Does life insurance pay out for suicide? 
This is an extremely sensitive topic . The death of a spouse can be life-shattering . A suicide can make it almost unbearable . Not too long ago a friend and client committed suicide . She had been going through a tough spell emotionally , and then almost out of the blue took her own life . Left behind a loving husband and three young boys . Very , very sad . I expedited the claim , as is my usual practice . This job is usually tough , and the fact that her family and mine are friendly made it really hard . My friend , her surviving husband , was so upset he could n't even complete the claim form . I did it for him . The insurance carrier paid the claim as the policy was over two years old . That is standard practice . Will they never pay before then ? I can say that I know of a case with a very high-profile insured who apparently committed suicide just a year after his policies were issued -LRB- he had several - lots of coverage -RRB- . The carriers , of course , initially refused to pay . The insured 's lawyers eventually convinced them to do so : why would they want the bad publicity of not paying a claim ? Will they always pay after two years ? My own feeling is yes , generally , but suspicious circumstances may interfere . If the carrier has reason to believe that this tragic event had been planned to take place right after the two-year anniversary . . Sometimes life is like a mystery novel . 