Life insurance is certainly one of the most crucial components of any individual's financial plan. However there's large amount of misunderstanding about life insurance, mainly as a result of way life insurance products have now been sold over time in India. We have discussed some typically common mistakes insurance buyers should avoid when buying insurance policies.
 |
Image source: www.singaporewica.insure |
1. Underestimating insurance requirement: Many life insurance buyers choose their insurance covers or sum assured, based on the plans their agents want to sell and simply how much premium they are able to afford. This a wrong approach. Your insurance requirement is a function of one's financial situation, and has nothing do with what goods are available. Many insurance buyers use thumb rules like 10 times annual income for cover. Some financial advisers say a cover of 10 times your annual income is adequate because it provides your household 10 years worth of income, when you're gone. But this is simply not always correct. Suppose, you've 20 year mortgage or home loan. How will your household pay the EMIs after 10 years, when the majority of the loan remains outstanding? Suppose you've very young children. Your loved ones will come to an end of income, when your children need it the absolute most, e.g. for their higher education. Insurance buyers need to take into account several factors in deciding simply how much insurance cover is adequate for them.
 |
Image source: www.singaporewica.insure |
· Repayment of the whole outstanding debt (e.g. home loan, car loan etc.) of the policy holder
· After debt repayment, the cover or sum assured needs to have surplus funds to generate enough monthly income to cover all of the living expenses of the dependents of the policy holder, factoring in inflation
· After debt repayment and generating monthly income, the sum assured also needs to be adequate to meet up future obligations of the policy holder, like children's education, marriage etc.
2. Choosing the cheapest policy: Many insurance buyers like to buy policies that are cheaper. This is another serious mistake. An inexpensive policy is no good, if the insurance company for whatever reason or another cannot fulfil the claim in the case of an untimely death. Even if the insurer fulfils the claim, when it takes a extended time for you to fulfil the claim it is unquestionably not just a desirable situation for family of the insured to be in. You ought to look at metrics like Claims Settlement Ratio and Duration wise settlement of death claims of different life insurance companies, to select an insurer, that will honour its obligation in fulfilling your claim in an appropriate manner, should such an unlucky situation arise. Data on these metrics for all the insurance companies in India will come in the IRDA annual report (on the IRDA website). It's also advisable to check claim settlement reviews online and only then select a company that has a great background of settling claims.
 |
Image source: www.singaporewica.insure |
3. Treating life insurance being an investment and buying the wrong plan: The most popular misconception about life insurance is that, it is also as a great investment or retirement planning solution. This misconception is essentially due for some insurance agents who like to sell expensive policies to earn high commissions. If you compare returns from life insurance to other investment options, it really doesn't make sense being an investment. If you are a investor with quite a while horizon, equity is the greatest wealth creation instrument. Over a 20 year time horizon, investment in equity funds through SIP will result in a corpus that is at least 3 or 4 times the maturity quantity of life insurance plan with a 20 year term, with the same investment. Life insurance should always been seen as protection for your household, in the case of an untimely death. Investment should be considered a completely separate consideration. Although insurance companies sell Unit Linked Insurance Plans (ULIPs) as attractive investment products, on your own evaluation you need to separate the insurance component and investment component and pay attention as to the portion of one's premium actually gets allocated to investments. In early years of a ULIP policy, merely a small amount goes to buying units.
 |
Image source: www.singaporewica.insure |
A good financial planner will always advise you to buy term insurance plan. A term plan is the purest form of insurance and is a straightforward protection policy. The premium of term insurance plans is much less than other types of insurance plans, and it leaves the policy holders with a much larger investible surplus that they'll invest in investment products like mutual funds that give much higher returns in the long run, in comparison to endowment or cash back plans. If you are a term insurance policy holder, under some specific situations, you could go for other types of insurance (e.g. ULIP, endowment or cash back plans), as well as your term policy, for the specific financial needs.
4. Buying insurance for the purpose of tax planning: For several years agents have inveigled their clients into buying insurance plans to save tax under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act. Investors should know that insurance is probably the worst tax saving investment. Return from insurance plans is in the number of 5 - 6%, whereas Public Provident Fund, another 80C investment, gives near 9% risk free and tax free returns. Equity Linked Saving Schemes, another 80C investment, gives much higher tax free returns over the long term. Further, returns from insurance plans may possibly not be entirely tax free. If the premiums exceed 20% of sum assured, then compared to that extent the maturity proceeds are taxable. As discussed earlier, the most crucial thing to see about life insurance is that objective is to supply life cover, to not generate the best investment return.
5. Surrendering life insurance policy or withdrawing from it before maturity: This is a serious mistake and compromises the financial security of your household in the case of an unlucky incident. Life Insurance should not be touched before unfortunate death of the insured occurs. Some policy holders surrender their policy to meet up an urgent financial need, with the hope of purchasing a fresh policy when their financial situation improves. Such policy holders need to keep in mind two things. First, mortality isn't in anyone's control. That is why we buy life insurance in the first place. Second, life insurance gets very costly as the insurance buyer gets older. Your financial plan should offer contingency funds to meet up any unexpected urgent expense or provide liquidity for a period of time in the case of an economic distress.
 |
Image source: www.singaporewica.insure |
6. Insurance is a one-time exercise: I am reminded of an old motorcycle advertisement on television, which had the punch line, "Fill it, shut it, forget it" ;.Some insurance buyers have the same philosophy towards life insurance. Once they buy adequate cover in a great life insurance plan from the reputed company, they think that their life insurance needs are looked after forever. This is a mistake. Financial situation of insurance buyers change with time. Compare your overall income along with your income a decade back. Hasn't your income grown many times? Your lifestyle would likewise have improved significantly. If you got a life insurance plan a decade ago based on your own income in those days, the sum assured won't be adequate to meet up your family's current lifestyle and needs, in the unfortunate event of one's untimely death. Therefore you should get an additional term plan to cover that risk. Life Insurance needs need to be re-evaluated at a typical frequency and any extra sum assured if required, must certanly be bought.
No comments:
Post a Comment