Mohan's blog

My Experiments in Life

You are here: Home / finance / Aegon Religare iTerm Plan

Aegon Religare iTerm Plan

by 229 Comments

Aegon Religare iTerm plan gives a pure coverage risk on the death of the person insured. This is a pure protection insurance plan and customer has to pay yearly premium till the maturity of the policy. More over this insurance policy is available by online method alone! It means a lot of simplification in terms of all the paper work.

Selecting the insurance...
Selecting the insurance...

It is a simple 3 step process to buy this iTerm Insurance policy online.

  • Know correct amount for which you need insurance
  • Calculate the premium based on term and compare with similar products
  • Buy Insurance Online

All of this can be done online and they have a very neat way of setting various criteria like whether the policy seeker is a male/female, smoker/non-smoker, tenure slider etc., See the image for more details.

I strongly feel this product will certainly change the way people buy term insurance. This is one of the path breaking product kinds and it will change the overall perspective of the insurance buyers. Also, it will boost the online insurance sales since most of the term insurance policy buyers come from educated section with computer usage knowledge. It would be interesting to see how they handle this plan via online mode against physical proposal forms and medical tests to provide a smooth buying experience.

I did a bit of comparison with other term insurance plans in the current market by various companies. I found this plan to be a perfect match of value for money and convenience. In fact for any age category, this plan seem to provide the best cover for the same premium amount, the premiums were lesser by atleast 40% compared to LIC’s Amulya Jeevan!

Here are the salient features of this plan:

  • The term period falls in band of minimum 5 years and maximum of 25 years.
  • Any customer with minimum 18 and maximum of 60 years in age is eligible for the plan.
  • One of the most cost effective term plans available in market.
  • Simple, uncomplicated product. Easy to understand even by first time Insurance buyers (refer to the image).
  • Online availability, allows you to insure yourself conveniently through your computer!
  • Tax benefit under section 80c
  • Free Look Cancellation – In case, you are not satisfied, you may choose to cancel the policy within 15 days of receiving the policy documents. They will recover the costs from the paid premium towards medical tests, stamp duty, etc.,
  • The iTerm plan does not have any riders attached to it. If the policy holder meet with an accident and loses eyesight or any other body part that causes the person become physically challenged, then this plan is useless. This is the biggest shortcoming. Special thanks to Raghu for bringing up this point.

For more details on the plan, visit their site here. My only concern is that you can’t buy this policy if you don’t use Microsoft Internet Explorer! Even I wrote a mail to the grievances manager of Aegon Religare about this since a huge number the users have switched to other browsers in the recent past. The reply I got was shocking.. which read “At present we do not have the facility where you could buy the policy online without the internet explorer. We would suggest you to buy the policy which has the Internet Explorer compatibility.” Not sure when these companies will learn to support their sites for web browsers compatibility.

Share it via :

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Aegon religar has released INSTA pension policy.Is it advisable to go for the said product. What are the merits and demerits?

    Reply

  2. Please be careful while taking iterm of Aegon Religare . It does not cover accidental death. I made detailed enquiries with the underwriters and operation officers at Aegon Religare. Incidentally the brochure does not distinguish any type of death. It only says that suicide in first year is not covered. But in the policy only “natural” death is covered. Nearly all types of accidents including death due to road accidents, rail, terrorist, or maybe fall from ladder etc are excluded.

    Reply

    • Policy bazaar says itemp covers terrorism and the policy brochure just mentions that only exclusion is suicidal death during first year is excluded.

      Reply

      • True, there is intense confusion among Aegon religare personnel itself. I interacted with the underwriters and the operational people at Bangalore, and they have a different take on what the marketing people of Aegon religare iterm have. Iterm is a centralised Agentless scheme. I have brought this disconnect to the notice of the customercare, AnitaRao(Who sends all the mails) and grivance cell of aegon religare. One cannot disregard the statements of underwriters because they are the one who actually decide on the compensations.
        I am awaiting my Hard copy of my policy document and then approach the same underwriters and operational people (and probably other insurance company agents) for any red-herrings. I will keep you posted.

        Reply

        • Agreed. I will appreciate if you can put some details from policy document once you receive it. I am planning to buy the policy with about 50L cover this month itself, that will help.

          BTW, nice blog, Mohan.

