Life Insurance  

Besides offering financial protection to your family, life insurance policies offer the following benefits:-

• Certainty: Once a goal has been set, life insurance policy is the best means to fund that goal. This is because it gives a peace of mind that in case of any unfortunate event such as death and critical illness; the sum assured paid by the life insurer will be sufficient to meet future goals of the policyholder or family. People can worry less about what will happen to their families and loved ones in case something unfortunate or unexpected happens to them with an adequate life insurance cover.

• Tax benefits: The maturity benefits offered by life insurance policies are eligible for tax benefits under Section 10(10D) of the Income Tax Act in India. Also, premiums paid on life insurance policy get tax deductions under Section 80C of the Act.  Planning your life insurance cover the best way possible may even mean that that your tax slabs will be different and you may be able to plan your income to fall under a lower slab than a higher one.

• Encourages contribution: Most often, life insurance policy is taken for a specified goal, such as child’s education and marriage. In this way, it discourages the person from utilizing those funds for any other motive.  Slowly and steadily, your life insurance policy helps you to increase your corpus and allows you to realize your best dreams without too much effort. The only effort required from you is to pay the life insurance premium on time. 

• Plan for retirement: Planning for retirement is the biggest advantage of life insurance plans. Most of the country’s working population are not covered under retirement plans. The EPF, PPF and other pension plans only cover a small portion of the population. The only way out seem to be life insurance as the life insurance policy helps build up a corpus for retirement and also provides life insurance cover against a myriad of life’s problems at the same time. The best life insurance companies offer a range of payout options. These include lump sum payment, annuities, and monthly payments.

• Provide life insurance cover for life’s unfortunate problems: A life insurance policy safeguards against various small or big problems that life may throw at you. Whether it’s providing life insurance cover against hospitalisation, day care, post surgical treatment, or simply helping you build up your wealth in a safe secure manner, a life insurance policy does all this and more. Moreover, the Indian life insurance companies offer a range of policies that help the individuals to buy policies for themselves or their families for a variety of end purposes. In addition, a life insurance cover guards against any unfortunate or unforeseen events such as critical illnesses and even death. 

The minute you have people dependent on you, you should buy an insurance cover. The younger the age, lower will be the premium. Anyone who is married and has a family to support should think of purchasing the best life insurance policy. Even single persons can choose the best life insurance plans to get tax benefits. Further, after marriage, they can add their spouse and children as beneficiary in the insurance contract. 

There is no age limit to start buying life insurance cover. You should buy the best life insurance policy as soon as the requirement arises. In fact, life insurance cover should start from childhood to insure against illnesses and sudden hospitalisations from fever or stomach aches, and should also be present for the elderly to cover against age-related illnesses, regular check-ups, hospitalisation, etc. 

Your life insurance needs depend on a various factors such as your marital status, age and gender. For instance, when you are young, you may not need a life insurance but as you grow old and your financial responsibilities get increased, you may need the best life insurance policy of high sum assured.

Though this is not a question people like to think about, it is a question that lies at the foundation of life. Death like birth is inevitable and causes havoc wherever it touches people’s lives. The after effects are numbing for the rest of the family members and people take months, if not years, to come out of their grief. 

Life insurance companies in India provide some of the best insurance covers for the Indian citizens. These covers not only take a long term view and look after future expenses, they also help the family to meet the immediate expenses like repatriation costs, funeral expenses, etc. This may seem like a minor thing to think about against the backdrop of such a major life changing event, but the performance of the rites and rituals cost money and some funds to take care of these expenses always help. 

Buying a life insurance policy that takes care of these immediate expenses ensure that the insured has taken care of his or her family in the best manner possible. 

Finding the present cost of living requires breaking up of all the current expenses into their respective categories or expense heads. You can do it the old fashioned way using a notepad and a pen or pencil or the new way of using a financial website or an app. Let’s plan the normal expenses under these categories: 

• Loans and amounts owed: These are the most important expenses that your life insurance policies must cover. You cannot escape from this liability and will have to repay the bank, no matter what. Your life insurance policy payout must be able to pay off these loans and credit card bills. This is a necessary expense and must be considered first before all expenses. 

