What Does It Mean To Be The Beneficiary Of A Life Insurance Policy? 
The Primary Beneficiary of a life insurance policy is the person first designated by the Owner of the policy to receive the death benefit if the Insured person passes . The Primary Beneficiary may be one or more persons , or it may be a trust or other entity . If the Primary Beneficiary is one person , he/she gets 100 % of the death benefit . If more than one beneficiary is noted , the death benefit may be split equally , or the policy may assign different percentages to go to each beneficiary . Most policies list a Contingent Beneficiary -LRB- or more than one , as described above -RRB- as well . If all the Primary Beneficiaries are deceased , the death benefit would go to the Contingent Beneficiaries in the manner noted by the policy . It is important to review life insurance policies regularly to make sure that the beneficiaries noted are up to date and that the death benefit goes to the person or persons intended . 