Description: Historically, many insurers excluded deaths occurring during military service. Today, that varies by insurer and policy type:

• Some commercial life insurance policies cover military personnel without restriction.
• Some policies exclude deaths resulting directly from combat or war.
• Active-duty military members often rely on government-sponsored coverage such as Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (SGLI), which generally covers combat deaths.

In 1861, insurers were debating whether to cover wartime deaths at all. Modern insurers have largely resolved that question through policy drafting, using explicit war-risk provisions, exclusions, riders, or separate military coverage rather than relying on trustee discretion as in Colonel Foster’s era.

While the Civil War forced insurers to confront the question of wartime mortality, the issue remains relevant today. Modern life insurance policies address war-related risks through carefully drafted policy provisions, military-specific coverage programs, and underwriting standards that continue to balance financial protection with actuarial risk.

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In February 1861, John Gray Foster, a U S Army officer stationed at Ft. Sumpter in Charleston Harbor wrote to his life insurance agent to determine if his life insurance policy would be paid if he were killed in action. The president of Foster’s life insurance company answered Foster personally.

The insurance company president explained that a death in combat was not covered under Foster’s policy, but “should it unfortunately happen that any of these brave men now doing duty at Fort Sumter should be attacked, and fall in the defense of the trust committed to their care, we doubt not that there is a patriotism enough in our Trustees to waive the legal question which might arise under the policy and pay the amount insured.¹   On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces did indeed attack Ft Sumpter.  It was the first battle of the American Civil War, in which as many as 750,000 American’s lost their lives. (Foster was not among them; he served in the military honorably throughout the war and afterwards, passing away as a Colonel in 1874.)

One week later, after the attack on Ft Sumpter, sixteen northern life insurance companies convened an emergency meeting to discuss their policies toward service in the Union military. The resulting recommendation was to cover war risks for existing policy holders who served in the Union Armed Forces.

Insurance companies expected to lose money by insuring soldiers, but one company explained, “It (the company) felt that persons voluntarily exposing themselves to the deprivations and dangers of the camp and the battlefield were entitled to every facility to enable them to make provision for their families in the event of death.”² 

Colonel Foster’s story relating to his life insurance policy displayed the basic tenant of “life insurance.”  He assumed responsibility for replacing the financial value of himself being alive, employed and possessing the desire to secure the financial future of a loved one.

The foremost, basic purpose of life insurance was to replace the financial value of a person’s life at their death; primarily for the benefit of a person, persons or organization selected by the policy owner.

History would bring to the forefront numerous issues insurance companies were forced to address.

• What categories and classes of applicants could be insured
• “Insurable Interest”
• Uniform mortality factors
• Contractual policy exclusions
• Product design and diversification
• Evolving underwriting processes and standards
• Taxation and protection from creditors of life insurance policy values

The evaluation of life insurance continues today. Life insurance is considered an asset that is owned by an individual, corporation, organization, or institution. The uses and applications of life insurance values are varied and continue to evolve.

1. Photo of Morris Franklin’s letter to John Foster on February 18, 1961, From the Archives: A soldier’s duty to his family
2. James M Hudnut, Semi-Centennial History of the New York Life Insurance Company, 1895, p.132