It is mandatory under Maritime Labor Convention (MLC 2006) that ship owners provide compulsory insurance to cover abandonment of seafarers as well as claims for death or long-term disability. Although this will provide better protection for seafarers and their families it is still important that seafarers buy their own life insurance as after their contract expires the seafarer must have their own life insurance to fall back on should anything happen.
What is Life Insurance you might ask. It is a sum of money to be paid out to beneficiaries in the event of the insured’s (policy holder) death. When a seafarer passes away the family will definitely experience emotional pain and it will be even harder for the family if they have to face a mountain of unpaid bills because the sole breadwinner is gone and there are no insurance payouts at all because the seafarer did not buy any life insurance for himself.
Some seafarer might feel that they do not want to spend money paying premium every month for something that might not happen. But when something unfortunate happens their family will wish that the seafarer could have bought some insurance.
Life insurance can protect your family from the unknown and helps them tide through an otherwise difficult time of loss and grief.
