No Load Life Insurance

You may find information on the Internet about “Pet Life Insurance” or “Pet Replacement Insurance” claiming to pay all kinds of benefits and end of life costs. Be assured that insurers only cover costs relating to an animal’s health during its lifetime.

What is Pet Life Insurance?

As its title would suggest, this policy provides proceeds in the event of your pet’s death. Some claim it’s similar to life coverage for humans in that it actually pays you a lump sum benefit directly. Others insist there is no benefit, that it only covers end of life expenses such as cremation.

How does it work?

There are many and varied explanations of this type of coverage. The supposed conditions include:

• Pets will not be insured if they are over eight years of age.
• Premiums are paid monthly.
• Choice of deductibles or higher premiums.
• Cheaper premiums when combined with pet health insurance.
• Not recommended for very young dogs.
• Only cats and dogs can be covered.
• The premiums vary according to the animal’s age.
• Requirement to prove death and that there has been “no foul play”.
• A health certificate stating that your pet is in good health at the time of purchasing the policy.
• Denial of coverage where the animal has a pre-existing medical condition or illness.

What benefits do you actually get?

You can choose to cover for death resulting from either illness or injury or both. It purportedly gives you “peace of mind” when your companion animal dies. Among the understood benefits include:

• A lump sum death benefit payout, paid directly to the policy owner (providing security of funds when your four-legged friend dies).
• Covering end of life costs such as cremation or burial.
• Bereavement counseling for the owner and their family (very generous, considering not even human policies include counseling for the beneficiaries).
• The cost of purchasing a replacement.
• Lump sum to cover the loss of a show dog deemed to be an investment.
• Benefits are capped at $10,000 or $15,000.
• Payment of a “replacement value”, predetermined at the time the policy is issued.

How can I get life insurance for my pet?

The problem is no insurer actually provides life policies for pets. Not even companies dedicated solely to insuring pets. These companies only cover costs relating to the insured animal’s health, such as veterinarian care, prescriptions, surgery, hospitalization and other medical care. This is pet insurance not pet life insurance.

To the confusion of many, there are dozens of articles posted on the Internet which purport to explain and give advice about this policy. All these exposes lead to a company which was apparently the first and only insurer to offer this product. This organization no longer exists and the commentary now points to various websites which have nothing to do with pet life insurance.

Should Pet Life Insurance be offered at all?

Offering death benefit proceeds in the event of an animal’s demise is a questionable practice. Ordinary life policies for humans require that there be some ‘insurable interest’ if the insured is not the policy owner in order to deter murder. If a person could take out coverage on anybody’s life, there would be a great incentive to commit murder in order to receive a payout.

This incentive would be even higher with animals, since there is virtually no penalty or investigation for causing death to a dog or cat. Even if the insurer did require proof of no “foul play”, how many people would insure their dog for the $15,000 capped maximum and then run it over. For some, this enticement would be almost overwhelming.

It would perhaps be acceptable for an insurer to cover the cost of cremation or burial, since there is no actual surplus benefit going to the policy holder and therefore no incentive to kill the animal. Of course the insurer would either need to see the cremation invoice or make payment directly to the service provider.

Insurers providing Pet Life Insurance

To our knowledge, no insurer provides benefits for the death of a companion animal.

If there is a carrier that does provide pet life policies, please contact us so we may update this page accordingly.