Life insurance policies are designed to only pay out on your death, however most life insurance policies will pay out early if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness where you have been given less than 12 months to live.
 
Some strokes can cause extreme harm to health and can cause a coma, or lead to someone dying. Terminal Status Stroke can sometimes require palliative care, where death is expected within months. Depending on the severity of the stroke, a life insurance policy may payout under the terminal illness clause.
 
If a stroke is of a lesser severity a life insurance policy will not pay out whilst the policy holder is still alive, however death by stroke would be covered at any time, subject to the policy still being active at time of death.
 
If you are interested in protecting your finances in the case of having a stroke, you could also consider Critical Illness Cover. This will pay out on diagnosis of a wide variety of illnesses, including if you have a stroke.