What Is A Life Insurance Dividend? 
For those insurance providers that have `` participating policies '' , typically mutual insurance companies , dividends are paid to the policy holders . These are based on the performance of the insurance company 's investments . With mutual companies policy holders are actually owners in the company although they do not have `` voting '' shares . So when dividends are declared by the company they are apportioned to the policy holders based on the face value and the cash value accumulated in the policy . 