insurance
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 312 U.S. 531 - Helvering v. Le Gierse · 1941Most cited · 453 citing opinions
life insurance of every description, including death benefits paid by fraternal beneficial societies, operating under the lodge system."
Treasury Regulations No. 37, 1921 edition, p. 23.
How the Supreme Court has restated “insurance”
Each Supreme Court definition of “insurance,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “insurance”
Court decisions citing the 5 opinions that defined “insurance” — 1,251 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 5 definitions, chronological · 1936–1967
- ORIGINAL
The term 'insurance' as there used referred only to legal reserve life insurance, the kind of insurance to which a cash surrender value was a common incident.
Bankruptcy Act § 70a
life insurance of every description * * * Insurance is deemed to be taken out by the decedent in all cases where he pays the premiums, either directly or indirectly, whether or not he makes the application.
life insurance of every description, * * *.' 5
The concept of 'insurance' involves some investment risk-taking on the part of the company.
federal definition