Quora Answer: Is Life Insurance a Business Expense?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Is life insurance a business expense?” 

Life insurance policy premiums may be considered a business expense if it is a means to mitigate against loss of personnel, as part of business succession planning, and as a keyman insurance.  For whole life and term plans, this may be tax deductible.  For group health, it may or may not, depending on the nature of coverage.  It would be difficult to justify it for an investment-linked or endowment plan, and the realised gains from such a policy would be taxed as an income.