefit.
- whole life policy
- A straight life policy is also known as a whole life policy.
Synonyms and how they differ
- whole life policy
- This is the more common modern term for the same type of insurance; 'straight life' is older and more technical.
- ordinary life policy
- Another older term with the same meaning, but less common than 'whole life policy'.
Opposites
Commonly confused: straight life policy or term life policy?
straight life policy vs term life policy
A term life policy covers you for a set number of years and pays out only if you die during that period; a straight life policy covers your whole life.
Practice
Which of the following is true of a straight life policy?
Choose one answer.
A straight life policy is permanent insurance with level premiums that remain the same for life. Options An and B describe term life or other types, and option D is false because it does have a death benefit.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “straight life policy”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.