In india, life insurance has always been sold as investment product. From the days when LIC was the only player in life insurance player, emphasis was on endowment policies only. Thus importance of Term life insurance was always undermined.
As a result today also term plans form very small proportion of sales mix of any life insurance company. And in consequence, Indian public remain underinsured.
For protection point of view, you should have insurance cover of at least 10 to 12 times of your present earnings. Then only your family will be able to sustain current lifestyle in the absence of breadwinner of the family. This much amount of insurance, if you try to buy through endowment policy, 99% chances are you cannot afford premium. Here comes the role of term plan which offers you adequate insurance at very reasonable costs. Then what is the catch? The catch is unlike endowment policy at the end of policy term you get nothing. But the importance of adequate insurance can never be overstated. Term insurance is the absolutely basic and unadulterated form of insurance. The entire premium you pay goes towards covering the risk of death over a certain period of time.
Few points to remember when buying Term Insurance Plan• The younger you are when you take out a term policy, the cheaper the premiums.
• Term Insurance Plans offer Tax benefits described in section 80C and section 10 (10 D) of the Income Tax Act.
• Term Insurance Premiums will not increase over the term, the longer the term the more money you save.
Selecting Best Term PlanAfter opening up of insurance sector by government, now number of life insurers are available in the market. I have made small comparison table below so as to compare various options.
Below comparison is mainly on cost front and other qualitative factors such as claim service, claim ratio of particular life insurer have not been taken into account. (premiums are assuming applicant is 25 year old and buys 30 year term plan for a cover of Rs. 50,00,000 unless otherwise stated)
Life Insurer /Scheme Annual Premium
LIC OF INDIA – Amulya Jeevan 13650/-
HDFC Standard - 9603/-
Religare Agon-level term plan 10479/-
SBI Life - Shield 10647/- (25 yrs.)
Metlife -Suraksha 12464/- (25 yrs.)
TATA AIG Life – Life Assure life line 18900/- (25 yrs.)
If you see above list, we can conclude HDFC Standard life provides the term plan at very reasonable costs. But we cannot simply conclude in favour of HDFC, as all products are not same. Many insurers are providing different innovative options like SBI life, where while taking term plan you have option that sum assured can remain same throughout policy term, it may increase 5% each year or it may increase 50% each 5 yrs. Claim settlement ratio also a very important factor where LIC beats all other players. So final decision should be taken while keeping in view all factors.