• Rent: If you live in a rented accommodation, then the life insurance policy must cover for the rent until at least your children are all grown up and working.  Since your family can park your insurance cover in a bank’s savings account or fixed deposit, plan for the rent of some years, say 10 or so. This will ensure that even if they get the life insurance cover amount in a lump sum, they can use the interest of the amount thus received to pay off the rent and if possible, also take care of other expenses. 

• Groceries and food expenses: Take into account all your living expenses for food for the month to understand how much you need. Then arrive at the annual figure to get the life insurance annuity amount you need. It’s even better if you opt for a monthly payout as this will ensure better planning for these small expenses on a month-to-month basis. T

• Clothes: If you have kids, you will have to factor in a larger amount as they will outgrow their clothes every few months. On the other hand, if you only have a spouse and dependent parents, then the outgo on clothing will be less. 

• School, college and tuition fees: If you have children, then this is an important item you must account for in your calculations to get the best life insurance policy cover in India. These necessary expenses will help you to get the approximate present cost of your children’s education. 

• Taxes and Other Fees: As the cliché goes, there is nothing more certain than tax and you should ensure that these are properly taken care of. These may accrue because you own a house, become of some income that your family may earn and which may add to the overall earnings, municipality or revenue taxes or any other charges that need to be paid.

• Entertainment expenses: Though these are not necessary expenses, they are also not entirely avoidable. Approximate the expenses you incur for this head and then arrive at a judicious figure to add to the current expenses and also to arrive at the future expenses to get the best life insurance policy cover for yourself. 

• Holidays: These are somewhat avoidable expenses though you must make allowance for some holidays for you and the family. It may be due to family events, a holiday necessitated by the children’s desire to go somewhere, or just for a change of scenery. Out of town travel opens the mind and you can make some allowance, if you prefer for these expenses to arrive at your present expenses. These will help you to better understand how much life insurance you need. 

• Fees for Helpers: Take into account the fees and other charges that have to be paid to the domestic help, the gardener, the cook, the dhobi and even the driver to get an estimate of how much you spend. Depending on your lifestyle, you may choose to consider all their expenses or trim your staff number to get to the figure.

• Utility bills: The utility bills and those for the internet and the phone in India accrue every month and will have to be paid and thus accounted for in the life insurance policy planning. 

• Travel expenses: If you are living in any large city in India, you will have to consider the travel related costs for yourself or your family members. Consider your fuel bills, the toll and parking charges to get to an approximate figure for your life insurance. These expenses fall somewhere between necessary and avoidable expenses, and it may seem sensible to discount this amount if you are the only one driving the car in your family while the others use it only for the weekend. 

For most of the expenses listed under the current expenses, you can arrive at the yearly and thus the future expense by calculating the annual cost from the monthly costs. One of the best ways to get adequate cover for these expenses is to get a lump sum that you or your family can invest in secure and safe investments like bank fixed deposits or secure debt funds. The payment from these investments, whether as interest or otherwise, will help you get the necessary amount to pay off the monthly bills. 

Another thing you can do is to check which of the life insurance plans offer monthly payouts. Since these life insurance companies understand the nature of expenses, the best of them have come out with a host of plans for life insurance policyholders in India. These plans work just like a regular salary as the life insurance company deposits the amount on a specific date every month. These regular payouts make it easier to manage your expenses. Some other expenses you have to keep in mind for the future are: 

• Children’s expenses: Some expenses like children’s higher studies and wedding can be easily covered with life insurance plans. You can allocate a certain amount depending upon your rough estimate to arrive at the number. You can also buy different plans to cover for these expenses. Since higher studies or a wedding happen only when the children have crossed the age of 18 and 21 respectively, opting for child life insurance plans when your children are 1-5 years old means that a significant corpus builds up by the time they reach these specific ages in addition to providing them with a protective life insurance cover. 

