Here is the claim settlement ratio for Star health insurance for year 2020-21 and 2021-22( till Q3). This is a period when covid 19 stuck.
For Star Health Insurance 2020-21:
Number of Claims received- 11.1 lakhs
Number of claims settled- 8.48 lakhs
Claims Rejected- 1.53 lakhs
Claims pending- 93000
Claim Amount- 5249 crores
Claim Settlement Ratio- 76.5%
Claims Rejected-14%
To check latest quotes for 2021-22 and IRDA data for all insurers, please get a quote
5 Tips you must take care while taking a term plan
“Wait, wait; don’t sign it yet” I screamed “Have you compared the premium? Will that rider actually goanna benefit you? What is the Tenure?”
The scared couple glanced at each other and nodded “No”
“Huff! You guys literally inspect that tomato with a microscope, and here you are ready to take such big decision without considering other plans and future risks.”
Well don’t worry!http://trucompare.in just saved you by providing you the list of 5 points that you must take care while choosing your term plan.
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- Don’t choose term policy as your birthday gift
Term policy is directly proportional to your age. Thus, Premium increase with age, so don’t make unnecessary delay in choosing a term policy. For example, your premium increases the day you turn 20 from 19. So before the no. of candles increase on your birthday cake. Hurry up! Make the decision. - Take the term early in the life and for longer tenure If you have a baby of 1 year old and you are thinking of delaying in purchasing the term. Think again. You will have to pay higher premium as your child grows older due to the fact that as you grow older, health issues increases. Moreover, make sure you buy this policy for the maximum tenure. So, if you purchase the policy for 15 years and thereafter you plan to increase the tenure, you will have to pay higher premium because of increased age.
- Choose the Sum keeping future requirements in mind. Not taking the term insurance is an unwise decision and being insured even after taking it is a stupidity. Before you calculate the sum that would be required, make sure you keep in mind things like inflation, home loans, education loans, no. of children you are planning or their education or any other such plans you would be taking further in your life. Plan should atleast be 20X of your annual income.
- Choose a payout option as per your family needs
Term Plans also provides you with the different facilities of payout like monthly, lumpsum or a combination. Choose it as per your lifestyle and job stability. So, if you and your wife both are working and earning well, go for a Monthly plan. Now, if you people have taken the loan, then use combination of both lumpsum and monthly. This will ease you up as lumpsum will help you pay the loan and monthly payout can be used. - Choose a Rider wisely
Riders are extra benefit that you can avail by adding a small sum with your premium. These are the benefits like loss of employment cover, accidental death cover, disability cover, critical illness cover etc. This choice should be in regard with your lifestyle and job risks.
- Don’t choose term policy as your birthday gift
We are usually drawn to buy a term that has lowest premium but that may not be the right choice. Your plan should be according to your requirements.
Your guide to buying the best term insurance plan in 2017
Term insurance is the most important life insurance policy that we recommend to our clients. If you have bought a decent term insurance, then you probably don’t need any other life insurance policy. Here is a quick guide to buying the best term insurance.
Find how much term insurance can you buy
Usually companies will give a cover of 20-25 times of your gross income( in case of salaried) and about 10-15 times in case of self employed/business. For higher sums( 5 cr+) , it depends on case to case basis and is the final call is undertaken by the underwriting team of the insurer. Recently we had a client who was eligible for 13 cr term insurance, applied for 10 cr and got 7 cr cover!
Find how much term insurance premium can you easily pay on an annual basis.
I have seen many people discontinuing their premiums because after 2-3 years they suddenly find premiums to be too high and don’t see the value in paying them. After all a term insurance is not like a mutual fund which will grow in value as time passes! So choose a cover that you actually need and can easily pay for the next 30-35 years.
Choose the right duration for which you need cover.
I have seen many people go for very high duration covers. Many say that I need term insurance till 80! Here one should understand the point that term insurance is most needed between 30-60 years. This is the time when you are building your assets, your children are growing and your family is dependent on you for its finances. Post 60, you actually might not need a term insurance cover. For those who wish to cover their liabilities for a longer duration a cover up to 70-75 years is sufficient. So keep this simple and this should not be a big criteria to decide an insurer.
Avoid riders and extras
Insurers have this habit of complicating a simple product and they will keep on adding features to distinguish themselves from other players. This causes unnecessary confusion in the mind of the consumer. For example, take HDFC Life- first came Click2Protect, then click2protect plus and now click2protect 3D+. One can even expect 4D++ and 5D+++ in the future! Apart from an odd accidental death cover( if it is cheap), we recommend not to go with riders. Instead of buying that 2000 rs. rider, spend that money on buying extra cover if you can!
Compare premiums of online term insurance policies.
