@gauravH: This is the kind of confusion-by-complications that LIC uses.
Sadly, all of you guys who perceive LIC/ULIPs to be scams were actually taken for a ride by their agents. I still don't consider LIC/ULIP themselves to be a scam:
Police case
1) Why you
and others on this thread, didn't lodge a police complaint or file a court case against LIC/ULIP when you were allegedly scammed? It's your money afterall; how can someone just usurp it? You signed the agreements and that made you liable for any losses. Do you think this fact stopped you from approaching the authorities? On the other hand, you would've rushed to the police station if you got scammed by some double-your-money-scheme.
Scam for one, scam for all
2) If something is a scam then it has to be a scam for everyone who gets involved with it. All those cases of stranded families, MLM/Ponzi schemes, bogus NGOs etc are scams because whosoever gives them money, gets scammed. Their money is either lost or not used for its intended purpose. So far, LIC/ULIPs have yielded a positive results for me and couple of my colleagues who invested at the same time. How come we didn't lose money? LIC/ULIPs are not a lottery system where money collected from 100s of people is distributed amongst few? Unlike lotteries, there are no winners in LICs or ULIPs. It's the human-factor (agents) that's scamming you.
You could've bailed out at anytime
3) Tell me if any of those MLM schemes give you the option to quit their network by paying some penalty or refunding the money for unsold stuff? Would those fake NGOs give back a part of your money in case their noble cause to save a poor cancer patient is fulfilled? Those stranded families promise that they'd return your money once they reach home safely... do they keep their words? You always have the option to quit paying premiums for LIC/ULIPs and move on with some loss.
Ask questions
4) So, no one bothered to ask the policy providers when they noticed something unexplained in their accounts? Or was it too late (like at the end of their policies)? I log into my demat account at least once a year and connect with their customer care for any doubts. I too had lost some shares because of insufficient funds but that's not a scam. It happened once and I never made that mistake again. Even I didn't know about their rules but I am to be blamed here. And another person on this thread wrote that his ULIP was about to mature but he didn't know the amount he would be getting back. Well, how hard is it to find that out... probably, just a phone call to their customer care? In fact, I went to ICICI Prulife's office to inquire about my ULIPs. I took things under my control after my agent ran away. Now, tell me if you would get any honest answers if you try to question the actual scamesters... Stranded families, Fake NGOs, MLM companies?
Understand the basics
5) Plain insurance policies (LIC types) help a lot when one meets with an accident or expires. It's very unfortunate but the real value of insurance policies is understood when a policy holder passes away. Ironically, if you hold such policy, you can never find out its real value. ULIPs are linked to markets and no one can predict market's behaviour. Why blame your ULIPs if they didn't perform well? If your agents didn't educate you then blame the agents but not the ULIPs/LIC. If you couldn't spend 30 mins to read the documents but spent 5 years paying the premiums then blame yourself... not the agents.
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A lot of guys here belong to IT field... do you guys work without reading the docs? If a client tells you over a phone call to change some code, don't you guys ask for it in writing (CRs/emails)? Did you guys sign your joining docs without reading the offer letter? Didn't you guys ask any questions about the company/work culture during your interviews? A lot of your seniors would've told you to not to make any assumptions... instead, ask questions in case of any doubts. Where do your doubts, documents, agreements vanish when it comes to your money? Most of you would've logged defects against requirements failure but can't file an FIR when you sense a scam? It's very easy to blame the system (LIC/ULIPs).
I can understand a rural person labelling LIC/ULIPs to be scams, but it's hard to digest when an IT guy says that a person (agent) lured him/her to invest in a policy which they never bothered to read/understand.
A lot of you made the mistake to not understand the policies but at least don't brand LIC and ULIPs as scams... it's always the human-factor to be blamed - either you or the agents.
