Tuesday 25 September 2018

What is life insurance? 6 types of insurance policies

When it comes to financial planning, you are presented with an array of options to choose from. Most of the people in India are moving to a nuclear family concept. Insuring you and your family members takes precedence over everything else. Agents offer different types of life insurance policies to their customers. Before learning in detail about each of them, let us understand what a life insurance policy is and what is its significance. 

What are life insurance plans?

It is a shield that protects your family even after your death. It provides lump sum money to the nominees of the policyholder. It also keeps the financial plans of your family on track.

What are the types of life insurance policies?

When you ask about life insurance policies to your agent, be prepared to receive an avalanche of information. As mentioned above, the primary function of life insurance is providing protection. However, some plans allow you to plan your future and helps in building your wealth. The types of life insurance plans can be classified as:  

1) Term life insurance: This plan provides a death benefit to the beneficiaries only if the policyholder dies  during a specified period. If the insured person lives on beyond the time frame, you cannot make a death claim. It acts as an income replacement for a few years and is affordable.  It is further broken down into 3 parts: 
- Level term life insurance
- Decreasing term life insurance
- Increasing term life insurance

2) Whole life insurance: It offers your coverage throughout your lifetime. But the policy should be an on-going one. It also consists of a cash value that can increase over time. You can either withdraw the cash value or take a loan out of it.

3) Endowment policy: One of the important life insurance plans is the endowment policy where the amount is payable to the insured, in case he/she is alive until the maturity date. It is a long time financial as well as a savings plan.  If the insured dies during the policy term, then the nominees get the   bonuses, participating profit, etc. 

4) Savings and investment plans: This policy assures you a lump sum money for future expenses. Apart from fulfilling your long and short-term goals in the form of savings, it also offers you an insurance cover.

5) Retirement plans: It is the means through which you receive income during retirement. It helps you build a retirement corpus. Upon maturity, these plans are invested for generating regular income that is termed as a   pension. They are further divided into: 
- With cover or without cover plans
- Immediate annuity plans
- Deferred annuity plans   

6) Child insurance policy: One of the types of life insurance plans that parents are investing upon nowdays is child insurance. It meets your child’s future financial requirements. From the time your child takes bir   th, you can start investing.  Once the child turns 18, you can withdraw the savings. Some insurance plans do not allow immediate withdrawals at specific intervals  
  
So, life insurance plans are not about fulfilling yours and your family’s day-to-day expenses. It is a way to aid your family financially after the death of the breadwinner. It is recommended to opt for two different types of life insurance plans at various phases of life.

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