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Life & Health · Chapter 3 · Contract Characteristics

Aleatory Contract

Definition
Unequal exchange — one party may receive more or less value than they paid, depending on an uncertain event.
In plain English
You might pay premiums for 30 years and collect nothing, or pay once and collect the full face amount.
Easy to confuse with

These are what this term gets tested against — if you can't tell them apart cold, drill the contrast.

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Verified against primary sources · 2026-08-10