Life Insurance for Farm Families

Report Preface: Life insurance is becoming increasingly important in farm financial planning. For those who advise farm families in this field, a rather technical knowledge of the various forms of life insurance and of the more important aspects of each, is indispensable. This report is designed to meet that need. The report covers the various types of policies, the needs served by each, and the more important policy provisions, such as the nonforfeiture and settlement options. It explains how greater use may be made of these options in the programming of life insurance to fit changing needs and circumstances. This publication supersedes Miscellaneous Publication 621, issued in February 1947. The official adoption in 1948 by life insurance companies of the "1941 Commissioners' Standard Ordinary Mortality Table" made many of the figures in MP 621 obsolete. Another major development has been the inclusion first, of hired farmworkers, and later, of farm operators in the Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance program of the Social Security system. The National Life Insurance Act of 1958 brought significant new provisions for veterans and their families. This report includes discussions of both.