Can prisoners buy life insurance ?

I’ve never heard of any law prohibiting it and I don’t see why there would be. Prisoners aren’t barred from owning property.

I think prison insurance is bought with cigarettes and dirty pictures, sometimes a bj.

I imagine the premiums are pretty high. And the Death Row guys probably have an execution rider.

Why would any insurance company want to take the risk of insuring a prisoner?

This makes me wonder about those that had life insurance before they went in and someone kept up the payments.

@elbanditoroso They’ll write the policy if the premium is greater than the actuarial risk.

In general, insurance or all kinds is taken out to cover “insurable risk”. (You can look that up in any number of places if you’re not certain of the definition.) One of the elements of insurable risk is that the financial loss to the beneficiary has to be measurable and significant; that is, proportional to the value of the insurance policy.

For that reason, since a convict’s financial value is – generally speaking – insignificant, I doubt if many insurers would write the policy for more than the cost of a modest funeral and burial. That is, you won’t find many convicts who are buying million-dollar policies on themselves.

But if they had the means, say they’re very wealthy when they went in (such as Martha Stewart), would they be able to buy life insurance while inside? I would think so. She certainly had plenty when she got out. I wish someone who really knows life insurance would answer.

I did a Web search, but could not find any primary sources, though I found some people quoting insurance company representatives. The consensus goes along with what has been said here. Because of the risk involved, it is highly unlikely that an insurance company would issue a life insurance policy to a prisoner. Military personnel and daredevils can get insurance, but not prisoners. It may be possible for someone with lots of money to take out a very expensive policy.

If an inmate had a policy before being imprisoned, the insurance will continue.