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What is the difference between accidental death life insurance and regular life insurance?

What is the difference between accidental death insurance and regular life insurance? Which is a better buy? Wouldn't all deaths (excluding illnesses) be accident? If you only buy life insurance and don't include accidental death insurance then what is usually excluded? Thanks!!! (I know its different for every insurance company, I am just wondering what generally the outcomes would be)

Public Comments

1. answered your own question - illness cover only or illness and accident
2. accidental death life insurance , will cover accidents Normal dosent
3. accidental death only pays off if an accidental death...regular life insurance pays off on any type of death,minus whatever policy restrictsions are in place.
4. Accidental life pays only if you die by an accident. Read the policy to know what the definition of an accident is in each policy. Regular life pays no matter how you die, unless it has exclusions in it for war, suicide, or "acts of God"-also different in each policy.
5. If you died from natural causes, you would not recieve any money from an accidental policy. Whereas a regular policy pays for everything but an act of war, much better way to go. If you engage in a lot of risky endeavors though, you might want both, accidental are usually cheaper,since they only pay out in certain cases, and your loved ones would then get more, double policies.
6. Accidental death insurance pays only if the insured person dies in an accident, Regular life insurance pays when the person dies of any causes, accident or illness. The first one is very cheap, because accidental death is highly unlikely. Regular life insurance costs more, and for several more dollars they even offer to double the payment if the person dies accidentally. If you have a family and dependents, you should buy regular (like term) life insurance.
7. Accidentaly only covers accidents. If you die in a car wreck, an object falls on you, etc. Illness isn't included. Straight Life Insurance is better as it will cover everything except suicide and they will have some terms that you have to agree to. Ie it may exclude things like sky-diving. It will have few exclusions. Usually people buy normal life insurance with an accidental death add-on aka rider. If you die normal, you get 100% of your payout. If you die via accident they will pay some multiple of your policy ie 2x the normal payout. Realistically though, what are the odds you'll die of an accident? Its like playing lotto if you ask me. Buy the amount you need to protect your family with a regular policy. I recommend term as it is the most cost effective. There are many sites like insure.com and matrixdirect.com that offer excellent brokerage services to find you the best, cheapest policy.
8. AD&D - Accidental Death and Dismemberment is usually sold as a rider on a Life policy. If you die in an accident it will pay a percentage more (usually 2 to 3 times higher) than the face value. A lot of the free insurance issued by banks, etc. are AD&D policies.
9. There is really no difference between the two. They are both life insurance. The words "accidental death" is to entice the consumer to purchase it. It's like saying "Extra Special Life Insurance Just For You." lol. This is how life insurance works: You pay premiums into the policy for a certain amount of coverage. If you add "Waiver of Premium" rider to it, this will allow you to use some of the face amount in case you become disabled. If you die (natural or accidental), your beneficiary will get the face amount. If there is cash value in the policy, this will be kept by the insurance company (kind of sucks since you're the one who paid for it).
10. Obe is an idiot. Cynthia is just wrong. Most of the middle answers got it right. Accidental death is cheaper because the insurance company is much less likely to have to pay a death benefit. As stated before, reading the fine print of an AD&D policy or rider is very important because they will define what constitutes death by an accident, usually even down to how long you live beyond the occurence of the accident. In other words, if you are in an accident, but live on in a coma for a month or two, your accidental death policy might not pay a benefit. Also, if you are in a car wreck, for example, and end up in the hospital but then get an infection and die, too bad. Typically, you have to die as a direct result of an accident and within 30 days or so of the accident in order for the policy to pay.