What Does Per Stirpes Mean In Life Insurance? 
Per stirpes is a legal way of designating life insurance beneficiaries . It means `` by branch '' in Latin . Using that term will pass the death benefit onto your beneficiary 's descendants , if the named beneficiary had predeceased the insured person . Otherwise , the death benefit would be split up among the remaining beneficiaries . E.g. . If you have designated your three grown daughters as primary beneficiaries , and you want the death benefit to go to your daughters ' children if any of your daughters are deceased at the time the policy pays out , you would state the Primary beneficiary as `` All children , equally , per stirpes . 