BHARTI AXA Life has started offering its new child plan — Bright Stars PLUS — with a feature that promises to hand out 7% of the fund value as ‘Jumpstart’ benefit. Like several other child plans, this product comes with a waiver of premium benefit in the event of the policyholder’s death. In such a circumstance, the company undertakes to pay the regular premiums into the policy till maturity. Policyholders can choose from five fund options, and are allowed 12 free switches a year between these funds.
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...