You don’t have to buy a term insurance policy from your broker as it will cost you about 20-30% higher. Always compare term insurance online and find plans that are the cheapest. You don’t want to pay a lot of money for a very simple product.
Compare claim settlement ratio of insurers.
Although IRDA has made it a rule that if you have paid regular premiums for 3 years, your policy can’t be rejected, I still recommend to go with players that have consistently high claim settlement ratio. At the same time, I won’t pay 30-40% higher for that policy. So anything that is cheap and above 95% should just work fine. As a matter of fact, claim rejection for 3 year+ policies is less than 0.1%.
Make correct declarations about your health and income.
I have seen many clients tempted to hide their health issues while filling up the online term plan proposal forms. Never do that. If you get a higher premium from one insurer , there are 10 others in the market. Giving wrong information is considered fraud and your claim is liable to be rejected. This defeats the whole purpose of buying a term insurance.
Choose a nominee and tell your family members about the policy.
Always choose a nominee for your policy and inform your family members about it so that they are aware of it. We have come across many clients whose families struggle to find the financial details of their deceased ones. As this is a product you are buying for your family, they need to know about it. They should know about the insurer, the cover you have taken and the duration of the insurance.Please note that the claim settlement process for an online policy is same as an offline policy.
IRDA Claim Settlement Ratio of Life insurance Companies in 2016-17
We have been tracking IRDA claim settlement of insurers for 3+ years.Here is the latest data on IRDA claim settlement ratio of life insurers in 2016-17( for which data is available). Most of the good insurers are now having 95%+ claim settlement ratios in 2016-17.
Max Life Insurance claim settlement ratio for 2016-17- 97.59%
HDFC Life claim settlement ratio for 2016-17-99.16%
ICICI Prudential claim settlement ratio for 2016-17-97.2%
Edelweiss Tokio claim settlement ratio for 2016-17- 93.29%
Kotak Life claim settlement ratio for 2016-17-92.59%
Reliance Life claim settlement ratio for 2016-17- 94.91%
SBI Life claim settlement ratio in 2016-17- 97.98%
Birla Sunlife claim settlement ratio in 2016-17- 94.21%
This also means that one can go for the cheapest term plan with 95%+ claim ratio. You can compare the data at www.trucompare.in/terminsurance
We are in the process of updating our website with the latest data.
What to learn from recent train accident near Kanpur?
Recently I asked someone- What did you learn from the recent train accident near Kanpur? And he gave me a long answer on -how to improve railway security, how Suresh prabhu should resign, so on and so forth..
But he never thought for a second that- this could have happened to him!! And if this were to happen to him, how will his family cope up with the situation- both emotionally and economically! Not to my surprise- he had never imagined such a situation because we never wish to think about death and the negative feelings associated with the same. As a mater of fact, we have been told to be optimism. But the sheer optimism of those 143 passengers couldn’t save them from death and the same optimism is not going to help the children who survived!
How many of those do you think would have a term insurance cover? Not many I guess..
So while it pays to be an optimist, one has to be prepared for worst scenarios in life- that is what will make you and your family navigate such situations in life!
So if you are still avoiding term insurance as it doesn’t give you any return- think again! You could have been one of the passengers in that train that hoped to reach its destination the next day! Think about the financial security this one decision of yours can provide can provide to your family.
So I urge you to have a quick term plan comparison and protect your family today.
Are interest rates headed even lower with demonetization?
I had written sometime back that interest rates are headed lower and so far that trajectory has held. With recent demonetization, the biggest impact will be on interest rates and don’t be surprised if 1 year FD fetches you only 5.5 to 6% from the current 7%.
With lots of deposits coming into the system and Govt. able to reduce its fiscal deficit, there will be a lot of downward pressure on the interest rates. With inflation around 4%, the real rate of interest in the economy should be around 5.5%. So if you are a saver, who believes in FD- you are on for a shock in the coming times as your post tax returns will fall to 3-4%.( which implies that it will take you 15-20 years to double your money!)
At the same time, lower interest rates will be good for the economy and might start a permanent bull market in equities. So it might be prudent to take a bit of risk to enhance your returns by investing in equity market.
Not taking any risk might turn out to be the biggest risk! So make volatility your friend and take the plunge.
Latest IRDA Claim Settlement Ratio in 2016-17 for life insurers
Update: Please check updated data for 2016-17( till March 31, 2017) here.
Here is the IRDA claim settlement ratio 2016-17 for a few term life insurance for which data is available .
- HDFC Life has settled about 23006 claims in 2016-17 while rejecting only 123 claims giving it a claim settlement ratio of 98%
- Max Life insurance has settled about 4137 claims in 2016-17 while rejecting about 77 claims giving it a claim settlement ratio of 93%. About 5% claims are pending.
