How Seniors Can Make Smart Insurance Moves This Diwali

This Diwali, the smartest insurance move for seniors, is not necessarily buying something new but ensuring what you already have is updated, protected, and accessible to family when they need it most. This simple shift in mindset can prevent months of anguish for the family during a difficult period.

1. Review Your Policy

Diwali falls perfectly at the mid-point of the financial year, making it an ideal time for seniors to review their life cover.

"Most seniors I meet have policies bought 20 or 30 years ago when their needs were completely different. The biggest issue we see is outdated nominee details – policies still list either a deceased spouse or children who were 10 years old when the policy was bought, but are now 40. These outdated details can cause problems during claims," says Anup Seth, Chief Distribution Officer, Edelweiss Life Insurance. 

Seniors should, therefore, use this festive season to update nominees, contact information, and beneficiary details across all their policies.

2. Meaningful Gift For Your Grandchildren

Several Indians have received a pleasant surprise on turning 18 or 20 — a payout from an endowment plan their parents or grandparents had quietly bought for them when they were babies. It's a beautiful, silent tradition in many Indian households.

Nothing can be better than gifting your grandchildren an insurance plan that can help fund their higher education or a passion project in the future. The gold coin or gadgets you gift will either stay lying in a bank locker or get worn out, but the insurance policy might fund your grandchild's IIT education 15 years from now. That's truly a gift that keeps giving across generations.

3. Protect Yourself From Festive Scams

Unfortunately, during the festive season, there is a spike in fraudulent activities targeting seniors. There are clear red flags everyone should watch for. Any pressure tactics like 'This Diwali offer ends today' or 'Buy now or lose cover forever' are warning signs. Similarly, if someone asks you to pay premiums to a personal UPI ID or bank account instead of the company's official channels, that's a scam. Unrealistic promises like guaranteed 25 per cent returns should immediately raise suspicion.

"The safe approach is simple: always verify the advisor's IRDAI license number on the IRDAI website, pay only through official company channels, never sign blank forms, and most importantly, involve your children in major insurance decisions. I tell seniors to follow one rule - if you're making an insurance decision alone without telling your family and feeling rushed, pause and call your son or daughter first. Scamsters rely on secrecy and urgency," suggests Seth.

4. Talk To Your Family About What Matters

One of the most important things seniors can do this Diwali is have a conversation with their family about their financial investments. For life insurance, specifically, make a simple list showing policy name, company name, sum assured, nominee and maturity date, and share this with at least two family members. Show them where the physical documents are kept and share login details for online policies securely.

Many claims fail simply because families don't know policies exist. The best Diwali gift a senior can give their children is the gift of transparency. It takes one afternoon but saves your family months of stress when they need it most.

5. Do You Need To Buy A New Policy?

Not every senior needs a new life insurance policy, and that's the honest truth many advisors won't share during the festive sales season.

"You should consider a new plan only if you have dependent adult children with disabilities who need lifetime support, outstanding loans that your family will inherit, or if your spouse is significantly younger and will need income replacement. However, if your children are financially independent, you have an adequate retirement corpus and health coverage, and someone is pushing you based solely on Diwali offers or tax savings, you probably don't need it," informs Seth.

Here's A Simple To-Do List For Diwali

Seniors should spend just two hours this Diwali season doing a few critical things: updating nominee details on all existing policies, creating a master policy list for their family, and educating themselves about at least one common insurance scam.

What you shouldn't do is equally important: don't buy insurance under pressure from limited-period festive offers, never pay premiums to anyone's personal account, and don't make major insurance decisions without consulting your family. These simple dos and don'ts can make all the difference in keeping your financial security intact.