Despite what others would have you believe, life insurance is really pretty simple. You pay a monthly fee, and if you die a lump sum of money (we call this your 'payout') is paid to your legal next of kin.
Where it can get a bit more complicated is with conditions and exclusions, with some companies having many pages of these in their terms and conditions. We try and keep exclusions to a minimum to keep it as simple as possible, see a list of these here (under 'when won't you pay out')