Life insurance pays the death benefit if the insured person passes away due to natural causes or accidental death during the period of time you are censured under the life insurance policy.

If you want the life insurance policy to pay out a double death benefit in case of accidental death and your policy does not do that as a feature of the policy, you may be able to purchase an accidental death rider.

That way if your death occurred due to an accident, the life insurance policy and the accidental death rider rider would both pay out, resulting in double payment for your accidental death.

Learn about accidental death insurance plans and how it works.