Since the policyowner actually owns the policy, not the insurer, the owner has every right to give the policy away just like any other owned piece of property; the insurer's permission is not required. The transfer of ownership is referred to as assignment and the new owner is the assignee.
You can freely assign your life insurance policy unless some limitation is specified in your contract (your insurance company can furnish the required assignment forms). Through an assignment, you can transfer your rights to all or a portion of the policy proceeds to an assignee.
--(1) A transfer or assignment of a policy of insurance, wholly or in part, whether with or without consideration, may be made only by an endorsement upon the policy itself or by a separate instrument, signed in either case by the transferor or by the assignor or his duly authorised agent and attested by at least one ...
It's worth noting that an assignee may also be referred to as a beneficiary, depending on the specific terms of the policy. In some cases, the terms "assignee" and "beneficiary" may be used interchangeably, but in others, they may refer to different legal concepts.
This form permanently transfers ownership of your FEGLI insurance to another individual, trustee, or corporation (however, premiums continue to be withheld from your salary/annuity). An assignment is irrevocable, and cannot be changed later.
In a life insurance assignment, a policy owner transfers his ownership rights of the policy to another party. The original owner is the assignor and the second party is the assignee.
For the most part, there are two types of life insurance plans - either term or permanent plans or some combination of the two. Life insurers offer various forms of term plans and traditional life policies as well as "interest sensitive" products which have become more prevalent since the 1980's .
Unlike a conditional assignment, which may have specific conditions attached, an absolute assignment represents an unqualified transfer of ownership. Absolute assignment can be used not only in the context of life insurance but also for transferring ownership of other valuable assets such as real estate and securities.