A beneficiary in the broadest sense is a natural person or other legal entity who receives money or other benefits from a benefactor.
[1] Other restrictions such as being married or more creative ones can be used by a benefactor to attempt to control the behavior of the beneficiaries.
The concept of a "beneficiary" will also frequently figure in contracts other than insurance policies.
A software distributor, for example, may seek provisions protecting its customers from infringement claims.
In the context of development aid, the term "beneficiaries" refer to the persons and the communities that use the project outputs: the entities that development-aid projects.