Need advice regarding Term insurance

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srkmish

Forerunner
Hi Guys,

I was going through LIC's amulya jeevan and anmol jeevan plans and i am getting more and more confused. What is the best term insurance available in india and how hassle free it is to fill it up and pay yearly installments online.
 
"Best term insurance" is subjective. You can never know until you need to claim, and I hope and pray that you should never need to claim. That said, LIC has a name for itself. The online plans they introduced recently are still pricier than that of other players. Still, if you are comfortable with LIC, go with it.
I personally use ICICI term plan. I believe they should also be equally good.
Online plans are simple, and very easy to apply and maintain. You also get lesser premium coz you are avoiding a middle man - the agent. You can pay via credit card too. Go for online plans only. Just make sure you fill every little detail in the application diligently.
 
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And also other players are also seems doing better compared to LIC.

One pro tip: people generally tell you claim settlement in LIC is better than all. What they don't tell you is, they include all plans. So always check claim settlement ratio about term/online plans only. Then you will be surprised ;-)
 
How to check the claim ratio for only term insurance plans. On googling, all i see are news articles. BTW im asking everyone here, what term insurance plans do you guys use and why.
 
BTW im asking everyone here, what term insurance plans do you guys use and why.
my LIC agent did all the planning for me. he got me following policies with different periods:
Jeevan Anand (15 yrs, 20 yrs)
Jeevan Nidhi (10 yrs)
Jeevan Surabhi (25 yrs, payback every 3 yrs)
Jeevan Rekha (20 yrs)

earlier, it was planned for tax savings but now it's purely from the perspective of savings/investments, with the added advantage of accident/death insurance.

i've got 6 LIC policies from him and he arranged the due dates to fall every 2 months. earlier all the polices were having quarterly due dates. after i got considerable salary increase, he converted all the polices to yearly-payable. it saved me some money in the process. offhand, i don't know any details of these policies.

Edit: stuck out investment :p
 
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@Criminal Do you really need so many endowment policies? Any term plan in your kit, or is that all? The reason I ask is, AFAIK, the returns which you get by "investing" in policies is going to be less. And the coverage amount will also be not so great. I don't have any data offhand. But it would seem that your LIC agent has guided you in a way that is more beneficial to him than you.

My suggestion to any earning member with dependents would be this:
1. Get a pure term insurance for Rs.1 crore or more according to your need. Just for insurance. Not an investment at all.
2. Get adequate health insurance for you and your family.
3. Invest the rest of your savings in whichever instrument you are comfortable with.
 
^^ i checked the documents... yes, there's one LIC amulya term plan for 35 years.

online facilities weren't available when i bought my policies, so had to go through an agent. but he gave me back a lot of money out of his commission.
 
@Criminal Do you really need so many endowment policies? Any term plan in your kit, or is that all? The reason I ask is, AFAIK, the returns which you get by "investing" in policies is going to be less. And the coverage amount will also be not so great. I don't have any data offhand. But it would seem that your LIC agent has guided you in a way that is more beneficial to him than you.

My suggestion to any earning member with dependents would be this:
1. Get a pure term insurance for Rs.1 crore or more according to your need. Just for insurance. Not an investment at all.
2. Get adequate health insurance for you and your family.
3. Invest the rest of your savings in whichever instrument you are comfortable with.

My Dad, who was a banker, can't emphasize this enough.
Never buy insurance as an investment. Good term and health insurance are all that you need. Keep investments and insurances separate. Many people have been burned by ULIPs.
 
"Best term insurance" is subjective. You can never know until you need to claim, and I hope and pray that you should never need to claim. That said, LIC has a name for itself. The online plans they introduced recently are still pricier than that of other players. Still, if you are comfortable with LIC, go with it.
I personally use ICICI term plan. I believe they should also be equally good.
Online plans are simple, and very easy to apply and maintain. You also get lesser premium coz you are avoiding a middle man - the agent. You can pay via credit card too. Go for online plans only. Just make sure you fill every little detail in the application diligently.

I have good experience with ICICI with respect to my salary account and their CC are very helpful. But their term plans have overwhelmingly negative reviews on Mouthshut, hence i am wary. BTW as i asked before, do you have idea how to check claim settlement ratio for only pure term plans?
 
I have good experience with ICICI with respect to my salary account and their CC are very helpful. But their term plans have overwhelmingly negative reviews on Mouthshut, hence i am wary. BTW as i asked before, do you have idea how to check claim settlement ratio for only pure term plans?

The thing is sites like those are generally where people with negative experiences end up. How many of those who had a good experience (insurance or other services/products) take the pains to post about it on the web. Note here that I am not advocating ICICI or any other company; just that the metrics by which I would judge an insurer would have more to it than just online reviews.

Also, refer this article once. Compare Term Insurance Plans on 5 different parameters.

This table from the above article also summarizes the comparison well. [DOUBLEPOST=1408013056][/DOUBLEPOST]
3. Invest the rest of your savings in whichever instrument you are comfortable with.

And make sure that the said instrument (and returns from it) is at the very least keeping up with the ever-growing rate of inflation if not surpassing it outright!
 
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Go for LIC online term plan
Why
since it is long term contract.
LIC is govt owned
Claim settlement ratio is great
Since it is govt owned company nobody is interested in denying claims provided if all the fact purposely hide by proposer
i am working with LIC
but i am not in marketing
am in accounts
if you need any clarification about plan i can provide you internal document/circular
I want to make it clear that
i have no personal/organisational interest
I am giving you my personal opinion
You can do one more thing
Split your term insurance sum in to two part
Crucial part take from LIC remaining from private player
------------------------------------------------------------------
Since it is govt owed company
you may find some lack in service like customer care / quality of paper used for policy bond etc
but at time of claim it is more ever far ahead of Private player
Thanks
 
LIC's Amulya Jeevan & Anmol Jeevan are basically the same plans. The only difference is that one policy gives term insurance till Rs. 25 lakhs and the other is > Rs. 25 Lakhs.

If this is the first plan you are taking, would suggest to start off with LIC for now. And later add to it through LIC or other private player as desired.

I don't understand the need to check settlement ratio for a life insurance plan. It is more suited to general insurance since companies try their best to reduce the claim value. For all life insurances AFAIK the only exception is suicide.

I agree with Logistopath's suggestion. However, there a difference, the other Life Insurance plans give you the SA + Interest + Bonus at the end of the term + the cover stays for life. So upon death, the nominee again receives the SA. There is no such provision in Term plan. Further, LIC gives Term Plan max upto 25 years. And once the 25 years are completed, the cover stops.

Hence, I would suggest:
1. Buy a Term Plan
2. Buy couple of endowment plans (cash back types that is; forgot exact wording)
3. Buy Mediclaim (look at the fine print of co-payment)
4. Rest of the savings: bifurcate the savings between low risk and high risk. In my opinion the simplest of Bank FD, gives returns equivalent to Bonds, NSC's etc. in the long run.
 
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