• Healthcare expenses: Your healthcare expenses or those of your spouse or your parents will increase as you age. Life insurance plans should be able to cover for these exigencies. One way to take care of these is to buy mediclaim policies but life insurance plans also work out well. In addition, some of the best life insurance companies in India offer comprehensive plans that also take into account these expenses or provide optional riders that allow you to add these covers for some additional premium amount.

• Retirement expenses: Planning for your retirement and paying the premium for such a life insurance policy would form the bulk of your salary outgo while planning for the future. Retirement planning using life insurance plans are a great way to save for your retirement and build up a retirement corpus. You must ensure that you buy life insurance plans that ensure you are able to maintain your current standard of living and also go easy on your wallet. The best way to do this is to compare the life insurance plans available from the various life insurance companies in India. Thereafter, you can choose the life insurance cover or covers that work for you. 

This is a crucial question in India and determines how much you should save for while you are buying the life insurance plans. With the growth of time, there has been an increased growth of nuclear families in India. This means that your family will have to fend for itself in the event of your demise. The best way to go about it is to understand a few things such as: 

• The age of your children: Well educated Indians are generally able to find jobs by the time they are 25 years of age on an average. Thereafter they can generally fend for themselves. This means that if your children are in their early teens, they will be able to stand on their own two feet after 15 years at the most. Doing a similar arithmetic, if your children are young and around say 5 years, then they would need 20 years of support at least. So, when you are calculating the amount of life insurance policy you would have to purchase, assume that your policy would be paying for your children’s education for these many years if the unfortunate happens. 

• The age of your spouse: No matter what, ensure that your homemaker spouse never has to ask monetary help to fend for herself. Looking at how healthcare has developed in India, It makes sense to assume people on an average are going to live well into their 80s in the coming years. Assuming the same for your spouse will ensure she keeps receiving a regular monthly payment for the rest of her life from your life insurance plans. 

• The age of your parents or other dependent family members: Apply the same logic as the one you have applied for your spouse to get at the amount your parents will need to take care of their needs. You should also factor in the age of your parents while calculating the healthcare expenses they are likely to face. Unlike your spouse who will have time to save enough from your life insurance policy income before she reaches old age, your parents will have less time and will need more funds for the costly medical tests and treatments. 

Most parents in India want their children to have the best education and also get married off in pomp and style. As such, it makes sense to save enough money for these needs. However, how much you need depends on certain factors such as the age of the child and the stream they would want to pursue for their education. For marriage, the primary factor is simply how much you want to spend depending on your social status. 

Life insurance plans help you plan for the future quite easily as they provide a regular affordable premium that you can easily pay. The premium amounts are lesser if you are buying a policy for a longer term of say 15-20 years and are higher for the shorter period plans. In addition, the amount you build up is more. Since foreign education is only contemplated for post graduation, that means you have nearly 20 years to build up a corpus if you start the life insurance policy when your child is less than a year old. The same holds true for your child’s marriage. Assuming they will get married when they are 25 years and above,  you can easily save a substantial amount by the time your child reaches marriageable age, if you start a child life insurance policy when they are young. 

For all these life insurance plans, the motto is, the sooner the better. 

Following steps to find affordable life insurance plans in India:- 

• Buy when you are young:- The cost of life insurance policy increases with your age. Therefore, it is always better to buy an appropriate life insurance policy when you are young and when your premium rates are low. 

• Do your homework:- Every life insurance company deploys its own tools and calculators to choose the right coverage and tenure for your policy. However, it is imperative to carry out some basic research on your part to know what you want and how much premium you can afford. In this way, you can find the best life insurance policy. 

• Avoid buying too many riders if you don’t understand them:- Though it is a good idea to buy riders, but if you don’t understand them fully, you should avoid them. Remember, riders come at an additional cost and their cost will be added to your life insurance premium. Therefore, it is good to first understand your requirements before shelling out extra money. 

