Career Search

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

How to Extend your insurance cover on paid - up policies

Invest In Tax Saving Mutual Funds Online

Call 0 94 8300 8300 (India)

 

 


In case you are unable to pay premiums any more in your traditional or unit- linked insurance plans ( Ulips), you can use the paid- up option. Here, the policy continues to remain valid. However, its maturity amount is reduced and is also called a reduced paid- up policy.
 

One may feel the need to get the policy paid- up, if it has been mis- sold or one is unable to fulfil the long- term commitment of paying annual premiums.

Under such instances, where the policyholder finds it difficult to pay any further premiums, he can get his policy paid- up. This will not require him to pay any future premiums while keeping the policy still in force. Traditional policies usually have a premium paying term ( PPT) of 10 to 15 years, which can be a long- term financial commitment.

In the new guidelines on traditional products, a policy can get paidup after the person has stayed active with the policy for at least two years.

Financial planners opine if one doesn't want to pay premiums, it's good to get a traditional policy paid-up, whereas, it's better to surrender a Ulip. Reason: If a Ulip gets paid- up, policy administration, mortality and fund management charges will continue to be applicable and will eat into your fund value. On the other hand, traditional policies have an opaque and high charge structure. Hence, it's easier to get traditional policies paid-up as you know the maturity amount you are entitled to after a particular period of time.

What happens when the policy is paid- up? For instance, you take a 10year money- back policy with death benefit and maturity benefit of 5 lakh each, with an annual premium of 20,000. According to the plan, the insured will get the maturity benefit amount in the 20th year. After the sixth policy year, you realise your unable to make any more payments. You get your policy paid- up thereafter. After this, the insured doesn't have to pay any premiums and will get a reduced paid- up after 14 years.

However, Max Life Insurance lets such policyholders buy life cover through the extended term insurance (ETI) option. So, those customers have an option of either taking the reduced paid- up or activating the ETI option.

In addition, Kotak Life Insurance gives an option of automatic cover maintenance, which continues to give the death and maturity benefits to the insured even if he has missed two continuous premium payments on his policy.

We are also thinking on these lines, and are planning to launch an ETI option, where we can extend the sum assured to people on their paid- up policies." VViswanand, director and head product management and persistency at Max Life Insurance, says this ETI option provides flexibility to the policyholder who buys long- term savings based insurance products.  The ETI option gives flexibility while the persons policy is in a non- forfeiture mode

Here, the person can choose between the reduced paid- up option or buy life cover with the ETI option. Say for example, the policyholder here doesn't pay premiums from the seventh year ( i. e. stops paying premium after the sixth policy year) and takes the ETI option, then the ETI sum assured ( life cover) and the term will be calculated as given below.

After his policy becomes paid- up, he wishes to buy life cover through ETI option, a part of his diminished maturity benefit ( also called reduced paid-up) will be utilised to give him insurance cover for the remaining years.

For instance, he is 41 when his policy got paid- up. Now, the life insurer will have to give him an insurance cover for another 14 years ( four years of PPT- years of unpaid premiums + 10 years of maturity benefit). Which means the insurer will have to cover him till he attains the age of 55. However, the original sum assured of 5 lakh remains the same. The insured doesnt have the option to increase or ask for a lower sum assured.

Now, the life insurer will factor in the person's age and risk to health and arrive at a premium payable for that sum assured ( which is 5 lakh). "Taking the same example into consideration, we would need roughly about 28,000 to give him a cover of 5 lakh. Here, the life insurer will take this money from his cash value accumulated (which is 92,000) and refund the balance amount to him," adds Viswanand of Max Life.

Since the cash value of the policy is higher than the required premium for the ETI sum assured for a term of 14 years, an amount of 64,000 ( 92,000 - 28,000) will be paid back to the policyholder.

When a person opts for this ETI option to buy himself an extended sum assured/ life cover, his policy is technically converted into a single premium policy. As mentioned above, the person will get a 5 lakh cover for 28,000 premium paid. Hence, in case that person dies on or before he attains the age of 55 years, he will be paid a death benefit of 5 lakh. Whereas, he gets nothing on survival after 55 years of age. On the other hand, had he taken the reduced paid- up option, he would have got a reduced maturity amount plus bonuses accumulated at that time.

If a person misses two annual premium payments on his traditional policy, the automatic cover maintenance kicks in at this time. This allows the person to either revive the plan or continue the policy as paidup." Hence, the person gets two full years, to decide if he wants to make the policy paid- up or not. However, the flip side to the ETI option, as the whole idea of long- term savings is lost if the policy is exchanged for an extended sum assured.

Happy Investing!!

We can help. Call 0 94 8300 8300 (India)

Leave your comment with mail ID and we will answer them

OR

You can write back to us at PrajnaCapital [at] Gmail [dot] Com

---------------------------------------------

Invest in Tax Saving Mutual Funds ( ELSS Mutual Funds ) to upto Rs 1 lakh and Save tax under Section 80C.

Invest Tax Saving Mutual Funds Online

Tax Saving Mutual Funds Online

These links can be used to Purchase Mutual Funds Online that are regular also (Investment, non-tax saving)

Download Tax Saving Mutual Fund Application Forms from all AMCs

Download Tax Saving Mutual Fund Applications

These Application Forms can be used for buying regular mutual funds also

Some of the best Tax Saving Mutual Funds available ( ELSS Mutual Funds )

  1. ICICI Prudential Tax Plan Invest Online
  2. HDFC TaxSaver Invest Online
  3. DSP BlackRock Tax Saver Fund Invest Online
  4. Reliance Tax Saver (ELSS) Fund Invest Online
  5. Birla Sun Life Tax Relief '96 Invest Online
  6. IDFC Tax Advantage (ELSS) Fund Invest Online
  7. SBI Magnum Tax Gain Scheme 1993 Invest Online
  8. Sundaram Tax Saver Invest Online
  9. Edelweiss ELSS Invest Online

------------------

Best Performing Mutual Funds

    1. Largecap Funds Invest Online
      1. DSP BlackRock Top 100 Fund
      2. ICICI Prudential Focused Blue Chip Fund
      3. Birla Sun Life Front Line Equity Fund
    2. Large and Midcap Funds Invest Online
      1. ICICI Prudential Dynamic Plan
      2. HDFC Top 200 Fund
      3. UTI Dividend Yield Fund
    1. Mid and SmallCap Funds Invest Online
      1. Reliance Equity Opportunities Fund
      2. DSP BlackRock Small & Midcap Fund
      3. Sundaram Select Midcap
      4. IDFC Premier Equity Fund
    1. Small and MicroCap Funds Invest Online
      1. DSP BlackRock MicroCap Fund
    1. Sector Funds Invest Online
      1. Reliance Banking Fund
      2. Reliance Banking Fund
    1. Tax Saver MutualFunds Invest Online
      1. ICICI Prudential Tax Plan
      2. HDFC Taxsaver
      3. DSP BlackRock Tax Saver Fund
      4. Reliance Tax Saver (ELSS) Fund
    2. Gold Mutual Funds Invest Online
      1. Relaince Gold Savings Fund
      2. ICICI Prudential Regular Gold Savings Fund
      3. HDFC Gold Fund

No comments: