Life Assurance is to protect any surviving people against financial loss. However, Life Assurance does not necessarily only apply to family members and dependents. Keyman Assurance is one such type of insurance protection.

This type of protection deals with the 'what if' factor for businesses, especially smaller knit companies where every senior player is important. One of the main types of insurance is Keyman Assurance.

Keyman Assurance can be defined as an insurance policy where the proposer and the premium payer is the employer. The life that is to be insured is the key employee and the benefit, in case of a claim, goes to the employer.

The ‘Keyman' with regards to keyman assurance would therefore be any person employed by a company for having substantial responsibilities or a special skill set and who contributes significantly to the profits of that organisation.

In case of an unfortunate eventuality to the Keyman there are two types of losses that can arise:

• Loss arising from profit reduction for the company
• Costs for the company in replacing the Keyman.

Ultimately Keyman assurance provides a financial cushion for a company in the case of an unfortunate eventuality.