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.

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

MAX NEW YORK LIFE

LIFE PAY
MONEY BACK PLAN
Money back plans help you in providing for future expenses by making available lump sum funds at specific intervals. Additionally, in case of any unfortunate event, this plan also helps you protect your family from financial hardships.
MAX NEW YORK LIFE’s life pay:
Money back plan keeps paying you a part of the sum assured at regular intervals, to take care of your periodic needs, and a balance keeps growing to take care of your long term saving needs.
BENEFITS:
•Money back at regular intervals.
•Additional guaranteed maturity benefit equal to 10% of sum assured paid as part of the last installment.

Max New York Life plans to take a leaf out of the mobile growth story and intends to leverage the distribution channel in a similar way.

They intend to introduce a concept of pre-paid insurance that can be purchased at the neighbourhood retailer. The Co. would issue individual insurance contracts on the spot, throught thermal printers and other technology components. MYNL is roping in IBM to build the technology backbone and has already earmarked Rs 400 crores for the same.

Not only this, they intend to bring the concept of top-ups in the same model. Looks like the mobile distribution strategy will soon become a best-practice now.

Max New York Life Insurance Company Ltd. is a joint venture between New York Life, a Fortune 100 company and Max India Limited, one of India's leading multi-business corporations. The company has positioned itself on the quality platform. In line with its vision to be the most admired life insurance company in India, it has developed a strong corporate governance model based on the core values of excellence, honesty, knowledge, caring, integrity and teamwork. The strategy is to establish itself as a trusted life insurance specialist through a quality approach to business.

Incorporated in 2000, Max New York Life started commercial operation in 2001. In line with its values of financial responsibility, Max New York Life has adopted prudent financial practices to ensure safety of policyholder's funds. The Company's paid up capital is Rs. 1032 crore.