What is individual life insurance?

Individual Life insurance generally is underwritten taking into account the actuarial risk of death of the one individual being insured -- a one person--one policy type of coverage. However, some types of Individual Life do cover multiple lives. For example, most so called Second-to-Die or "survivorship" policies which pay upon the death of the second of two insured people (for Estate Planning purposes to reduce Federal Estate Tax) are still regarded as Individual Life insurance. Similarly the so called "First to Die" life insurance, where the lives of a small number of people are covered and the life insurance is payable on the first death is also Individual Life insurance. First to Die is often used to cover partners in a business, with the benefits often intended to buy out the share of the partner who dies first.