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.
Life Insurance companies seeking extra tax benefit
Private life insurance companies are asking an additional tax exemption for long term insurance and pension schemes in the Union Buget 2008-09.Apnainsurance.com Research Bureau
01 Sep 2008
Private life insurance companies are demanding a separate tax exemption of Rs. 1 lakh for long term investments in life insurance and pension schemes in the Union Budget of 2008-09. The Budget will be presented in the Parliament for 2008-09 on February 29, 2008.
Currently, both long and short-term investments are eligible for tax exemption under Section 80 C of the Income tax Act, the limit being Rs. 1 lakh.
The Life Insurance Council of India says that the provision of a separate tax exemption category will encourage of long-term investments which are suffering due to lack of "a proper definition".