LGBTQ partners qualified as insurance beneficiaries

MANILA, Philippines — Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) community may designate their partners as their life insurance beneficiaries, according to the Insurance Commission.

Insurance Commissioner Dennis Funa said there is no legal impediment to the designation of a policyholder’s domestic partner as a beneficiary under their life insurance contract.

 “An insured who secures a life insurance policy in his or her own life may designate any individual as beneficiary, subject only to the exceptions provided in Article 2012 in relation to Article 739 of the Civil Code,” he said.

Funa also cited Section 11 of the Amended Insurance Code, which gives the insured the right to designate any person as a beneficiary in their insurance policies.

The IC chief issued the legal opinion in response to the request of the University of the Philippines Gender Law and Policy Program (UP GLLP), which sought clarification on who can be named as beneficiary in a life insurance contract.

UP GLLP said members of the LGBTQ+ community are unable to designate their domestic partners as beneficiaries in their life insurance policies.

This is allegedly due to the unwritten practice of life insurance companies to refuse non-relatives as beneficiaries of the insured.

According to the IC, this alleged practice of insurance companies stems from the ground that a beneficiary must have an insurance interest on the insured’s life.

 “There appears to be an apparent confusion in the application of the concept of ‘insurable interest’ on the designation of beneficiary in a life insurance policy. To clarify, unlike in the case of property insurance, where the beneficiary must have an insurable interest in the property insured, there is no equivalent provision in the case of life insurance,” Funa said.

“Insofar as life insurance is concerned, it suffices that the person securing the life insurance policy has an insurable interest in the life being insured. And in case where the insured secures a life insurance policy on his or her own life, it is immaterial whether the individual designated as beneficiary has an insurable interest in the life of the insured,” he added.

Funa said the only exceptions on who can be designated as a life insurance beneficiary is stated in Article 2012, in relation to Article 739 of the Civil Code.

Article 2012 provides that “any person who is forbidden from receiving any donation under Article 739 cannot be named beneficiary of a life insurance policy by a person who cannot make any donation to him.” 

Article 739 provides that donations made between persons who were guilty of adultery or concubinage at the time of the donation; those made between persons found guilty of the same criminal offense; and those made to a public officer or his wife, descendants and ascendants, by reason of his office, shall be void.