Two documents, two jobs. The Buyer's Guide teaches the client how to shop for life insurance in general. The policy summary describes this specific policy.

Life insurance Buyer's Guide (§10509.975): the current NAIC-recommended guide, the same for every company. The insurer must give it to the prospective insured before accepting the initial premium or premium deposit. If the policy has an unconditional refund (free look) of at least 10 days, the guide must instead be delivered with the policy or before the policy is delivered.

Cost comparison (§10509.971): if an agent or insurer shows the cost of a policy over a period of years without recognizing the time value of money, they must also show the Life Insurance Surrender Cost Index and the Life Insurance Net Payment Cost Index for 10-year and 20-year periods. A lower index number means lower cost for similar plans. Dividends must be described as a non-guaranteed refund of part of the premium (§10509.973).

Policy summary: a statement of the specific policy's data, such as premiums, cash values, death benefits, dividends and any loans. In a replacement, the replacing insurer sends a policy summary (or ledger statement) for the new policy to the existing insurer, and an existing insurer that tries to conserve gives the owner a summary of the old policy (§10509.6).

Annuities have their own guide: for annuity sales, the insurer must provide the NAIC Annuity Buyer's Guide as a stand-alone document with or before delivery of the annuity (§10509.9209).