What is a contingent or secondary beneficiary?
Term Life Insurance Applications
The primary beneficiary of your term life insurance policy is the person or persons designated by you to receive the death benefit of your life insurance or term life insurance policy. You can select one person or many to be your life insurance beneficiary.
Life insurance companies also offer the option of selecting a contingent or secondary beneficiary (or even a tertiary beneficiary). This means that if for some reason the primary beneficiary of your life insurance policy is no longer alive (because they died with or before you), there is still someone designated by you that will receive the coverage amount of the term life policy.
Many people put their spouse as the primary beneficiary of their life insurance policy, and then put their children as the secondary beneficiaries. This allows for your children to still be protected by your term life insurance policy in the event that both you and your spouse die at the same time.
