ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with insurable interest in life insurance. Regional Insurance Acts refrain from expressly identifying the common law presumption on the insured’s own life. Regional Insurance Acts have modified the rules governing insurable interest in life, representing an implicit acceptance that intervention is justified in the context of life insurance because of the overall public policy against the temptation for insurance to serve as an incentive/inducement to murder. While the instances at common law where insurable interest is presumed have been expanded, several deficiencies are apparent in the statutory reforms introduced. The nature, scope and ambit of the West Indian modification of the law of insurable interest can be determined from an application of the common law construing the underlying Life Assurance Act of 1774. The presumption of insurable interest can be grouped into two groups – family relationships and business relationships – and in that regard it adopts the approach at common law.
