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.

The Insurance regulatory body- IRDA- is said to be exploring an option of paperless Life Insurance policies, with an aim to cut down on the distribution costs.

If this goes through, Life Insurance policies could follow the share routes into a demat format- which means that in future your Life Insurance policies could reside in a digital format with players like NSDL & CDSL.

With Apollo DKV's Maxima and ICICI Lombard’s Health Advantage Plus have now started covering OPD expenses within their coverage heads.

This is being seen by many in the industry as a gradual shift towards inclusion of this most-common cost head in medical bills of patients.
OPD charges refers to the cost incurred by a policy holder where in the covered individual is NOT admitted. Typically most Health Insurance policies in the country have covered hospitalisation & related expenses & the OPD charges were borne by the policyholder on her own.

Most companies have feared large scale misuse when it comes to OPD charges. Hence even these plans come with some riders, mainly
1. The OPD claim can be done only once in the whole year
2. The Claim cannot be done within 90 days of policy commencement
3. There is a pre-defined cap on the OPD amount, that one can claim in such policies.

Hence we recommend that if you intend to go in for any of these polcies, do understand the OPD coverage (& the riders therein very clearly)

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

Life Stage Assure Plan
ICICI Pru Life Stage Assure a ULIP that offers you a clear advantage by giving you guaranteed returns (maturity additions) on your first year premium - which means that your investments get an unmatched start to long-term wealth creation. ICICI Pru Life Stage Assure also comes with an option of lifecycle-based portfolio strategy that re-distributes your money across various asset classes (Automatic Asset Allocation) based on your life stage and risk tolerance. Thus, with this policy you can look forward to a great start to realize all your aspirations.
Life Stage Assure at a glance
Minimum Premium Rs 12,000 P.a. for monthly modeRs. 10,000 p.a. for all other modes
Minimum Age at Maturity 18 years

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.

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.

HDFC Single Premium Whole Life Insurance Plan

HDFC Single Premium Whole Life Insurance Plan is a tailor-made plan well suited to meet your long-term investment needs. This participating plan offers you the following benefits:

1. Whole life plan aimed at providing long-term real growth of your money

2. Single premium investment plan

3. In case of your unfortunate demise during the policy term, this participating (‘With Profits’) insurance plan will pay your family the Sum Assured and compound Reversionary Bonuses, which are usually added annually. An additional Terminal Bonus may be paid depending on the performance of the underlying investments

Health insurance sector is fast growing in India and with it there are various healthcare insurance products being launched in India.Healthcare costs are rising and growing awareness about the importance of preventive care has led to growing demand in health insurance products.

Let us take a look at the Year on Year growth of Indian Insurance Market and its quite evident. In FY03, the health insurance market stood at Rs 1,160 crore, in FY08 it had crossed Rs 5,000 crore. That’s a growth of 60% in a years time.Despite the growth there is still a large need for health insurance in India. As many as 75% people in India are without employer provided coverage and over 85% people in India are not insured at all.

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

About MetLife
Corporate Profile
MetLife, Inc. is a leading provider of insurance and other financial services to millions of individual and institutional customers throughout the United States.
Outside the U.S., MetLife companies have direct insurance operations in Asia Pacific, Latin America and Europe.

Affiliates
MetLife and its affiliates offer a full range of insurance and other financial products and services.

MetLife Foundation
The Foundation makes grants in health, education, civic affairs and culture.
MetLife’s program aimed at deterring, detecting, investigating and prosecuting insurance fraud.

Products
MetLife Term Plans

Just read an article in the latest issue of Outlook titled "The Vanishing Middle"- which went on to talk about how intermediaries are being threatened with shrinking margins and new technology.
It covered three basic sectors:
- DSAs in banking sector
- TPAs in General Insurance
- Travel Agents

With around 5000 people, TPAs are probably the smallest of the lot (the article puts the DSA number at 35,000 and travel agents at 150,000). But interestingly all these 5000 are employed by 23 odd TPAs who currently have the IRDA license.

The various arguments in favor of a possible demise of this category of players were:

Are you a Life Insurance Agent ? Would you want to increase your business by getting access to customers who are actively looking for insurance?
If yes- partner with BimaDeals and see your income grow steadily.

Read about - Launch of Agents Partnership program (BAPP) | BimaDeals' Agents Partnership program (BAPP) sees a lot of traction

Archives of Agents Corner:
August 08 Issue

Bajaj Allianz offers two Term Plans
1. New Risk Care Plan
2. Term Care Plan

New Risk Care Plan
Features
• It is a non-participating traditional Term Assurance plan.
• Higher insurance coverage at Low premium.
• Regular/Single Premium payment options.
• Enhanced Protection options available through Additional Rider Benefits.
• Rebates on premium in-case of high sum assured

Rider Benefits
a. Accidental Death Benefit: It covers you against Accidental Protection.
b. Accidental Permanent Total/Partial Disability Benefit: It covers against Disability protection.
c. Critical Illness Benefit: It covers you against 11 defined critical diseases.

What are top most reasons to take Insurance ?

1.Fear of death and Financial implications for dependents-
If this is the reason that you are looking to buy your policy , please stick to it.Get a policy which only takes a premium to cover this risk.Death can be from natural reasons or can be by accident etc. Try to cover both reasons when you wanna insure yourself for this basic reason.

2.Fear of hospital/medical expenses from illness etc-
To get treatment done for any medical emergency they some times take your yearly income in few days.So most of the salaried middle class is making sure they have medical insurance.One should go for health insurance these days.Most health insurance companies offer cashless hospitalization these days which is a very useful component for salaried individuals in case of medical emergencies.Health insurance is basically a general life insurance product but now Life insurance companies also offers some products which covers basic health covers.

BimaDeals is the leading online platform for comparing and buying Insurance products. We have active tie-ups with most Insurance providers and this helps you to get to choose the best Insurance products.
Life Insurance - ICICI Prudential, HDFC Standard Life, Kotak Life Insurance, Max New York Life Insurance, LIC, TATA- AIG, Bharti AXA etc

Health Insurance - ICICI Lombard, TATA-AIG General, Bajaj Allianz etc