What is a death benefit?

“face amount”.  Having spent most of my life in sales—you come to realize the importance of words and their impact on the human psyche.  I like to keep a positive spin on things, so constantly saying “death” during the course of a conversation doesn’t help matters.  The death benefit or “face amount” as it applies to a life insurance policy, is the amount of coverage that has been purchased on an individual.  If you’ve bought a $500,000 term life insurance policy—the “death benefit” is $500,000.  This is the amount payable to your beneficiaries when you pass away.