Mortgage protection life insurance is basically what it sounds like: life insurance that’s designed to protect your family from burdensome mortgage payments if the primary breadwinner isn’t around to provide an income any longer.

Mortgage insurance is broadly similar to other types of term life insurance in how it works. You buy a policy, pay regular premiums, and, at the end of the policy term, it ends. If you die during the term of the policy, a death benefit is paid out to your beneficiaries.

However, mortgage protection insurance has a few key differences.

First, the mortgage company or lender is usually the beneficiary in a mortgage protection insurance policy. That means the death benefit bypasses your family and goes straight to the mortgage lender to pay off the mortgage.