          Reply

          • Dear Vishal,

            You can find teh details with regards to the iTerm on this link. There are no exclusions to the policy except this – In case of death by suicide during the first policy year, or within one year from the date of reinstatement, no death benefit is payable. This clause is the same throughout all companies providing a life insurance cover.

        • Dear Siva,

          There is no Operational team in bangalore. The entire team sits in Mumbai Head Office. You could write to me at sourav.shah @ aegonreligare.com for any clarifications. iTerm covers all forms of death except suicide in the first year. Please feel free to write about any queries that you may have.

          Reply

  3. Hi Mohan,
    I see many of the people had hassle free iterm plan from aegon-religare. However, whether any of you faced my type of situation. I applied for a term plan and I got a proposal with a premium of Rs. 9822. After the medical checkup and collecting all the necessary documents I was told that they are counter offering the proposal by increasing the proposal for upto Rs.13900. I asked for the reason why is this. The reason given is that : “cotinine results accepted beyond acceptable limits” saying that I smoke and chew gutkha or such tobacco products. This is such a silly reason because I never done active or passive smoking. Never ever tried any tobacco products. Giving some wage or silly reason and increasing the premium is not acceptable at all.

    I have asked the their team not to go ahead with this proposal. I am waiting for thier reply.

    Thanks,
    Deepak

    Reply

  6. I have researched a lot about term plans. I have found Aegon Religare Term insurance to be the cheapest. That doesn’t mean that it is unsafe. It is because it is backed by Aegon and also there are rules and regulations are in place by IRDA. If it is a genuine claim no insurance company can deny that. Even if an insurance company deny, once can lodge a case against that company.

    One should give as much correct information as possible while taking the policy.

    One drawback of this policy is that it doesn’t offer accidental insurance or critical illness. Once can take accidental and critical insurance from non-life companies like tata aig and bajaj allianj and many others.

    I think one can go for Religare Iterm plan + any of the accidental policies and I am going to go for it. I will definitely share the experience.

    Reply

  8. since last 9 Months i compare plans of Birla sunlife Hight networth protection, ICICI prulite , Met Shuraksha Plus but Aegon Religare iTerm Plan is the lowest among all. I got the inforamation of I term plan from policy bazar. I already decided to purchase a Met shuraksha Plus for 21000 rs premium but i got the 50 Lakhs coverage in rs 12400 from Religare.. thanks to Aegon religare team.

    Reply

    • Congratulations Kishan,
      for being a msart investor. All Term insurance plans are same in the manner that they all offer the same benefit which is – Payout of the guaranteed Sum assured. So which ever Life insurance company you take the policy from dioes not matter. Unlike in an investment plan where the track record of the fund manager in important to esnure higher returns for your investement – here the returns are fixed – the amount for which you have taken a life cover. So its makes perfect sense to go with the Life insurere who provides you with the cheapest term plan. And as all Insurance companies are governed by IRDA you can be rest assured that your claims in the event of an unfortunate death will be guaranteed provided you have declared all facts correctly. once again congratulations on being a smart Investor.

      Regards

      Reply

  10. Thanks for this post. i checked on LIC’s website for Amulya Jeevan – plan 190, even they dont have options for any riders..am i missing something?

    Reply

  11. Hi Mohan,

    Very good and informative blog.

    Is there any way to find out LATEST “claim rejection ratio” for each insurance company?.

    Regards
    Raja

    Reply

  12. Hi Mohan,
    Is it possible to buy this polices from Udupi city because they are not include the city except Bangalore in Karnataka. Please comment on this.

    Reply

      • Ok. thank you for your imediate reply. Please list which are the life insurance polices it has low premium in the market. I am 38 year old 15 year investment of Rs.50 lacs sum assured.

        Reply

        • Well, you can use so many tools available on net to get the details on various plans by most of the insurance companies.. See the links above for your reference in the main article.

          Reply

  14. Hi Mohan,

    Your website is very useful and thanks for the info on life insurance plans.

    I have one doubt. Can we take multiple TERM INSURANCE from different companies(i.e. say Rs. 25 Lak from LIC, Rs. 25 Lak from Religare and another Rs. 20 Lak from ING).

    Even if one company fails to pay the insurance because of some reason, my nominee may atleast get it from other insurer. Isn’t it.

    Whether IRDA accepts these ?

