What a policy is

Section 01

An insurance policy is a contract. The useful habit is to treat the written document, not a conversation or a headline on a website, as the thing that describes what is covered.

A policy is usually a set of documents, not a single page. You may be given a policy wording (the main terms), a schedule or certificate (the details that apply to you, such as dates, a sum insured, or a named person), and sometimes a summary. A summary is a guide to the document. It is not a substitute for the wording and the schedule.

If a sentence in a brochure and a sentence in the policy disagree, the policy is the document to go back to, and if you are still unsure, ask the insurer or an adviser to point to the clause in writing. This site cannot do that for you, and it does not interpret a named product.

These pages describe documents in general terms. They are not legal advice and they are not a description of any particular policy.