According to Sandeep Bakshi, Managing Director and CEO, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, buying life insurance today is quick and easy. Various tools and calculators available on life insurers’ websites can provide customers with answers as to which product is best suited to their needs.

It is essential to know what your financial needs are—whether you want to save for your family and build a corpus for a long-term financial goal (buying a house, higher education for children, retirement, etc.) or not. Based on that, you need to assess your Human Life Value (HLV), i.e., the amount of money you need to put aside to protect your loved ones. Equally important is to know the available product categories. The three product categories that you can choose from are unit linked insurance plans (Ulips), term insurance plans (pure protection), and traditional or endowment plans. Ulips are suitable for you if you have a risk taking ability as these plans provide an exposure to equity markets, offering potentially high returns.

Term plans provide a safety net to your dependants and are one of the simplest forms of life insurance. Traditional plans are ideal for individuals with low risk profiles. These products invest largely in debt and provide a life cover in addition to acting as an instrument for savings. Some of the other factors that you should consider include free look guarantee, surrender charges and fund performance in case of Ulips. There are also other parameters to consider such as knowing about the insurer and their track record with claim settlement, on-boarding at the time of purchase, customer service and the grievance redressal process of the insurer.

olmdesk@outlookndia.com