    Regards,

    Anand.

    Reply

    • As far as I know, YES! you can take multiple term insurance policies from various companies. Some companies do ask for disclosure of any other insurance that you have already while buying insurance. But again, the claim settlement of each insurer is bound by certain pre-defined terms and conditions.

      Reply

  17. Hi Mohan,

    A very informative blog.

    I have a very basic doubt regarding the term plans as to whether the premiums need to be paid for the entire duration of the policy or we can stop paying after say 5 years and still enjoy the benefits.

    What do you suggest would be the best Term Policy of 50 lakhs amongst all the players in the market ?

    Best Regards

    Raja G

    Reply

    • Raja, that is the best advantage of Term insurance policies. Since you wont get anything in return upon term completion, it is upto you to decide on when you want to stop paying premiums. You may want to note that if you miss any premium in the middle, reinstating the policy is a pain again as the insurer may ask you to go through the medical tests once again and based on your current age at that time, they may change your premium to higher amounts for the same cover.
      Well, each policy has its own pros and cons. I suggest you shortlist about 3-5 products and then evaluate one against the other to buy the one that matches your needs.

      Reply

      • Hi Mohan,
        My age is 26 & I want to buy term insurance. I am single & have a joint home loan with my brother.
        I compared the term plans from various companies & found that Aviva_LifeShieldPlus offers the lowest premium for any risk cover.
        e.g Rs.2261 for 10 lakh cover

        I have some questions as below:
        1. How much cover shud I opt for?
        2. Shud I opt for riders like accidental death benefit &/or Critical illness?
        3. Are there hassles in claim settlement for term plans as risk cover is large?

        Plz post your suggestions

        Reply

        • Hi Abhijit,
          1. Ideally it would be nice to have a cover for 10 times the annual income.
          2. It is always better to have such riders, but again look for all the terms and conditions while availing the policies.
          3. Well, it depends on the solvency and claim settlement ratio of a given insurer. Check their past performance from IRDA if you need more info on that.

          Reply

  18. Hi Mohan,

    Do you think it is a good idea if we combine iTerm plan with Royal Sundaram Accident Shield plan

    Thanks
    Anil

    Reply

  19. No Insurance company in India can shut down its doors without handing over the liabilities to another company which is ready to take it over. Recent e.g. is AMP Sanmar which was taken over by Reliance Life and so were its assets and esp current and future liabilities.
    Look at Met Suraksha, Met Smart and BSLI’s Dream Retirement with enhanced life cover. Given a choice personally, I would definitely opt for Aegon’s Iterm. Agents wont be interested in this product as they wont get hefty commission in this so they try to divert giving various reasons like claims etc.

    Also,one has to remember that many cases of term plan get stuck due to various reasons esp medicals etc coz the company wants to be extra cautious while giving huge life cover with minimal premium.

    Reply

  20. Dear Mohan,

    I am new to your blog and i have to say this that your blog is very informative.

    I am planning to buy a term insurance. I’ve checked SBI Shield/ LIC and HDFC. Comparing all those Aegon’s premium is much lower and enticing.

    Have one question.

    Incase tmrw the company closes it operations, what would happen to my insurance plan?

    Can you suggest me some some good companies term insurance plan. I am looking for a plan of 30Lakhs.

    Regards,
    Preetham P

    Reply

  21. I was looking all this while only at ULIPs and Endowments. Though I knew about Term plans, never really thought of them because they don’t return anything back upon surviving maturity period… there is a shift in my thinking now.. let me reconsider my options now.

    Reply

  23. Does someone know of actual actual settlement experience with Raligare? that could tell more when comparing with LIC.
    Vijay

    Reply

  24. Dear Mohan
    your blog is very informative. i want to know that these private insurance mostly term insurance they issue policy without any medical chackup as compre for same amount LIC have mendetery medical chackup…. what happend in case of misshappening and the clam to my nominee? let me clearify plz.

    Reply

    • Sorry, I didn’t get your question quite right. Since most of the term insurances involve high cover, company will make you go through tests. I am not aware of any term insurance provider issuing policies without medical check ups. Of course, if your policy holds good under signed off terms and conditions, in case of demise, nominee will be paid with the insured amount.

