As the IRDA & SEBI tussle over ULIPs gets into a prolonged battle- it seems to have started claiming its first victims.
In a bid to make Life Insurance sales come closer to the transparency levels in Mutual Funds, IRDA has mandated all Life Insurers to clearly spell out the commission structure on their policies.

This means that any customer would henceforth know how much of his/her first year premium is being pocketed by the sales guy. This could give a lot of bargaining power in the hands of the consumers. As it is, the market is known to have numerous instances of agents passing back a part of their commission to customers to close sales. With this - one can only expect such dubious sales processes to increase.

Not surprisingly, most insurers are unhappy with the move & they feel that such disclosures on margin structures are not really required.

IRDA, the insurance regulating authority has just approved the ULPs- Universal Life Policies for Bharti Axa Life Insurance and Max New York Life.

Its an interesting development in our opinion because of the inherent nature of ULPs.

Here are few of the salient features

1.Customers have flexibility in premium, sum assured as well as the tenure of the product.

2.Freedom to vary the payment of the premium over the policy’s life- you can start with monthly payments, switch to annual then quarterly and so on. What does not change is the premium quantum.

3. Also the policy is not automatically cancelled even if the customer fails to pay the premium. Even if the lapsed payment is not made , the ULP will be kept in force- what does change is the sum assured at the time of payout.

Highlights

Guaranteed Maturity Benefits.
Options to double or triple the Guaranteed Maturity Benefit by choosing 200% or 300% options.
100% premium allocation to optimise savings.
Sum Assured(Basic and Enhanced) plus the greater of fund value and Guaranteed fund value is paid as death benefit.
Enhanced Sum Assured - Choice to enhance life cover anytime during the policy term at minimal additional cost.

YOU AND YOUR DREAM…
As we go through life, we all have dreams, for ourselves and our loved ones. We endeavor to shape our dreams and bring our dreams to reality in the best possible way.

To make those dreams possible you need financial freedom and confidence. That's exactly where the Birla Sun Life Insurance Dream Plan comes in. It is a thoughtfully designed savings plan that enables you to achieve your dreams.

It helps you to save today … to Secure your and your loved ones future.

Birla Sun Life's SOLUTION

Aviva India has launched a new policy "Aviva Young Scholar", a comprehensive child plan that enables one to secure their child’s future in any eventuality.This plan enables you to create wealth that your child will require for important milestones in his life and also ensures that the same is made available to him even if you are not around.Besides attractive returns on maturity, this plan pays a sum assured upfront incase of the parent’s unfortunate demise/critical illness. In addition, all future premiums are waived off and it also provides for regular income for the child till the age of 17.

Aviva Young Scholar is a comperehensive child plan that secures your child's future through:
-Attractive returns to build the desired corpus.
-Waiver of future premiums so the policy continues in the event of the parent's death, disability or critical illness, while the Sum Assured is paid out immediately.
-Regular income for the minor child to meet everyday expenses in the event of the parent's death.

The Tata AIG Life Nirvana Plus (Nirvana Plus) policy is India’s first and only pension policy with a guaranteed addition of 10% of the sum assured every 5 years. You can choose from three levels of cover, which is your amount of Sum Assured: Rs. 1 lakh, Rs. 2 lakhs and Rs. 4 lakhs. You can also decide the age you want to retire: 55, 58 or 60 years of age.

Key features include:

•10% of sum assured is added to your sum assured for every 5 years of paid premiums.
•Rs. 1 lakh will be paid directly to you should you be diagnosed with a covered critical illness (after a 30 day survival period) for first 3 years of the policy.

TATA AIG LIFE Nirvana

You need money to live after you retire, but is the money you saved going to be enough?
The Tata AIG Life Nirvana (Nirvana) retirement plan is a flexible policy that allows you to choose your retirement age (from 50 to 65 years).

Key features include:

•Sum Assured is payable on death during the accumulation stage or on vesting age.
•A guaranteed 10% addition to the sum assured payable at the time of your death or vesting age if your policy has been in force for 10 years.
•A Reversionary bonus declared from the 5th policy anniversary and credited on each policy anniversary.
•A Terminal bonus is payable at the time of retirement or death (policy must be in force for a minimum 10 years).

Plan details
Participants can either pay a fixed premium every year (payable yearly or half-yearly) for a specified term, or pay a single premium.
On maturity, the policy will provide a corpus that includes the sum assured and the pure endowment benefits purchased out of the bonuses declared. Bonuses are not guaranteed and are a function of the company's investment performance.
One can commute up to 25 per cent of the corpus on maturity and buy an annuity with the remaining amount. The annuity options offered by MNYL are:

Annuity for life: The policyholder will receive an annuity till his death

A plan that enables you to retire with laughter lines – not worry lines

• Option to take a tax-free lump sum up to 33% of Sum Assured + Accrued Bonuses.

• Open Market option: Purchase immediate annuity from Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance or any other Life Insurance Company.

Additional Benefits:
• Accidental Death Benefit and Disability Benefit.
• Critical Illness Benefit and Hospital Cash Benefit.
• Family Income Benefit: In case of death or accidental total permanent disability of insured, all future premiums are waived and 1% of the sum assured is paid monthly.
• Term Cover: Additional life insurance protection at a nominal cost.

