Harming someone to collect insurance creates liability, not a payout
Chinese insurance, inheritance, and criminal law all block the idea of buying cover and then harming the insured person. A death-benefit policy generally requires the insured person’s consent and approval of the amount. Intentional harm by the policyholder can eliminate the insurer’s payout obligation; a beneficiary who intentionally harms the insured loses beneficiary rights. Intentionally killing someone also forfeits inheritance rights. Insurance fraud and homicide can be punished together, up to the death penalty.
What it takes
Nothing to refrain from it.
What you may gain
Insurance Law Article 34 makes a death-benefit contract invalid without the insured person’s consent and approval of the insured amount, with the statutory exception for parents insuring minor children. Article 39 requires the insured person’s consent to a policyholder’s designation of a beneficiary. Article 43 removes the insurer’s payment obligation where the policyholder intentionally causes the insured’s death, disability, or illness; if at least two years of premiums have been paid, cash value is returned to other entitled persons. A beneficiary who intentionally causes death, disability, or illness, or attempts to kill the insured, loses beneficiary rights. Article 27(2) permits rescission and refusal of payment for intentionally manufactured insured events, with no premium refund except as Article 43 provides. Civil Code Article 1125 removes inheritance rights from someone who intentionally kills the deceased. Criminal Law Article 198(1)(5) specifically includes deliberately causing death, disability, or illness to obtain insurance money. A relatively large amount carries up to five years and a RMB 10,000–100,000 fine; a huge amount carries five to ten years; and an especially huge amount carries at least ten years under the statutory conditions. Where another crime is also committed, penalties are combined. Intentional homicide under Article 232 can carry death, life imprisonment, or at least ten years. In the Xuancheng, Anhui case involving Zhang, his wife drowned when he drove into a pond on 18 July 2016. In the preceding half-month he had bought four policies of RMB 1 million each. He was arrested on 25 July and convicted of intentional homicide and insurance fraud, receiving a suspended death sentence and a RMB 50,000 fine.
Context & considerations
The intended beneficiary of this warning is you: it concerns avoiding life imprisonment or a death sentence. The case outcome and casualty information come from the official case report, without operational details. Fabricating an accident or inflating losses can also be criminal even without injury, and knowing helpers may share liability; see insurance fraud. Buying ordinary family insurance is normal. The danger is the idea of harming someone afterward. Treat such an impulse as an emergency; see your own threatening thoughts and credible threats from someone close.
Research & references
Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (amended 2015). Insurance Law, Articles 27, 34, 39, and 43. https://flk.npc.gov.cn/detail?id=2c909fdd678bf17901678bf7c4060811; National People’s Congress (2020). Civil Code, Article 1125. https://flk.npc.gov.cn/detail?id=ff808081729d1efe01729d50b5c500bf; Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. Criminal Law consolidated through Amendment XI, Articles 198 and 232. https://flk.npc.gov.cn/detail?id=ff808181796a636a0179822a19640c92; Anhui People’s Procuratorate, reposting Legal Daily (13 January 2020). Insurance murder exposing a related case, from its typical cases on sham civil litigation. http://www.ah.jcy.gov.cn/jczt/jjslhyqkjc/mtjj/202001/t20200113_2758841.shtml.