      Reply

  25. Aegon I term plans on the face of it looks to be the best, but the harassment like medical check ups & demand for extra premiums are not genuine at all.
    I got this policy online & went through all the medical exams directed & at the end i received a demand for higher premium saying that i have higer sugar levels in blood. then i went ahead and did the same blood test in some other hospital – where the test results showed that my suger levels in blood are normal.
    Hence i suggest not to go for Aegon iTerm plan as the conditions they specify are not genuine.

    Reply

    • All term insurance policies make customers go through medical tests and they do change the premium based on medical test reports. I have a friend of mine, who had to face a similar situation, reason being above normal cholesterol. Looking at your case, why don’t you call them up and inform about the report from other hospital?

      Sorry, but one question. were you directed to get the tests done in a specific hospital only or were you given an option to choose among few diagnostic centers? More details would really help the readers here.

      Reply

    • Dear Aravind,

      A counter offer is made by a life insurance company when the underwriters ( the people who understand the risk involved in providing life cover to an individual) find that the medical reports of the customer who has applied for a high sum assured warrant a higher premium than a person who is of the same age but fitter. You could tell the company that you want a retest which they would happily do and you could also tell them that you would like to visit another hospital. No insurance company will charge you a higher premium at will. Every communication and report is recorded and there is no way ANY life insurance company will demand for higher premium iof your medical reports does not highlight the need for it.

      Reply

  26. Even I meant the same. I think I was not clear grammatically. I meant IRDA does not permit any claim to be rejected on geographical grounds once a policy is issued. There would be no issue with Aegon Religare iterm product as far claims are concerned.

    Mohan – If you permit me, I would want to collate some information on claims. Ofcourse, I would need sometime on this topic as my notes would have to be vetted by my ex colleague whom I consider as insurance expert. A lot of queries regarding claims should get cooled off if we get some enlightenment on claims.
    Alternatively, If you know somebody who can write a short note on claims, nothing like it.

    Reply

  27. Dear Jayant your statement “There would be no such binding on claims occurring due to death in cities which are not in the list. IRDA does not permit that.” is contratry to what Aegon Religare associates told me. The policy holds good in any city provided the address is changed by the person on time. Do you have some differing views here? Could you be more explicit?

    Reply

  28. aegon-religare is the newest kid in the insurance industry but is backed highly experienced partner companies. It would be too early to talk about claims in aegon religare. All companies are bound by IRDA regulations and now there is an Ombudsman too. Also, I have worked with three Pvt Life insurance cos in various departments including Claims. Believe me, the processes are quite liberal as against the general perception. If the claim is genuine and straight then the process gets completed without any hurdle. Ofcourse, some unfortunate cases get stuck and hence delayed.

    The same is case with any company in India including LIC. If we were to dig out pending cases of entire life insurance industry then I bet percentile figure of LIC would top the list.

    But you have hit the nail on the right spot: IRDA is talking about transparency and I am sure claims data publishing would also be on their list. I checked their site, but could not find any data.

    I am quite assured that claims if genuine and well documented would get faster response.

    Reply

  29. the plan looks best ,but what about the claim payment history of the aegon-ralligare? actlually many life insurance companies have poor record of claim payment. IRDA should publish data regarding pending claims and no. of court cases for refusal of claims of all the life insurance companies in India.

    Reply

  30. Hi Mohan,
    your article was very helpful. Could you suggest some term insurance policy for Accidental disability and Dismemberment rider.

    Reply

  31. Hi,

    The plan seems quite attractive but I have few naive questions which I would request group members to clarify:

    1. The plan as of now is applicable for select cities but does it mean once the plan is bought and the insured person moves to a city which is not in the list, the plan doesn’t hold good and is not insured? Looks weird to ask but its better safe than to be sorry.

    2. I am not sure if the premium has any dependence on the city you are currently living? Also, can a person split 1 big sum term insurance into 2-3 insurances if there are premium advantages for lower sum coverage?

    3. I hope the plan covers all kinds of deaths (yeah only deaths) occuring from accidents and illness except suicidal deaths in the 1st year.

    Reply

    • 1. There would be no such binding on claims occurring due to death in cities which are not in the list. IRDA does not permit that.
      2. No. A person cannot split one large sum policy into multiple smaller policies to avoid medicals or for lesser premia.
      3. Yes. Death is a death. So claim has to be passed so far it fits into the regulatory mandate.