LIC Jeevan Nidhi
LIC's JEEVAN NIDHI comes with profits Deferred Annuity (Pension) plan. On survival of the policyholder beyond term of the policy the accumulated amount (i.e. Sum Assured + Guaranteed Additions + Bonuses) is used to generate a pension (annuity) for the policyholder. The plan also provides a risk cover during the deferment period. The USP of the plan being the pension can commence at 40 years. The premiums paid are exempt under Section 80CCC of Income Tax Act.

Salient Features:
A . Guaranteed Additions: Guaranteed Additions @ Rs.50/- per thousand Sum assured for each completed year, for the first five years.

MetLife Offers a special Plan

Term and Permanent Life Together

If you want life insurance for a limited time — long enough to meet your anticipated responsibilities to those who depend on you, but not longer — Term Life Insurance may be right for you.
If you value-added security, flexibility, cash value and lifetime coverage, some form of Permanent Life Insurance may be right for you.

Term Life Basics
•Provides coverage for a specified period
•Easy to understand
•Affordable way to get maximum coverage
•Becomes expensive after the specified period
•You build no equity

Permanent Life Basics
•Protection for your whole life, as long as sufficient premiums are paid

Seeing the terrorist attacks in Mumbai have made one wonder if they are covered under any existing insurance policies for such eventualities.There can be no one answer to this question as it varies from product to product.
A retail insurance buyer would typically buy products from both life and non-life insurance companies to suit his needs.

Insurance policies are all set to take the ‘customisation’ path!!
The financial security covers will soon come with add-on services, by just paying some extra premium. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has approved the customisation of non-life policies for extra premium that insurers for new products from January 2009.
So when you buy a motor insurance policy, you may get options like a temporary replacement of a car in case it breaks down, or even complete reimbursement of damages even if the vehicle is over five-years-old , by paying extra premium on the insurance cover.

With holidays round the corner, most families would find themselves planning for trips in India and abroad. Students, meanwhile, would be negotiating with foreign universities with their spring session beginning early next year.
But before you pack your bags, ensure that you have adequate travel insurance to meet medical emergencies and flight inconvenience. You can buy it for leisure or business trips abroad, domestic travel, or studying abroad.

THE COVER

SBI Life Insurance has launched its first Group Health Insurance Plan for State Bank customers called the Criti9. The name of the PLan itself suggests that it offers coverage for 9 major Critical diseases heart-attack, cancer, stroke, coronary artery bypass surgery, kidney failure, major organ transplant, multiple sclerosis and heart valve surgery.

The plan has the following eligibility criteria:
Age: The minimum & the maximum entry age for the account holders should be 18 & 55 years respectively.
Maturity Age: The Maturity age of the Plan is 65 years, the customers can renew the policy till the age of 65
Sum Assured: The Minimum & the maximum coverage amount is Rs. 25,000 & 5 lakh respectively.

ICICI-Prudential has launched a life insurance cover for lower-income groups which is its first micro-insurance product called the Sarv Jana Suraksha plan.

Features
1. The premium is independent of age in the age group of 18-55 years
2. The term/tenure of the plan is 5 years
3. It offers a minimum sum assured of Rs 5,000 with an upper ceiling of Rs 50,000.
4. The maximum age at entry is 60 years

Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance had launched a new health insurance product covering parents, in-laws, spouse and children all together in a single plan. This Medical Insurance product is called "Family Carefirst"

The Plan offers sum-assured(coverage amount) ranged from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakhs with cashless services in more than 2,000 network hospitals across the country. This unique hospitalisation plan gives you a 3-year health cover for your entire family and allows you to renew the policy after every 3 years to keep you covered till the age
of 74 years.

Eligibility
Entry Age Minimum: 18 years
Entry Age Maximum: 56 years for a new policy, 71 for a renewed policy

The Life Insurance Council , an industry association , has taken up the issue of introducing standard nomenclature for all charges across life insurance companies.

This means that when you now go and wanna apply for Unit Linked plans, you will know how much charges are gonna go towards fees etc.

The industry regulator has been pushing towards this for last one year.In last one year the growth of the ULIPs across insurance companies has been huge.For most Insurance companies ULIPs has been the growth driver.

Govt owned general Insurance companies are losing market share and the Pvt players are gaining speed in terms of market share in general life insurance business.This happening due to free pricing policy in this sector where the private players are more aggressive then State owned players.

The slower growth among state-owned companies has resulted in ICICI Lombard displacing public sector Oriental Insurance to become the fourth-largest insurer in India.

In India nearly 5.7 million people are infected with HIV virus & there is already a lot of social stigma attached to it. For the first time, HIV (human immunodeficiency virus)-infected patients in India are getting coverage by the Chennai-based Star Health and Allied Insurance Company Ltd. This policy is launched under a group Insurance cover for the HIV-hit. The compensation becomes payable if an HIV patient is confirmed to be carrying AIDS

Eligibility of the Plan
- The policy will have to be proposed by governmental agencies, NGOs, societies or other registered bodies serving the cause of persons infected with HIV.
- The HIV Care Policy can be issued to a group of persons already infected with HIV.

Health and Motor Insurance are two segments which grew more than 50% in the last fiscal year. These two segments are where the growth was for all Non life insurance companies.The growth in Health was 55% where as in Motor Insurance it was 50%.

Among the companies New India Insurance was leader in Health Insurance with 24.3% market share wherre as Icici was second with 17% market share.

So with the end of 2008 the dynamics of Industry has changed to
Health and Motor Insurance. With the fall of Fire(property) insurance Industry is trying to get aggresive in the above two segments.