A fraudulent claim refers to a claim based on a false statement or false evidence.

The decision to purchase either a term or a whole life policy depends entirely on your needs and requirements. A term policy gives you only the benefit of protection; it comes with a lower premium and no maturity benefits. A whole life policy on the other hand gives you protection and savings. Some of these policies allow you to withdraw some part of the amount depending on your requirements during different stages of life.

Your insurance requirement changes at every stage of your life. So, it becomes crucial to keep reviewing your insurance portfolio with every development in your life. When you were single you needed a policy which would help you to create wealth for your future. Now, after marriage, your priority changes to protection and health. Along with corpus building policies you need a policy which gives security to your dear spouse, in case of your unfortunate demise.

Reinsurance is essentially a way of spreading the risk. Reinsurance is the method whereby one life office (insurance company) insurers a life, but passes on some, or all of the risk to another life office (reinsurer). Many life offices accept reinsurance business from other offices and there some specialist reinsurance offices, which do not directly insure end customers.

Third party insurance refers to cover taken by a person or a company on the life of another person. The beneficiary of the policy is someone other than the two parties involved in contractual obligation of insurance – i.e., the insuring company and the person paying the premiums.

Indexation is a unique feature offered by Aviva insurance in India. This feature allows you to escalate your policy size by increasing the sum assured and the premium amount, depending on the current inflation rate, that too without going in for any medical tests.

You priority should be a comfortable and healthy retirement life. You can purchase a health insurance plan and asset insurance plan along with your retirement plan.

ULIPs or Unit Linked Insurance Plans offered by insurance companies allow you to decide how your funds (net of charges and other fees) should be invested. They offer different type of funds options - some predominantly equity based, others with larger amounts of debt and money market instruments in their portfolio and some which have a balanced mix of both types of instruments. Conventional Plans, on the other hand invest your premiums (net of charges and fees, etc) on your behalf. They usually opt for low risk – low return options and offer guaranteed maturity proceeds.

Benefits of ULIPs over conventional plans:

• ULIPs give you flexibility of investment. As per your needs, requirement and convenience you can choose to invest either in equity, or in debt or in a hybrid fund.
• ULIPs are transparent and keep you informed about the percentage of the premium being invested along with the charges levied.
• Some ULIPs allow you to change your investment amount through ad hoc top ups to your premium.
• They give you the option of partial withdrawal and switching between funds (by paying some charges, if necessary).
• ULIPs also give you the option of a premium vacation.

Benefit of Conventional plan over ULIPs:

• Conventional plans offer fixed sum assured vs premium.
• Most conventional plans offer a loan in case of emergency.

With a conventional plan, you do not have to continuously monitor your investment portfolio; an expert manages it for you.

Endowment plans are assurance plans. These plans are defined for a specified period of time. The death benefit or the maturity benefits includes the sum assurance along with bonuses, if any. Money back plans also work like endowment plans but with a difference in the pay out of the sum assured. Rather than a one time payment, the sum assured is paid out in period rests to the insured, as specified in the policy. In the case of the death of the insured, at any time within the policy term, the death benefits include the full sum assured without deducting any of the periodic payments already made.

Some of the features which should be considered while comparing insurance polices include the level of coverage, the duration of the policy, liquidity of your investment and the charges that you have to pay. You should also take into account the surrender values and partial withdrawals or loans available to you. The best way to compare plans is via a standard illustration projecting your benefits on the same reasonable growth rate assumptions. And always remember to compare similar plans; don’t compare two unlike plans - like a ULIP with a term plan.