I am looking for a good comprehensive term insurance policy. Kindly suggest.
Arif Menon, Bandra
There are many Term Plans in the industry and you need to choose a term plan according to your requirement. Since Term Plans are PURE Protection Plans, there are 2 basic variants of the same – Offline and Online term plans. If you are an internet savvy person and keep track of your own insurance premium due dates, then you can choose an online term plan which would give you the similar benefits but at a much less cost. This is possible because the online Term Plans have no Agent Intervention and hence no Agent commission needs to be paid out.
Some good Online Term Plans would be:
Aviva iLife
IndiaFirst Anytime Plan ICICI Prudential iCare
iTerm Plan from Aegon Religare
However, if you would like an agent to explain the policy in details and provide you with all the services and you do not mind paying an additional amount for the same, then you can consider the offline Term Plans like:
Jeevan Amulya Plan from LIC
HDFC Term Assurance Plan
Tata AIG Term Plan
I am looking for a health insurance cover for my entire family, including my parents, wife and kids. This should be a yearly coverage for dental, medical (covering cancer, etc). I need a cover for all under the same plan.
—Sanjay Nair, Tardeo
You can look to avail Max Bupa Heartbeat Family First Plan which has been designed keeping the Indian Joint Family System in mind. Most Family Floater plans cater to about 2 adults and 2 children to a maximum of 3 adults. But this plan covers up to 50 adults in 13 relationships from self, spouse, children, grandchildren to parents, in laws and grandparents. Thus, you can avail Max Bupa Heartbeat Family First Plan with all day care procedures covered without exceptions and no TPA for claim settlement. Hence it would be an easier process of claim settlement, if any. However, it is advisable to take one health insurance policy for yourself, spouse and children, second for your parents and third for your in-laws. In this way, the benefits which come to the individual members will stay on for long and will be less dependent on other members.
I am a 54 year old businessman, at present fit and fine. But in March 2007 I had to undergo a small operation for an angioplasty. However, I am absolutely fit otherwise. Suggest me a health insurance plan for my future medical expenses.
—Manu Sahu, Malad
It is a good gesture that you are planning to get a medi-claim policy for yourself irrespective of the fact that you already have pre existing ailments. Since you have pre-existing disease which is your heart ailment, there would certain exclusions for you, i.e. you might not be covered for some diseases for 3-4 years. However, it is still worth taking the plan, since you would get coverage for all other ailments other than pre-existing conditions from day 1.
The concept of insurance is that it covers unknown risks and not known ones. However, it will still cover all your ailments after the certain waiting period is over.
The plans that you can consider now are:
Reliance Healthwise Plan covers all pre-existing diseases after 2 or 4 years of waiting, depending on the plan opted for Max Bupa Heartbeat Individual Plan covers all pre-existing diseases after 4 years of waiting, Apollo Munich Easy Health Individual Policy covers all pre-existing diseases after 3 years of waiting.
Only remember to mention your previous illness in the proposal form without fail.
I am in two minds whether to invest in a ULIP or go for a pension plan. My objective is to have sufficient savings after 20 years to take care of my retirement phase.
—Sanjeet Chauhan, Santacruz
Well, both your requirements can be met by availing a unit-linked pension plan. Such plans provide you with an option to withdraw 1/3rd of your accumulated funds at the end of your premium-paying term and the remaining will be paid to you each year (once every year, twice every year or every month). Kindly note one thing that ULIPs are subject to market risk and there is a possibility of your investments going down. However in traditional pension plans the risk is not borne by the policy holder because the returns are moderate and the insurance company guarantees the same.
(The author is Vice President at www.MyInsuranceClub.com, insurance comparison website in India. You may write to him at manoj@myinsuranceclub.com)