Private life insurer ICICI Prudential Life on Monday reported net profit of `808 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2011, against `258 crore reported in the corresponding period a year ago. During 2010-11, the insurer recorded a 24 per cent growth in new business premium at `7,862 crore. ICICI Prudential Life's assets under management were higher by 19 per cent at `68,150 crore, compared with 57,319 crore a year ago. This includes an equity corpus of `43,325 crore.
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...
