Skip to main content

Factors to know Before Buying an Insurance Plan



There are many occasions in life when you wonder if you have taken the right decision. Some of the decisions may concern your financial life. Investing your hard-earned money in any financial product of a company or a bank — recommended by your friends, family or agent — without understanding how it works, is a common issue. Your mind is filled with doubts and uncertainty on whether you have made the right investment, especially if it is in a long term product like insurance.


An insurance policy is a must in any financial portfolio as it covers the risk associated with the loss of life or property. Since it's a long-term contract for 10 years or more, it is difficult to make changes or amend these contracts during the policy term. Hence, you must spend a little time to research these products to ensure you don't have regrets later. It may not be possible for you to understand all the intricacies of a life insurance policy. But, you could consider the following factors while choosing a plan:

Need-Based Investment:

The standard thumb rule is that your life cover should be 10 times your annual income so that your family is not impacted financially in case something were to happen to you.


You should also take into account any pre-existing medical complication or property loans while selecting the life cover. Your financial portfolio should be well balanced and need based. For example, in case you need to build a corpus for your child's education, you can select from a range of products from insurance companies that ensure the funds that you had planned for your child's education are available whether you are around or not.


You need to remember that insurance is a protection-cum-long term investment and savings tool. You need to define your need — like your child's education or retirement — and accordingly buy a policy that will help you meet your requirement in future.

Background Check And Due Diligence:

Once you have decided on the policy, you could do the necessary background check on the company concerned. All life insurance companies have comprehensive disclosures on their websites that give all required information. Policy structure, customer service capabilities, scope of network, online platform (in case someone wants to buy online term policy), are some of the key things you should look for.


Secondly, there are many sites that help you compare various policies as well as the premiums. However, the one thing you need not worry is the financial health of an insurance company. The insurance sector is highly regulated and all companies need to maintain a solvency ratio to ensure that the customer does not suffer.

Fund Performance:

When buying a Ulip, which also acts as an investment vehicle, you could look at the past performance of the company. All life insurance companies provide details of their funds' performance online. An important thing to consider here would be stability. A company with a good fund performance will have a consistent track record with the fund performance neither being erratic nor extremely risky.

Claim Settlement Ratio:

Many experts advise that the claim settlement ratio of an insurance company should also be considered when buying a product. However, this should not be of concern as long as you have provided correct information in your policy form. As I mentioned earlier, the insurance sector is highly regulated. Hence, the chances of a rightful claim not being settled is rare. In fact, the average claim settlement ratio of the insurance sector is above 80%, and most companies have healthy ratios.

Understanding The Policy:

Once you have zeroed in on the product based on your need and track record of a company, you should understand the features of the policy, specifically those related to the policy term, premium-paying term, maturity date and charges. You must also understand the benefit structure of the policy. Every Ulip comes with a benefit illustration at 10% and 6%, which discloses the charges and what the status of your investment would be on a yearly basis.


These simple but effective steps will put to rest some of your common concerns. Your policy will then be a source of relief and assurance in your life than otherwise. And, in case you have second thoughts about a policy after buying it, you can make use of the 'freelook' facility, which allows you to return the policy to the insurance company within 15 days of buying it for a refund.

 

Popular posts from this blog

ULIP Review: ProGrowth Super II

  If you are interested in a death cover that's just big enough, HDFC SL ProGrowth Super II is something worth a try. The beauty is it has something for everybody — you name the risk profile, the category is right up there. But do a SWOT analysis of the basket, and the gloss fades     HDFC SL ProGrowth Super II is a type-II unit-linked insurance plan ( ULIP ). Launched in September 2010, this is a small ticket-size scheme with multiple rider options and adequate death cover. It offers five investment options (funds) — one in each category of large-cap equity, mid-cap equity, balanced, debt and money market fund. COST STRUCTURE: ProGrowth Super II is reasonably priced, with the premium allocation charge lower than most others in the category. However, the scheme's mortality charge is almost 60% that of LIC mortality table for those investing early in life. This charge reduces with age. BENEFITS: Investors can choose a sum assured between 10-40 times the annualised premium...

Section 80CCD

Top SIP Funds Online   Income tax deduction under section 80CCD Under Income Tax, TaxPayers have the benefit of claiming several deductions. Out of the deduction avenues, Section 80CCD provides t axpayer deductions against investments made in specific sector s. Under Section 80CCD, an assessee is eligible to claim deductions against the contributions made to the National Pension Scheme or Atal Pension Yojana. Contributions made by an employer to National Pension Scheme are also eligible for deductions under the provisions of Section 80 CCD. In this article, we will take a look at the primary features of this section, the terms and conditions for claiming deductions, the eligibility to claim such deductions, and some of the commonly asked questions in this regard. There are two parts of Section 80CCD. Subsection 1 of this section refers to tax deductions for all assesses who are central government or state government employees, or self-employed or employed by any other employers. In...

Am you Required to E-file Tax Return?

Download Tax Saving Mutual Fund Application Forms Invest In Tax Saving Mutual Funds Online Buy Gold Mutual Funds Leave a missed Call on 94 8300 8300   Am I Required to 'E-file' My Return? Yes, under the law you are required to e-file your return if your income for the year is Rs. 500,000 or more. Even if you are not required to e-file your return, it is advisable to do so for the following benefits: i) E-filing is environment friendly. ii) E-filing ensures certain validations before the return is filed. Therefore, e-returns are more accurate than the paper returns. iii) E-returns are processed faster than the paper returns. iv) E-filing can be done from the comfort of home/office and you do not have to stand in queue to e-file. v) E-returns can be accessed anytime from the tax department's e-filing portal. For further information contact Prajna Capit...

IDFC - Long term infrastructure bonds - Tranche 2

IDFC - Long term infrastructure bonds What are infrastructure bonds? In 2010, the government introduced a new section 80CCF under the Income Tax Act, 1961 (" Income Tax Act ") to provide for income tax deductions for subscription to long-term infrastructure bonds and pursuant to that the Central Board of Direct Taxes passed Notification No. 48/2010/F.No.149/84/2010-SO(TPL) dated July 9, 2010. These long term infrastructure bonds offer an additional window of tax deduction of investments up to Rs. 20,000 for the financial year 2010-11. This deduction is over and above the Rs 1 lakh deduction available under sections 80C, 80CCC and 80CCD read with section 80CCE of the Income Tax Act. Infrastructure bonds help in intermediating the retail investor's savings into infrastructure sector directly. Long term infrastructure Bonds by IDFC IDFC issued an earlier tranche of these long term infrastructure bonds on November 12, 2010. This is the second public issue of long-te...

Bharat Bond ETF

Top SIP Funds Online   The government of India has paved the way for the launch of India's first corporate bond ETF called as Bharat Bond ETF. Edelweiss Mutual Fund will be managing it. The fund is mandated to invest in AAA-rated bonds of select public sector companies (see the table 'List of constituents and their proportions in the portfolio'). The government has a threefold objective behind launching this product. One, to deepen the liquidity of the Indian debt markets and provide a gateway for easy retail participation. Two, to solve investors' dilemma of picking premium bonds. Lastly, to help the underlying government-owned companies raise funding for their operations. But does it make sense for you, the investor, to invest in it? Lets find out. What is the product? As the name suggests, it is an exchange-traded fund which will be listed on a stock exchange from where its units can be bought and sold post launch. It will have two variants - one maturing in 3 ye...
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Invest in Tax Saving Mutual Funds Download Any Applications
Transact Mutual Funds Online Invest Online
Buy Gold Mutual Funds Invest Now