Risk products are those where most of the insurance company profits are derived from ensuring that premiums and fees exceed the claims paid out.

There are two major types of product here.

The first is term life insurance. In this type of policy, the customer makes fixed regular premium payments, and in exchange, the policy makes a guaranteed death benefit payment on the death of the policyholder. This guaranteed amount is sometimes referred to as the sum assured or the face value of the policy.

The phrase term life insurance refers to the fact that the policy provides life cover for a specific period of time, say 25 years, and if at any point the policyholder stops paying premiums, then the insurance cover stops or lapses.

So this is very much a traditional insurance policy, just over a much longer duration than, say, home insurance.

The second type of product is critical illness insurance.

This is very similar to term life insurance in that the customer makes fixed regular premium payments in exchange for a fixed payout when a claim event occurs, but this time the claim event is a critical illness that's covered by the policy.

The term of the policy is often until retirement or until a mortgage is repaid, so the policyholder ensures the payment covers their mortgage repayments or living costs whilst they're unable to work. Similar to a term life insurance policy, if the policyholder stops paying premiums, then the insurance cover stops.