A term policy is a pure life insurance product that offers your family financial protection in case of your untimely passing. The sum assured offered at the time can help them meet their basic needs and long-term goals.
Despite its many benefits, there are many people who wonder why buy term insurance. For starters, it is the cheapest life insurance product you will find that offers you wide coverage for low-cost premiums.
But with so many life insurance options in India, it can be difficult for an inexperienced investor to choose the right term policy. To make this search easy and convenient for you, you can follow these steps in your
Step 1: Assess Your Needs
A term policy is only as effective as its coverage. Therefore, you need to ensure that it covers all their needs in your absence. With that in mind, you can start by evaluating your income, number of dependents, existing liabilities, and expenses to sustain your lifestyle. You must also account for long-term goals, such as paying for child’s education, their marriage, buying a house, or securing your spouse’s financial freedom with a pension. It is these aspects that will help you choose the right cover amount. The general rule of thumb is to keep your sum assured value at least 15-20 times your current annual income.
Step 2: Compare quotes
While you are looking for a term policy, you need to understand the policy benefits and features before making an investment. Just the way you educated yourself about the importance of health insurance, you need to do the same for term policy as well. Luckily, you can now do that online by comparing quotes and assessing each plan on the basis of value it gives you for your investment. In the end, you should choose a term policy that is most beneficial and affordable.
Step 3: Check claim settlement ratio
As you have narrowed down your choices for an optimal term policy, you need to check the reliability of the insurer as well. Claim settlement ratio is expressed in percentage that tells you how many claims an insurance provider has settled in a given year. Look for an insurer with CSR over 90%. It means, they have settled more than 90% claims in a year against the claims raised.
Step 4: Take inflation into account
Even though term policy duration and your age are key factors in determining the insurance plan, another important consideration is the inflation. What you pay today will not be the same 20 years down the line. The main objective of a term policy is to provide adequate coverage to the family in your absence. So be sure to take inflation into account when you are calculating the sum assured.
Step 5: Add riders
Riders are add-on benefits that can be added to your term policy to expand its coverage. Several insurers will tell you attach riders to your plan, thereby increasing your protection as well as the premium. That is the reason you must only choose those riders that are suitable to your lifestyle and budget. For instance, if you are someone in a sedentary job, you must opt for critical illness rider to secure yourself against the medical costs of lifestyle diseases, such as cardiovascular, kidney failure, etc.
Who should buy the term policy?
Life can be brutally uncertain and no amount of planning can prepare you for contingencies. The best thing to do to avoid any financial repercussions is to invest in a term policy at the right time.
20s
A term policy in your 20s is the best time to invest in a life insurance. You can start early and leverage its many benefits, such as wider coverage and lower premium.
30s or 40s
Mid-career professionals in their 30s or 40s will usually have a family with spouse and kids. They have far greater responsibilities and all the more reason to invest in a term policy. Hence a term insurance at this stage will ensure that your young kids are covered against uncertain events and that your spouse will be able to pay for long-term goals, even when you are no longer around.
40s and 50s
Senior professionals in this age group have serious milestones, such as paying for their children’s education or building a corpus for their retirement. With rising costs in India, it is important to invest in a term policy at this stage to protect your family against the financial risk of losing their only source of income.
Retirement
This is the time when all your liabilities are paid off. It is also the time when you must enjoy the fruits of your labour, aka retirement. You can buy a term policy and top it with riders like critical illness to secure yourself and your savings against the rising medical costs of treatment.
These points are a good starting point for someone who is looking to invest in a term policy. You can browse plans and compare quotes online to choose the best term policy suitable for your needs and budget.