Pet owners have had the option of purchasing health insurance for their pets for some time now. Now there is a product to help when your beloved pet dies.

The new plan on the market is called pet life insurance, also sometimes known as “pet replacement insurance”. While pet health insurance helps to pay for the medical costs of keeping your pet alive, pet life insurance pays a benefit if your pet dies.

Is the insurance available to owners of all types of pets? Generally speaking, no, it is not available. The reason is because of something called insurance interest. What does this mean? It means simply that it is not clear to the insurance company that the pet owner is more interested in keeping their pet alive and healthy than they are in receiving a payout from the insurance company. While this may seem harsh to any animal lover who wants only the best for their pet, the insurance company sees things differently.

Insurance companies base their business and pricing strategy on risk. They need to be able to calculate how much risk there is of some event occurring before they can figure out how much to charge, how much to pay and how much profit there is. They can be reasonably certain that a parent will take good care of a child or a wife will take good care of a husband to keep them alive, but it is more difficult to estimate when pets are involved.

Pet life insurance is meant primarily for owners of show dogs who spend a great deal of money on things like training, grooming, travel and vet bills getting their dogs ready for competition. The insurance companies feel that if a pet owner has spent a great deal of time and money on their animal, the owner has a quantifiable interest in keeping their pet health and long lived.

If you purchase pet life insurance, the maximum amount of coverage is generally up to $10,000.