What Exactly Does It Mean When Life Insurance Is Paid Up? 
When life insurance is paid up , it simply means that no further premiums are required to keep the policy in force . The policy may have been set up to where you only needed to pay a single premium in a lump sum . Or it may have required that you paid premiums for a certain number of years , and then it became paid up . In any event , you owe no more premiums and your beneficiary would receive the full face amount or more , if you passed . Or you may have decided to quit paying on the policy early , and were given theoption to take it as a reduced paid up policy . In this case , the face amount will be less than what you originally applied for , but the reduced face amount will stay in effect without you paying any more premiums . 