      Reply

  32. The plan is good and cheapest in this category. But when you go for their premium calculator it shows less premiun for 60 lacs(6684) than 40 lac(6784). i am not able understand their logic and may be there is some bugs in their calculator

    Reply

    • Yes, I checked the same thing. To me it looks like – a sum assured above 50 lacs warrants a medical checkup – hence the lower premiums – which may however be increased by the company based on the results of the medical checkup. Any sum assured below 50 lacs requires no medical checkups and hence the higher premiums. However, I could not find this information on the website or the brochure.

      By the way, Bharti Axa has come up with a term plan till the age of 75 – which is the highest offered by any company. Although the premium would definitely be higher, a term plan should definitely be for as higher a term as possible. For an age of 35, the premium for a minimum sum assured of 25 lacs is around 13K. Opinions?

      Reply

      • Thanks for the confirmation Jaywant. Appreciate the additional information you have shared here. I suggest you check for a similar sum assured with other insurance providers as well. With such comparison, you get a fair idea to go for the good deal from prominent players.

        Reply

  33. Brother just wanted to check their is a point raised that in online insurance the onus of providing details regarding weight , height etc. is with the policy holder and the company can dispute the fact at the time of settlement although i have nothing to hide but is it possible that i can be doubly sure that they will not be able to hold any of my genuine mistake unknowingly ofcourse at the time of settlemnt.

    Pankaj

    Reply

    • Dear Pankaj,

      No life insurer will want to hold your claim back if you have declared your facts correctly to the best of your knowledge. Now weight is something that can change with time and this is not a reason for a claim to be rejected. Most claims are rejected by companies because customer might have not disclosed the fact that he has had a surgey or suffered from a stroke or other such seroius facts, before he takes the policy. My suggestion is that please disclose all facts correctly with respect to your medical history and lifestyle habits such a smoking and drinking to the insurer. Once you do that, you can be rest assured that your claims will be met. Also the customer has IRDA, and other Insurance ombudsman to which he can complain in case of any discrepancy. Happy buying.

      Regards,
      Sourav shah

      Reply

  34. Hi Mr Mohan
    Though this iTerm plan can be onlin purchased but it is confined to the residents of a few cities only?
    Can you highlight when this restriction will remove?

    Reply

  35. I spoke to one of the guys from religare today as i felt the premiums of iTerm were very low compared to other term plans and also very less compared to religare’s normal Term plan itself.(25lcs 25 yes rs Iterm costs around 4700 where as normal plan costs 5600) I wanted to make sure there is no bug in the online calculator, but to my surprise the guy who spoke to me said not to go for i Term plan as there are lot of problems related to claime settelemen of iTerm plan. His point was that complete resposibality of declarations were on customer & if even a small mistake in declaring few things like height,health condition,habits etc etc could lead in to trouble during settelement. Another surprising tpoint was these guys are providing cover upto 30lacs with out any medical checkps, where as other insurance companis limit is 15lacs.

    Reply

    • Dear Bharath,

      is Aegon Religare providing this plan at such a cheap rate compared to competition. Aegon Religare is a plan that is sold online directly to the customer and hence there are no “Middlemen” or “Agents” involved. As such the hefty commissions paid out to agents are not built in the product charges as it is with other Life insurance companies that are selling Term insurance through their agents. So Aegon Religare is passing the benefit to the customers in terms of lower charges for a term plan. with a vision to make term insurance available to large base of customers (through the internet) at an affordable price. Now coming to claims. There is no reason for a claim to be rejected if the customer has declared his facts correctly at the time of taking the policy. By correct facts we mean, that a customer should declare at the time of taking the policy whether he is a smoker or a non-smoker and whether he has ever had any medical history/complications etc. Also there are medical tests done post which the company issues policies for a certain amount of sum insured. Hence, the company is already aware of the risks involved in providing this cover so there is no way that a customers claims will be rejected. Also the customer has IRDA, and other Insurance ombudsman to which he can complain in case of any discrepancy. I would advise customers taking any life insurance product from any Insurace company, to disclose all facts correctly at the time of taking the policy. This will ensure that their claims are never rejected. You may write to me for any further queries that you may have.

      Reply

  36. Any such similar term insurance policies in the market with riders? I feel this iTerm policy is useless without any riders. Wish Aegon Religare considers this request and comes up with riders for iTerm.