- SBI Life has settled about 19856 claims with claim settlement of 91.6% till Sep 30, 2016
Hdfc Life has also given some statistics on why claims are getting rejected. This is for the first time we are seeing insurers giving reasons for claim rejection:
“Out of 53 repudiated claims,45% were repudiated due to non disclosure of existing health conditions, 19% were repudiated due to misrepresentation of age, 17% were repudiated due to income misrepresentation, 9% were repudiated due to non- disclosure of insurance with other insurance companies prior to our policy, 6% due to misrepresentation of occupation and 4% due to other misrepresentation.”
This information should help you avoid these mistakes while buying a term insurance policy.
To see the latest premiums and claim settlement ratio of term insurance , compare now.
Have you started planning for your retirement?
Whenever I ask people about retirement planning, they think that I am talking about a distant future which will be taken care of automatically. (I don’t blame them as it is psychologically difficult for people to take such a long term view of things).And when I show them how ill prepared they are for their retirement based on their current savings rate and investment returns, they get a rude shock!
Many people think that their income/expense levels will remain the same post retirement. Most of people working in the private sector won’t have the luxury of a pension in their retirement years. So it is our responsibility to build a retirement corpus that will last us for our life.
In India, most of the people start to work between 22-25 and retire by 60- a working life of about 35 to 40 years. With average age expected to climb up to 80-85 years in the coming times, one needs to be able to live of your retirement income for atleast 25-30 years. Have you really estimated your expenses and income during that time? Have you estimated your medical expenses?
I find people planning a lot for their kid’s education or their child’s marriage but never think or plan about their own retirement needs. Without any planning, you might have really difficult times meeting your expenses in your old age.
In the coming times, financial planning will not be a luxury but a necessity.
Mutual Fund Investing- How investing in direct plans can enhance your returns?
If you go to any mutual fund website- you will see the same MF listed under “Regular Plan” and “Direct Plan”. So you have a ICICI Pru Discovery Fund- Direct Plan and ICICI Pru Discovery- Regular plan. So what exactly is the difference between the two plans and which one should you invest in?
- If you look at their equity portfolios, both regular plans and direct plans have essentially the same stocks.
- The only difference is between their “expense ratio” which is like a fund management fee that the mutual fund charges from its investors. This ranges from 0.5 to 3% for many equity funds.
- Direct plans are funds that you buy directly from the mutual fund company without the intervention of any MF distributor/agent whereas regular plans are the plans where a part of your investments goes as “commissions” to the MF agent/bank/broker.
- Direct plans have lower expense ratios as compared to regular plans, thereby enhancing your returns by 0.5-1.5% in many cases. Take an example of ICICI Pru Discovery Fund that we talked about. The expense ratio of direct plan is 0.88% whereas that of regular plan is 2.16%- a difference of about 1.25% per annum. As a result direct plan has a 1 year return of about 1% whereas regular plan has a 1 year return of -0.25%. This is the money going into the pocket of your agent/advisor.
- So if you are DIY investor who knows which funds to buy, then you should definitely buy direct plans . If you are KYC compliant, you can buy directly from MF websites. If you first time investor, get yourself KYC complaint first .
We always recommend that you hire an investment advisor and pay him separately for portfolio management rather than paying unnecessary commissions on regular MF plans. Buying regular plans encourages MF agents to churn your portfolio more frequently as their incentive comes from extra commissions!
If you have any questions regarding MF investments, feel free to contact us. We construct efficient portfolios based on direct MF plans and diversify using asset allocation techniques rather than buying and selling 25 different schemes in the portfolio.
Should you buy term plans with return of premium?
It refuses to amaze me how the insurance industry will try to complicate a simple product like a term plan. As Indians are not ready to pay for insurance and still view it is an investment, insurance companies have manufactured a product that comes with a return of premium at the end of the tenure? Isn’t this wonderful? So should one go for such plans? Lets do some simple math to find out:
I had a look at Aegon Religare’s return of premium plan for a 30 year old non smoker male for a sum assured of 1 crore. The premium comes around 23,000 per annum and the coverage is only available till 50 years. Compare this to a normal online term plan which will cost around 8000 for 30-35 years.
Now lets compare the so called “returns” of these 2 options:
In return of premium plan, you’d invest 23000 every year and get back your 4.6 lakhs at the end of year 20. One of biggest drawbacks is that you are not covered in your 50’s !
In the normal term plan, you’d pay 8000 and get 0% return on the same.Assume that you manage to get about 7% on the remaining 15000/annum for the next 20 years. So what do you get here. A back of envelop calculation shows that you’d get around 660,000 after 20 years! That gives you a saving of about 2 lakhs plus you get covered till 70!
Now most of the people can’t do this calculation and fall into the trap of “securing their money” and insurers are happy to give them such fancy products.
Our recommendation is always to go with simple term plan. Put rest of your money into good investment products that can get you 8-12% returns!