# Has anyone committed suicide on the day their life insurance will pay out? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 8, 2006, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-committed-suicide-on-the-day-their-life-insurance-will-pay-out/367836 "2006-08-08T09:13:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2006, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-committed-suicide-on-the-day-their-life-insurance-will-pay-out/367836/1 "2006-08-08T09:13:37Z")
Normal life insurance policies usually refuse to cover deliberate suicide until some period after the start of the term. Has there been any cases of someone committing suicide exactly on the day thier life insurance term starts paying out for suicide? indicating that there was some degree of pre-meditation involved? ---
**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2006, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-committed-suicide-on-the-day-their-life-insurance-will-pay-out/367836/2 "2006-08-08T12:23:38Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > Normal life insurance policies usually refuse to cover deliberate suicide until some period after the start of the term. Has there been any cases of someone committing suicide exactly on the day thier life insurance term starts paying out for suicide? indicating that there was some degree of pre-meditation involved? I would assume this has happened. I am a financial planner with a large, world reknown company. We are known for our insurance products as well. As it happens, in an hour and a half I am meeting with a family to file a claim for a member of their family who committed suicide. But I have not heard of a time when this has happened specifically. Why? Are you feeling down? ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2006, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-committed-suicide-on-the-day-their-life-insurance-will-pay-out/367836/3 "2006-08-08T12:39:17Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > Normal life insurance policies usually refuse to cover deliberate suicide until some period after the start of the term. Has there been any cases of someone committing suicide exactly on the day thier life insurance term starts paying out for suicide? indicating that there was some degree of pre-meditation involved? There used to be a two year exclusionary period as a general rule with life insurance companies for suicide. Their statistics indicated that people that were contemplating suicide usually had given up the idea by two years. I’m sure that some have done it on that set date, but I can’t see insurance companies giving up too much info on them. hh ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2006, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-committed-suicide-on-the-day-their-life-insurance-will-pay-out/367836/4 "2006-08-08T17:29:39Z")
My understanding – and I have no cite – is that this happened durign teh Great Depression. Perhaps it didn’t happen exactly on the first possible day of payout. The story I recall is some people actually looked for those policies that had the shortest suicide exclusion. This doesn’t mean of course they carried through with things. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2006, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-committed-suicide-on-the-day-their-life-insurance-will-pay-out/367836/5 "2006-08-08T18:06:40Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > There used to be a two year exclusionary period as a general rule with life insurance companies for suicide. Their statistics indicated that people that were contemplating suicide usually had given up the idea by two years. I’m sure that some have done it on that set date, but I can’t see insurance companies giving up too much info on them. > > hh Actually New York Life has a one year suicide exclusion. I remember because the agent made a morbid little joke “Most companies make you wait two years before you can commit suicide. With us you only have to wait one!” (snicker) ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2006, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-committed-suicide-on-the-day-their-life-insurance-will-pay-out/367836/6 "2006-08-08T18:11:49Z")
I vaguely remember a 60 minuites or 20/20 news magazine episode about 10 years ago where some guy in prison committed suicide the day the suicide exclusion proviso expired, and the guy’s girlfriend got the money, instead of the ex-wife. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-committed-suicide-on-the-day-their-life-insurance-will-pay-out/367836/7 "2006-08-09T01:31:48Z")
> [@newcrasher](#): > > Why? Are you feeling down? No, I just thought it would be an interesting statistic to measure, by proxy, the degree of pre-meditation some suicides have and how effective exclusion periods are. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-committed-suicide-on-the-day-their-life-insurance-will-pay-out/367836/8 "2006-08-09T01:59:02Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > There used to be a two year exclusionary period as a general rule with life insurance companies for suicide. Their statistics indicated that people that were contemplating suicide usually had given up the idea by two years. It wasn’t a two year exclusion period here so much as 13 months i.e. you had to pay at least two years’ premiums. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-committed-suicide-on-the-day-their-life-insurance-will-pay-out/367836/9 "2006-08-09T19:13:25Z")
I can name one documented instance where it happened: in the documentary [Capturing the Friedmans](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0342172/), the father, Arnold Friedman, after being arrested for pedophelia bought a life insurance policy. He was convicted to a long prison term, and when the suicide provision in the policy expired, he killed himself, leaving $250,000 to his sons legal defense (who was also accused of the same crime). ---
**Author:** ![Belrix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed655f/32.png) [@Belrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belrix)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2006, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-committed-suicide-on-the-day-their-life-insurance-will-pay-out/367836/10 "2006-08-09T22:28:17Z")
I thought suicide usually invalidated the policy altogether. Not so? ---
**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2006, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-committed-suicide-on-the-day-their-life-insurance-will-pay-out/367836/11 "2006-08-10T02:57:06Z")
> [@Belrix](#): > > I thought suicide usually invalidated the policy altogether. Not so? As I mentioned above, i am currently processing a death claim for a man who committed suicide. Industry standard is a 2 year exclusion, but it can vary. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2006, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-committed-suicide-on-the-day-their-life-insurance-will-pay-out/367836/12 "2006-08-10T14:29:18Z")
> [@newcrasher](#): > > As I mentioned above, i am currently processing a death claim for a man who committed suicide. > > Industry standard is a 2 year exclusion, but it can vary. I know my life insurance policy is that way. I asked the agent. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2006, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-committed-suicide-on-the-day-their-life-insurance-will-pay-out/367836/13 "2006-08-10T14:42:54Z")
> [@Belrix](#): > > I thought suicide usually invalidated the policy altogether. Not so? Only on television.