    Reply

  37. Hi Mohan, My congratulation for putting this informative blog. I want to go for this policy but I am over weight. Last time i tried to buy a Whole life Insurance from LIC, but they were charging double premium for me due to overweight and high blood pressure. How should I go this time with this policy with Aegon.
    Without riders, this plan will become useless for anyone.

    Reply

    • Hi Anurag, thanks! Well, even in this policy I believe they will make you go through the medical tests before confirming the policy. Based on the test results, they will make the adjustments in the premium for the selected cover.

      Reply

  38. I read somewhere that people who died in 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai could not claim their insurance from private companies but people having insurance with LIC, Their nominees could claim all the relevant amount, why so? I also came to know form some source that some companies wont release money if the death cause is a snake bite or in a case of accident if the policy holder is in fault and many many more clause, which we are not aware of. is there any documentation mentioning all these clause for I-term which would tempt me to buy this policy?

    Reply

    • Hi Ronak, yes, even I read in some of the print media that many were denied the insurance cover. Not sure about the clause in Aegon Religare iTerm towards such incidents. Since it is an online policy, I am assuming they do provide the Terms & Conditions called out before proceeding with payment.

      Reply

      • Dear Mohan, Ronaks concern is true that some Life Insurance policies do not provide terrorism cover but this has nothing to do with private life insurance or LIC. Its a part of the policy details. As for Aegon Religare iTerm, all forms of death are covered from Day 1 except suicide, which is also covered after 1 year.

        Reply

  39. I Hope it Covers accidental and suicidal death.
    Don’t take me wrong, I have seen cases where a cause of death would be accidental but they successfully prove them as a suicidal death; In which the nominees are helpless and could not claim the insured amount.

    Reply

    • By default most of the term insurances do cover accidental covers from day 1. But Suicidal death is not covered for the first year. It is covered from second year onwards… I haven’t understood the logic though!

      Reply

      • Consider this.
        Someone is under severe depression and considering suicide but wants to ensure comfortable life of his / her spouse. He would simply take iTerm plan of 5 Crore and commit suicide on the next day after obtaining the plan knowing that his wife will get 5 Crores.

        To prevent these cases, 1 year delay is there. Generally people will not plan suicide 1 year in advance so similar cases are ruled out.

        Reply

  40. Quite helpful and thanks for providing the info. I have already a couple of LIC policies, may be this one shall add to my kitty 🙂
    Well, I appreciate your comment response clarifying the difference between insurance and investment, truly speaking insurance can also a be investment, but it is called capital insurance and risk or non-capital insurances are where you get the insured amount only incase of any risks and where as it is opposite for capital insurances. Most of the Indian insurance companies provide capital insurances, thou the premium amount is high, you cannot convince any Indian customer to enrol until unless he is assured of getting anything back once the policy is matured. Here in Germany, it is hard to find any Capital Insurances, yet everybody has insurance and even your employer does provide one for you…

    Reply

    • That is very true. But my strong suggestion is to go for insurance and investment by opting for separate products instead of combining. This will result in better benefits. Mixing up investment and insurance is not at all a good idea. Policy holder will not be getting the true value for the money if he/she chooses to mix up in via one plan.

      Reply

  42. Thank you very much for your info. Does this plan support the choice of taking the plan on Joint life(first claim) basis?

    Reply

    • You are most welcome Sai. Well, after purchasing the policy online, you will be asked to go to an authorized diagnostic center to get the complete medical check up done and the diagnostic center folks will take care of sending the report to insurer.

      Reply

      • I purchased this plan. The medical guy came to my home and took blodd samples and did ECG and BP check. So basically it was hassle free.

        Reply

  44. Dear Mohan,
    One important point you should include in your analysis:
    The plan does not allow any “Accidental disability and Dismemberment rider” with the plan. Consider a case, I am 30 year old, I buy i-term for Rs 1 crore by paying aprox Rs 11 K per annum. Next year, I meet with an accident and lose my eyesight or both legs. This plan is useless. This is the biggest shortcoming. Term insurance plans are typically aimed at young population. In the early years, the biggest risk is accident and more important is accidental dismemberment. This plan does not address it. This is the biggest weakness in the plan. I trust you will highlight it in your review.
    Regards,
    Raghu.
    Disclosure: I am neither a financial planner nor an agent of any life or non-life insurance company.

