I am willing to bet that, most people have not read their policy and its likely that they have not noticed a common exclusion that is included in life insurance suicide policies - suicide. Simply put, with life insurance policies, if the insured were to commit suicide during the first two years of the policy, or as indicated in your policy, no benefit would be paid. In most cases, the owner of the policy or the beneficiaries would just receive a full refund of all premiums paid. It does not matter if the suicide was due to a car crash or an overdose on meds. After two years though, even suicide is usually covered (again look at your policy). One may think that insurance companies were the ones who came up with this exclusion, but the suicide exclusions was enacted by states. One reason it was enacted is to discourage suicide by people who may have been financial stressed and would consider suicide as a way out. It is important to note that, In a situation where you are replacing a life insurance policy, it is possible that the replacing policy would waive the suicide exclusion. In most cases the replaced policy needs to be from the same company as the new policy. In other words, if you replace a policy from company A with a new policy also from company A, then the suicide exclusion in the new policy should not apply. Also, in a situation were you are converting a term life insurance policy to a permanent plan of insurance, the suicide exclusion is usually waived. Always follow the rules and use the needed replacement forms when canceling a life insurance policy for another life insurance policy. By not using the replacement form, you may forgo the waiver of the suicide exclusion.