Read to plan your insurance

Plan your insurance

 It’s never late to think about getting yourself insured against the risks of life like financial losses, ailing health and accidents, but planning your Insurance at the right time is really important. Insurance rescues you from all these uncertainties only on financial terms thereby supporting you and your family during the difficult period. Protection against Life & Medical contingencies are the two most important ingredients of Insurance.

Life Insurance

To protect yourself against any contingency in life, you need to make sure that you take Life Insurance & Health coverage so that you lead a tension free life. When you are single & have just started your career or when you are married & have kids or when you are planning to retire; which ever the stage of life you are in, Insurance helps and supports you prepare for the future.

Term Plans :

 A Term plan is a pure vanilla Insurance plan wherein there are no Maturity or Survival Benefits. This plan is for those who purely want Insurance coverage & don’t want any other elements of investment. This is the most basic type of Life Insurance Plan.

Endowment Plans : 

People who are risk averse i.e. who don’t want to take much risk can go for Endowment Plans wherein a part of the premium is invested in Government Bonds & Securities & the return is around 7-8% annually. The variants of Endowment plans are Money Back Plans where you get sums of money at regular intervals.

ULIPS :

 The Unit linked Insurance Plans are for those who have a greater risk appetite. Here the money is invested in market-linked instruments like stocks, corporate bonds and government securities. A major portion of money is invested in Equity where the returns are higher in the long run so if you are planning to invest for a longer run & get the Life Insurance coverage & investment benefits at the same time then one must go for ULIPS.

 Pension Plans : 

Planning for your Retirement at the right age is really important for an individual. One has to pay a fixed amount called the Premium to the Insurance Company for a specific period of time known as the Term of the Policy wherein the Insurer invests the Premium in various instruments & build a corpus over the Term. Premiums paid for pension plans enjoy tax benefits up to Rs 10,000 under Section 80CCC. Companies also invest the Pension Premium in Unit linked Plans wherein the money is invested in market instruments & has a good return in the long run.

Children Plans: 

Saving & investing in Children Plans for their child’s future at the right time is an important exercise for parents. There are various child-related investment avenues available for parents wherein the money is invested Endowment plans & in ULIPS. Planning financial resources for your child at various life stages like education, marriage etc. are fulfilled by Money Back Child Insurance Plans. Parents can also invest in Unit-linked Children Insurance Plans where there are greater returns in the long run & one has more flexibility in terms of switching one’s money from Equity to Debt and also one can withdraw one’s money multiple times in a year as against Money Back Plans which have only four disbursements with a bonus.

Health Insurance

We don’t know when we might fall ill or meet with an accident so in such ailing situations Health Insurance comes to your rescue especially at the time when the cost of medical treatment has gone up significantly. The underlying idea is to insure yourself at the earliest because premiums in Health Insurance increase with your age i.e. young people have to pay lesser premiums as compared to people whose age is more.

Compare Health Insurance Plans

 Health Insurance Plans :

Conventionally Health Insurance Plans are only for individuals and are called Mediclaim Policies. But off late it has been split into three variants – one is the Floater Policy covering the entire family under one Premium; the second is the Critical Care policy covering you for specific illnesses like heart attack, stroke etc.; and the third is Hospital cash benefit wherein you get daily cash benefits for specified no of days.

Some important points to be kept in mind while buying Health Insurance:

•  Within the first month of buying a Health Insurance policy you will be not allowed to claim for any medical expenses except for accident related claims.
• You will not be covered for those diseases which exist while taking Health Insurance policy for the first two years or four years varying from company to company. These are called pre-existing illnesses.
• If there is a claim free year the insurer gives you discount in terms of increase in the coverage amount in the next year so if you have bought the Health policy early you will be benefited from the increased coverage amount & thus reducing the overall cost of Insurance.
• Tax Benefits: Enjoy Tax benefits under section 80D of the Income Tax Act, premium to the extent of Rs. 15,000 is exempted & Rs 20,000 for Senior citizens.
• You must properly read the Policy exclusions to know what all diseases are covered & not covered & also the list of network hospitals to get cashless claim without a hurdle