    Reply

    • Good to know that. You can also use those social bookmark options at the bottom of the article to share with your friends via facebook, twitter, digg… almost every option is out there!
      Weekend was good.. too many family functions to attend and so little time to study… weekend just gets over in no time!!! how was yours?

      Reply

  46. Any thoughts/info on how is their claim settlement and how hassle free it is? The only reason I am more oriented towards LIC is because of its settlement policies plus a thought of being a government powered insurance agency. This plan looks great without any agents in between customer and company.

    Reply

    • Your way of looking at the claim settlement as a major factor before buying insurance is pretty common in India and that is one of the reason too why people go with LIC more than any other private insurance company. Well, it is the IRDA who clearly defines the claim settlement procedure and hope it shouldn’t be troublesome as long as the terms and conditions have been clearly mentioned in the policy offer document.

      Reply

    • Claim settlement ratio is still a good measure of how good a company is while setting claims. Aegon Religare is a new company and still needs to build confidence and some history. It will take time. but Personally I feel we have got a Insurance company which india needed from long time, It is showing leadership in the way no one has shown in decades 🙂

      Did you know that LIC has the least Solvency margin as per IRDA Report 2007-2008. Though its a state govt owned company, This fact makes me hate LIC more than ever.

      Reply

      • Really? that is bad! can’t imagine how LIC is able to manage the leader position in the market amidst all these! Must be the sheer number of policies being sold that is making it maintain the position. Competition is always good in market and customer will be the king in competitive environment.

        Reply

        • Well … Truly speaking LIC is having fights with IRDA every now and then , Some how it feels like because it has been Govt favortie for half a millenuium , It can break some rules, they have even tried to pressurize IRDA for decreasing the solvency ratio .

          Having low solvency ratio is acutally not a big deal , because Capital infusion can happen in LIC any time from govt when they want . Solvency margin says that you have to have enough money than your potential liabilites (underwritten Claims) , so that incase of some unexpected events like Floods , Terror attacks or something like that we can avoid a situation when there are more claims than the money a insurance company has .

          Manish

          Reply

          • Low solvency ratio is very bad. Capital infusion of any kind cannot be sustained and just because it is a Government agency, you should not take comfort in the fact. The reason is, insurance is the lowest on the priority list in any case for the Government. So please choose your insurance wisely. I sound like a negativist, but please do not buy the term plan on show in this post for at least another 3 years.

          • That is a good point. Looking at LIC and their solvency ration, I’m pushed back as other players might be following LIC’s foot prints 🙁 You don’t sound negativist, but that is a good point to consider while selecting an insurance provider.

          • Well, i just checked up the latest solvency ratio as disclosed on IRDA’s website which is actually given for the year 2008. I dont think LIC is doing bad at all in terms of maintaining solvency ratio. I mean as a customer its financial strength should not be of concern at its current state. Its suppose to mantain a solvency of 1.5 times. that means a 50% buffer for liability, where as it is maintaining a 1.75 times which would mean a 75% buffer. Sounds good to me as a policyholder.

    • Dear Reshma,

      As rightly said my Mohan, all Life Insurance companies are governed by IRDA with sizeable corpus deposited as Guarantee money. So please dont worry about the existance of private life insurance companies. They are surely going to be around for a long long time. For example Aegon is a 160 year old International Insurance, pension and investment company whereas Religare is a global financial services group with a presence across Asia, Africa, Middle East, Europe and America. Similarly Allianz from Bajaj Allianz and Prudential from ICICI are all giant global players who have tied up with regional corporate houses to provide Insurance to domestic customers in India. So please feel free and select any company without any second doubts. Just one advice, while disclosong facts to any insurance company disclose all facts correctly to ensure that you get claims without any hassle. Happy buying

      Reply

  47. Roshni is right ! Your blog is a mini-wiki for ignoramuses like me. I will discuss this with my dad.. these days I have (finally) started showing some signs of interest in ‘financial’ discussions 🙂
    Thanks Mohan!!!! How’re the exam preparations coming along?