• Take the help of a trusted life insurance advisor:- While it may look trivial, it is important to take the help of a reliable life insurance advisor to find the right policy. Most individuals are incapacitated to take the right financial decision by themselves and therefore, need to hire a life insurance advisor. 

Compare life insurance policies:- Since there are various life insurance companies in India offering a gamut of insurance policies, you need to be sure that you have selected right life insurance plans. Either you can compare it by yourself or take the help of a life insurance advisor who will compare various life insurance policies on your behalf.

The number of internet users has increased considerably in India. As a result, more and more people are buying life insurance policies online. However, if you are yet to use the internet to buy the life insurance policy, here we are giving you some of the good reasons why you should buy life insurance policies online now. 

• Low cost:- Online life insurance policies are cheaper than their offline counterparts. As you purchase life insurance policies directly from the insurer without any intermediary, the insurer saves money and passes on the benefit to the buyer. Thus, online life policies work out to be cheaper. 

• Easy background check:- With rampant use of social media and other means, it becomes easy to check the reputation of the life insurance company online before buying any policy. While scouting for a life insurance cover online, you can read reviews of policyholders and can take a better decision based on this information. 

• Hassle-free process:- From start to finish, the entire process is hassle-free. All queries regarding the life insurance cover and insurance plans are quickly resolved by customer service centres. Even mandatory documents such as identity and address proof can be scanned and sent to the life insurance company. 

• Instant policy quotes:- Online platform allows you to easily compare different life insurance policies in India. You just need to key in the details, get your insurance quotes and compare premium. You can buy the best life insurance policy in a blink of an eye.

It’s easy to get confused with life insurance jargons at the time of comparing insurance plans. Here we explain some of the common life insurance terms that you must be aware of:- 

• Premium:- An amount paid to the life insurance company to get an insurance cover is called premium. A single premium life policy cover will require you to pay the entire premium amount in one go, while the yearly premium life policy cover will require you to pay premiums every year for the number of years specified in the life insurance policy document. Your life insurance premium will depend on several factors such as your age, amount of cover, the time period of cover, your gender, smoking or alcohol consumption habits and so on. 

• Insurer and insured:- The person who is covered by an insurance policy is called insured. Further, the insurer is the life insurance company that issues the policy, such as ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co., Bharti AXA Life Insurance Co., Max Life Insurance, SBI Life Insurance and Birla Sun Life. 

• Sum assured:- It is the amount that a life insurance company agrees to pay, excluding bonus. In other worlds, it is the guaranteed amount that you or your nominee will receive. 

• Bonus:-This is an additional amount given by a life insurer along with the sum assured either on maturity or death of the policyholder. However, only participating life insurance plans or plans ‘with profits’ are eligible to get bonus. 

• Maturity value:-It is the amount that a life insurance company pays on maturity of the life insurance policy. It includes both sum assured and bonus. 

• Rider:- It is an additional benefit attached to the primary insurance cover. It offers financial protection over and above the basic sum assured against an eventuality. Some of the most popular riders that can be attached with insurance plans are critical illness rider, disability rider and premium waiver rider. 

• Annuity:- It is the regular payment that an insurance company agrees to pay you after you cross the specified age. So, for instance, you cross the age mark of 55, the life insurer will pay you a monthly or quarterly return. It is called annuity. 

• Surrender Value:- If halfway the life insurance policy tenure, you decide to discontinue the life insurance policy and take whatever money is due to you, the life insurer pays an amount which is called surrender value. 

• Paid-up Value:-If you stop paying premiums but do not withdraw the money from your insurance policy, your life insurance policy earns paid-up value. Depending on the number of premium paid, the insurance company will reduce your sum assured considerably and pays the remaining amount at the end of the tenure. 

Survival Benefit:- This is a fixed amount paid by a life insurance company at the end of a specified duration.