A life insurance cover helps you secure the financial future of everyone dependent on your income in the event of your death. Nobody can help overcome the loss of a dear one, but imagine that along with this loss the surviving members of the family are hard-pressed to maintain their lifestyles because they were partially or fully dependent on the income of the deceased. Getting an adequate life cover is absolutely essential if the sum of the total value of your assets (other than the home you stay in) less your total liabilities (including any home loan, car loan or personal loan you might have outstanding) is less than 150 times your current monthly expenses. The shortfall would be the recommended amount of life cover you should seek. At ApnaPaisa, we help you reach out to a maximum of 5 service providers who will propose alternative plans that you can compare based on:

Life Cover (also known as Sum Assured)
Annual Premium
Additional Riders Offered

Often customers get lured into combining their life cover requirements with an investment objective. We do not recommend this approach because it is always a lot more affordable to opt for a term insurance policy and invest the savings on the annual premium into any savings instrument of your choice - be it PPF, Fixed Deposits, Mutual Funds or even shares.

Survival Benefits for Different Insurance Plans

Survival benefits, also called maturity benefits depend totally on the type of policy purchased.

Apnainsurance.com Research Bureau

21 Dec 2007

Survival benefits, also called maturity benefits depend totally on the type of life insurance policy purchased.

Term Plans: The insured will receive no benefits on surviving the term of the policy.

Return of Premium Term Plans: The insured receives the value of the premiums paid for the entire term of the policy.

Whole Life Plans: These plans typically offer no survival benefits, since there is no definitive term to the policy. However, the insured can make withdrawals or take loans against the cash value (the profit or bonus earned) of the policy. Some policies provide survival benefits if the insured lives up to the age of 80. Upon maturity of such policies, the insured receives the sum assured plus the bonus for the term of the policy.

Endowment Policy with Profit or Unit Linked Endowment Plans: In these plans, the insured receives the sum assured plus bonus/profit/guaranteed additions, if any. Unit linked endowment plans pay out the sum assured plus the value of the investments accrued over the course of the policy term.

Money Back Plans: During the term of the policy, you receive a tax-free, fixed portion of the sum assured at regular intervals. On maturity, you receive the balance portion of the sum assured, if any, plus the bonus/profit/guaranteed addition for the term of the policy, if any, or the value of the investments accrued over the course of the policy term.

Children's Policies: The child receives the sum assured plus bonus/profit/ guaranteed addition, if any, or the value of the investments accrued up to that point in the policy term, at a pre-determined age. This money is receivable irrespective of whether the proposer, i.e. the parent/guardian survives the term of the policy.

In case of a money back policy, the child receives fixed portions of the sum assured at regular intervals. On maturity, the child receives the balance sum assured, if any, plus the bonus/profit/ guaranteed addition, if any, or the value of investments; whichever is higher.