    Reply

    • Thanks.. your comments pamper me more 😀
      Good to hear that. Earlier you start to plan your finance, better the benefits you reap!
      Still not into full study mode… Since it is going to be open book exams, I am not getting enough motivation :(. Good thing is that I have started to get up early (around 5 am!!) and cover some portions in bits and pieces.

      Reply

  48. Thanks for the info Mohan. Keep up the information flow. No newspaper has highlighted this information till now, that its way cheaper than other products in the market.

    Reply

    • You are most welcome! Yes, this plan hasn’t been advertised much in the media. Even I got to know about this plan via one of my blog readers comment where in he asked me to review it! All credits to him for bringing this plan into light 🙂

      Reply

  50. Will keep this on my mind for the next year investment quota 🙂
    Gud that u have written a mail to the manager .. see very less people using IE now 😉

    Reply

    • You are saying it wrong! Insurance should never be an investment… never link those two! that is the reason why we have this plan.. this is a pure insurance product. Which means, you won’t get anything in return upon surviving the policy tenure. All your premiums are completely towards risk coverage. That is why they are able to provide the insurance at a very cheap rate! Just to quote an example, if your age is 26 years and your insurance amount is 1 crore for a tenure of 25 years, the annual premium would be around just Rs 8,000/- !!!

      Reply

      • Oh my god …i didnt know about this term policy. One of my friends told about LIC term policy which costs arround 20,000 yearly premimum and it is as usual non refundable. And the coverage is arround 35 to 40 lakhs only. So how bad LIC is…!!!!!!!!!!Luckily i didnt go for it.
        Also i got locked in another LIC policy with annual premimum of 28000 last year which gives a death benefit of just arround 4 to 5 lakhs. People should increase their awareness to get rid of such junk policies from LIC and should start investing in private insurance policies…

        Reply

        • Only worry is that whether these private players will exist for long or will exit at some point in future?????????????

          Reply

          • Dear Manian,

            All Life Insurance companies are governed by IRDA with sizeable corpus deposited as Guarantee money. So please dont worry about the existance of private life insurance companies. They are surely going to be around for a long long time.
            For example Aegon is a 160 year old International Insurance, pension and investment company whereas Religare is a global financial services group with a presence across Asia, Africa, Middle East, Europe and America. Similarly Allianz from Bajaj Allianz and Prudential from ICICI are all giant global players who have tied up with regional corporate houses to provide Insurance to domestic customers in India. So please feel free and select any company without any second doubts. Happy buying

      • i am reviewing this policy for getting the insurance of 1 Cr. the two things are not getting clarified even the call center of Aegon religare is useless in this case. I will be thankful if you can clarify the same:-

        1. i am told by the rival Insurance companies that the term premium receipt for first year will at the declared value and from second year onwards the same will included the commission charges omitted in first year and hence make this policy dearer by 70% to 80% i.e in same league with other insurance companies.
        2. the policy mentions the underwriter approval and in case the agreement with this specific underwriter and the aegon religare is not renewed then the Aegon religare will be forced to lapse this policy and at that time getting new policy will be to0 costly due to the age factor.

        Can you please throw light on this.

        Reply

        • Hi Daljit,

          I agree with you that the Call centre at Aegon Religare is not doing a good job at answering customers queries. Please give us 14 days and we shall arrange for the needful. In the meanwhile to answer your queries:

          1) Your Premium amount is FIXED for the entire policy period – for whatever period you take the plan for. IRDA does not allow insurance companies to change premium during the policy tenure. So there is NO WAY you will ever be asked by ANY LIFE Inusrance company to pay more premium for any Term plan. You be 100% sure about that. Regarding other agents spreading such rumours, well Daljit I am sure you are a smart customer and you know every agent wants to earn commission and as such they want you to buy products from their company hence the false rumours. iTerm is a product which is sold online and as such does not have any agents commission involved and as thus its priced cheaply.

          2. Regarding you point no.2 – Underwriter approvals. I am not sure of what is your query here? Once you have taken the policy you are bounf to be conevered for the entire policy period, irresopective of any agreement that the company has with any body. It is an undertaking by Aegon Religare which is goverened by IRDA to pay you the mentioned amount in your Term plan, so there is no question of any changes there.

          Please feel free to write to me or call me for any queries that you may still have on iTerm or for any other product from any company. I shall surely solve all your queries with regards to iTerm and also try to teh best of my ability to answer queries related to insurance.

          Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *