The country's largest insurer LIC on Tuesday said it will pump in about Rs 10,000-crore in the stock markets by March-end, taking its annual equity investment to Rs 60,000 crore this fiscal. LIC's investment in the equity market so far has already crossed Rs 50,000 crore and expect to close the fiscal (2009-10) with an investment of Rs 55,000-60,000 crore. During 2008-09, LIC invested Rs 40,300 crore in the equity market, Mr Mohanraj said. This fund infusion in the market by the country's biggest domestic financial institution boosted the sentiment at bourses, which witnessed volatility, especially after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in America in 2008.
ICICI Pru LifeTime and ICICI Pru Lifestage are Unit Linked Pension Plans. Such insurance linked retirement plans are neither good investments nor do they offer sufficient insurance cover. As you can see, these have turned out to be bad deals. In the Lifetime plan, the fund value is not even equal to the total premiums that you have paid and in the Lifestage plan your return is just about 6% which is quite low. The mortality charges are as per your age which is why they have increased. Moreover, once these plans matures, you will have to compulsorily opt for annuity (regular income) and the annuity rates are generally modest. Assuming these plans mature in the next one year, it will be wise to surrender the plan now and curb your future commitments. Before you choose to buy a term plan, you have to consider a few points. You need to insure yourself, only during the time you are working and your family is financially dependent on you. At the age of 59, not all insurance companies w...
