Published in Mint on Sep 16 2015 Mint Money has always advised you to avoid traditional insurance policies that double up as investment products. This is primarily because of three reasons: high costs, opaque structures and poor investment returns from these policies. But if recommendations of the Sumit Bose committee are implemented, most of these […]
Articles Tagged: Life Insurance
Old term insurance plans can be revived by paying unpaid premiums
Published in Mint on Aug 30 2016, Written by Abhishek Bondia What is a life annuity cover? Is it a good option for a life insurance plan? —Rajbir Singh In a life annuity plan, annuity payments continue till the death of the person covered, irrespective of age. There are several forms of annuities available. In […]
Why does 76,000 LIC agents call it quits, private insurers add 50,000 agents
Published in Cafemutual on 26th August, 2016 Agent attrition has been an ongoing issue in the life insurance industry. A recent data provided by Life Insurance Council (LIC) shows that around 27000 agents have left the distribution of life insurance policies. LIC is a trade body of the life insurance industry. Surprisingly, state owned LIC […]
Go for insurers with claim settlement ratio of 85% or more
Published in Mint on Aug 16, 2016, Written by Abhishek Bondia I am 50 years old and want to buy a term plan. Kindly suggest a suitable one. —Surendra Khemka You need to consider a few variables before finalizing a plan. These include: sum assured, policy term, and optional riders. Typically, a minimum sum assured […]
Joint term life policies offer limited advantages
Published in Mint on Aug 2 2016, Written by Abhishek Bondia I am getting married soon. My to-be wife plans to get a term plan after the marriage. Should I buy a combined cover then or an individual plan now? —Ravi Saxena You should buy an individual term life plan now and not wait to buy […]
Term plan’s sum assured must be at least 10 times annual income
Published in Mint on JUL 05 2016, Written by Abhishek Bondia What are the main things to check when selecting a life insurance policy? I am 31 years old and married. —Rajneesh Sharma The two most important factors to consider in a life insurance policy are the insurer’s claim settlement track record and the sum […]
Portability is not allowed for life insurance policies
Published in Mint on May 17 2016, Written by Abhishek Bondia Is it possible to change the frequency of premium payments from monthly to annual? —Kaushal Verma Yes. You can change the frequency of premium payment. You would need to place a written request with your insurer for it. Typically, such changes are incorporated on […]
The role of insurance in catastrophes
Published in Mint on May 11 2016, Written by Kapil Mehta General insurance in India is a poor second cousin to life insurance. That is because life insurance impacts people directly whereas general insurance, consisting of products like fire, liability, engineering and marine insurance, is usually purchased by companies. It typically gets relegated to an […]
Life insurance policy can be held in demat or hard copy format
Published in Mint on May 03 2016, Written by Abhishek Bondia Can a policy holder have a life cover in both electronic and paper form? —Geetesh Handa You can choose to keep your policy either in de-materialised (demat) or hard copy form, but not in both. But you can opt to keep some policies in […]
Maturity of child plan should be linked to important milestones
Published in Mint on Apr 05 2016, Written by Abhishek Bondia Are there circumstances under which a life insurance company might refuse to pay for claims? —Ayush Khatri One exclusion allowed in a life insurance contract is suicide in the first policy year. Apart from this, the insurer can deny a claim if there has […]