Whois & Analysis for legalandgeneral.com

Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations), is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer or assurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money (the benefit) in exchange for a premium, upon the death of an insured person (often the policy holder).

Depending on the contract, other events such as terminal illness or critical illness can also trigger payment.

The policy holder typically pays a premium, either regularly or as one lump sum.

Other expenses (such as funeral expenses) can also be included in the benefits.

Financial services are the economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, accountancy companies, consumer-finance companies, stock brokerages, investment funds and some government-sponsored enterprises.

Financial services companies are present in all economically developed geographic locations and tend to cluster in local, national, regional and international financial centers such as London, New York City, and Tokyo.

To invest is to allocate money (or sometimes another resource, such as time) in the expectation of some benefit in the future.

A pension is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years, and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments.

A pension may be a "defined benefit plan" where a fixed sum is paid regularly to a person, or a "defined contribution plan" under which a fixed sum is invested and then becomes available at retirement age.

Pensions should not be confused with severance pay; the former is usually paid in regular installments for life after retirement, while the latter is typically paid as a fixed amount after involuntary termination of employment prior to retirement.

Retirement is the point where a person stops employment completely.

A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours.