There are lots of things which comes in your mind when you want to choose the best for your loved ones. It becomes more complicated when you know that you might not be around if the same were to be given to them. That is the problem in choosing the best possible Term Insurance for yourself.
There are many term insurance plans in India, but all of them have different premiums and features which confuses a prospective customer to choose the best term plan for him.
I belong the financial industry and enjoy a senior position as a VP with a leading Advisory firm. The best thing I can do professionally is research and select the best possible financial instrument.
The below mentioned are term insurance offered by insurance companies, which I studied:
Company Name Policy Name Mode Riders Available Premium(1 crore SA)
Aegon Religare iTerm Online Yes 7, 300
Bharti Axa e-Protect Online No 7, 300
Aviva i-Life Online No 7, 368
HDFC Life Click2Protect Online No 10600
Kotak e-Preffered Online No 10825
Edelweiss Tokio Life Protection Plan Online Yes 11, 500
Metlife Met-Protect Online No 11, 600
ING Vyasa My Term Insurance Offline NA 11, 891
ICICI Prudential i-Care Online Yes 13000
DLF Pramerica U-Protect Online Yes 13, 400
SBI life Smart Shield Offline Yes 16, 798
Bajaj Allianz iSecure Online Yes 18400
Max NewYork Platinum Protect Offline Yes 23, 500
IDBI Fedral Termassurance Online No 25, 350
LIC Amulya Jeevan Offline No 33, 600
Future Generali Smart Life Online No NA
Birla Sun Life Protector Plus Offline Yes NA
Tata Aig Maha Raksha NA NA NA
Reliance Term Insurance Offline NA NA
Canara HSBC Life Pure NA NA NA
India First AnyTime Plan Online NA NA
Sahara Life Insurance Kavach NA NA NA
Star-Union Dai-ichi Term Plan NA NA NA
Confused? Dont be. Something are very simple and it should be looked at it like that.
The premium are for a 30yr old, 30 years policy.
Before I proceed, there are few things which I would want to discuss about myself.
I am 33 years of age and a smoker. Not actually something to be announced to the world but a light occasional one. Around 1-2 on a daily basis. In such a situation, what would a normal person do? Avoid telling the same to the insurer. Don’t! The intention should be right. I declared more than what I normally smoke. Why? Because I wanted everything to be covered. Anyways there could be an additional test which could declare you a liar! Save yourself of that embarrassment.
I also quoted my income correctly. Usually the value of your life is 18x of your annual income or 50-your age x Annual Income. So know how much your cover is.
Share everything about your health with your insurer. Everything. Past(if any), Present and possible future. Dad, Mom, brothers, sisters everyone’s health. All close blood relation. This helps an actuary(A person who compiles and analyzes statistics and uses them to calculate insurance risks and premiums) to understand the risk component in insuring you. Be frank and open. Its like the 4 commandments of a happy man. Never hide anything from 4 people: Doctor, Lawyer, Insurer and your wife! People tend to hide the most from these 4!
Coming to my selection and experience!
So who covers me for almost life long? They are LIC and Aegon Religare(ARLI).
Who has a better claim settlement? This is important to understand. Very Important. Comparing an oldie with a newbie is utter rubbish. ALRI can never have a good claim record unless 40 years into this business. Any claim coming now is new and fresh(say less than 5 years old policy) hence requires extensive scrutiny. If it were having large number of claims and all were honored then it keeps other insurance takers at risk. The system of insurance is that all insurers share the risk. So if someone claims, our burden(survivers) increase. This could even out in next 4 decades and I am confident that ARLI would be a leader then. One should also be very very crystal clear about his health to avoid the decline of claim. If its valid, its valid. No one can stop it. You have law with you.
Whose cost is lower? ALRI, Bajaj, ICICI and HDFC. However, I knew that the advertised premium of ARLI was on per crore is for a male at 30 and non-smoker and non-drinker with no medical history or family history. That each case is different and the i-term premium quoted is best and closed to the real premium after all risks and other parameters are taken into concern. ARLI was very clear with the same. I did my test premium on all and ALRI had the advantage of riders which was missing in two cases. The rider of critical illness and accident. ALRI was 24k/year for 1cr+ADB+CI. ICICI, Bajaj, HDFC were way two high. Almost double and cover was not even for 75 years.
Solvency Ratio? Am I with the right company? Another small things to look in a life insurance company is Solvency Ratio. It indicates how solvent a company is, or how prepared it is to meet unforeseen exigencies. It is the extra capital that an insurance company is required to hold to meet all the claims which arise . In other words, Solvency margin refers to the excess amount of asset the insurance company has to maintain over its liabilities. Basically, it is the amount the insurer has to stash away in order to pay the claims during emergency. IRDA requires the insurance companies to maintain a particular level of solvency margin for their smooth functioning. LIC 1.54%, HDFC 1.72%, ARLI 3.22% ICICI 3.27%
Some special features. With Kotak, SBI and Max but better avoid and take a simple and vanilla. All complications lead to a larger hole in your pocket.
I applied with ALRI.
The medical was done the second day at my house. Smooth. No problem. 9am sharp. All done.
No increase of premium(since I had declared everything online). However I had requested them to increase my insured amount from 1Cr+ADB+CI(paying around 22k/ month) to something wherein I would be paying around 27k/month. Promptly done to around 1.3Cr+ADB+CI. Excellent service.
There was this lady at customer service desk(Divya Uchil) who made sure that everything was smooth sailing and excellent experience.
I thank ALRI for the prompt service and would surely go ahead and recommend the same to all my associates and clients.
Hope this would help a lot of people who are confused what to do in case they are to insure themselves. Also declare if you had already insured your self of a certain amount. Since the value of your life is a function of your age and income.
Thanks.