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Life insurance products

E-nabling sensible shopping

12thAug 2001

Till now,'choice' was not a word you associated with buying life insurance.If you wanted a life insurance policy, you got in touch with the nearest LIC agent and that was it. But not anymore.

With a host of new players offering life insurance products, you can actually shop for life insurance on the Net. In fact, a few of the insurance Web sites may be worth looking into, even if you have not taken a particular fancy to their products. With the pletohra of online calculators and investment tools, you can use the sites as your personal investment adviser.

A handy ready reckoner
A good starting point fo those wishing to take a look at the range of life products offer would be bimaonline.com - a portal dedicated to insurance products. This site comprehensively lists the different players in both the life and non-life businesses along with their product range.There are several valuable features to facilitate the choice: 1) It lists products from various insurers classified by purpose. 2) It offers a search facility by policy name. 3)It has a module allowing you compare similar products from different players. 4)It allows you to locate agents classified by company and location. 5)It aslo has modules with articles on insurance products and on the insurance business.

Bimaonline.com offers basic details on the products offered by various insurers. But once you decide to go for a product, it may be a good idea to browse through the web sites of the individual insurers. Apart from more in-depth information on their products,several sites offer tools and calculators that can make your decision-making easier. Most of the insurance Web sites offer certain basic features. 1) Basic details of the various products classified by type (endowment,whole life,money back and so on). 2)A primer on insurance basics(why you need insurance,glossary of insurance terms and so on). 3) A section on the various tax benefits of insurance products on offer. 4) A 'contact' mechanism whereby you can get in touch with their nearest branch office or marketing personnel.

But the following additional features are definitely worth looking into:

Why do I need life insurance:

Practically every insurance Website has a module outlining the basics of life insurance , and why as individual would need to go in for an insurance policy.

A few Web sites also throw in other personal finace topics. Birlasunflife.com,for instance,has a comprehensive Financial Zone which answers some interesting queries such as : How much should I save for retirement? Is it better to spend more? and so on. Licindia.com is,probably,the only site without an elaborate module on insurance basics. This would be a good inclusion to the otherwise comprehensive Web site.The FAQ sections on hdfcinsurance.com and omkotakmahindra.com may help address some key queries about specific products.

Finding the right policy:

Confused about whether you go in for a whole life policy or an endowment policy?. Having trouble figuring out whether a money-back would suit you?Check out iciciprulife.com and maxnewyorklife.com.

Both of these offer seperate modules that help you figure out what kind of insurance product would be most suitable to you, based on your current stage in life and your financial profile. While iciciprulife.com offers a Product Allocator that chooses a product based on inputs you key in, maxnewyorklife.com lists out the key circumstances which each product would fit. Other Web sites also offer products listings,in most cases classified according to a purpose.

Whats is the extent of cover I need:

Both iciciprulife.com and maxnewyorklife.com address this question squarely. ICICI Pru's Life Insurance needs calculator suggests a rough life cover based on certain inputs regarding your lifestyle,lifestage and other circumstances. Max New York Life also has a similar calculator on its Web site.

What is the premium I pay:

Licindia.com offers a comprehensive premium calculator for all of its products listed on the Web site, so you can determine your premium obligation quite excatly for the LIC product of your choice. The site also offers a bonus calculator that allows you to determine the guaranteed bonus at the end of the term. But most Web sites of private sector players do not incorporate details,either of the premium payable or bonuses on the schemes. This appears to be partly because private players offer several flexible plans,in which it is possible to combine benefits of two or three plans into a sigle customised product. A few Web sites such as that of OM Kotak Life Insurance provide an indiciation of the minimum premium payable under each plan. For exact details of premia in the case of private insurers,get in touch with the authorised agents listed on the site.

What are the tax benefits I get:

Web sites such as licindia.com ,birlasunlife.com offer tax calculators that enable you compute you income-tax obligation after taking into account the tax benefits available on your insurance policies.

How do I buy a policy:

Most Web sites offer contact numbers of their branch officers where you can get further details of the products on offer. The Agent locator feature,available on maxnewyorklife.com,iciciprulife.com and on bimaonline.com help you locate an insurance agent most accessible to you based on a search facility.
One would expect downloadable proposal forms on insurance web sites , but these are missing in most cases.
Only licindia.com seems to offer downloadable proposal and claim forms for a few of the schemes.

Si(gh)te your life insurers on the web

Life insurance companies
LIC of India	www.licindia.com
OM KOtak Mahindra	www.omkotakmahindra.com
Max New York Life Ins	www.maxnewyorklife.com
Birla Sun Life	www.birlasunlife.com
ING Vysya Life	www.ingvysyalife.com
HDFC Standard Life	www.hdfcinsurance.com
ICICI Prudential Life Ins.	www.iciciprulife.com
Portal on life insurance	www.bimaonline.com

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