Types of Insurance

Any risk can be insured for a price. Hence there are many types of insurance such as Automobile Insurance, Business Insurance, Health Insurance, Life Insurance, Pet Insurance, Travel Insurance, Property Insurance, etc. This webpage will focus on health and life related insurance policies in India.  

There are following types of Life insurance policies

• Endowment Policy
• Group Insurance
• Joint Life Insurance Policy
• Loan Cover Term Policy
• Money Back Policy
• Pension Plan
• Term Life Insurance Policy
• Unit Linked Insurance Plans
• Whole Life Insurance Policy   

Other health related policies are

• Medical Insurance (Mediclaim)
• Travel Insurance

Insurance Companies in India

The following are the insurance companies in India.

1. Aviva Life Insurance
2. Bajaj Allianz
3. Bharti AXA Life Insurance Co Ltd
4. Birla Sunlife
5. HDFC Standard Life
6. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance
7. ICICI Lombard
8. IFFCO-Tokio General Insurance Co. Ltd.
9. ING Vysya Life Insurance
10. Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance
11. Life Insurance Corporation of India
12. Max Newyork Life Insurance
13. Metlife India Life Insurance
14. Reliance Life Insurance Company Limited (Formarly AMP Sanmar LIC)
15. SBI Life Insurance
16. Shriram Life Insurance
17. Tata AIG Life

Comparison of term insurance plans

Generally insurance agents shy away from recommending Term Insurance plans. This is because the term insurance plans have a very low margin for the insurance agents. MeraMD is the first site to provide detailed comparison of term insurance plans for your benefit.

The advantage of term insurance is that you are not paying the insurance companies to invest on your behalf, the downside is that you need to be disciplined enough to make good investments yourself. Term insurance gives you a much larger Sum Assured than other plans, for the same amount of premium, because its a pure risk cover.

The method used to compare the term plans costs across the insurance companies was this. We took the following parameters across all plans:

• Healthy male life, 30 years age
• Term of 25 years, with regular premium
• Premium paid annually
• Sum Assured of Rs 10 Lakh

The table below shows the premiums for different plans. Note that the plans have different limits with respect to entry age, maximum term, etc. So choose whatever suits you best.

	Policy Name	Min entry	Max entry	Max Age	Min term	Max term	Min SA	Max SA	Cost (Rs.)
Aviva	LifeShield	18	55	65	5	40	500,000	NA	3530
Bajaj Allianz	New Risk Cover	18	60	65	5	40	400,000	50 Cr	3730
Bharti AXA	Secure Confident	18	55	60	5	25	500,000	NA	2940
Birla	Term Plan	18	55	70	5	25	200,000	NA	3551
HDFC	Term Plan	18	60	65	10	30	NA	NA	3050
ICICI Prudential	LifeGuard	18	55	65	5	30	500,000	NA	3025
Kotak	Term	18	60	70	5	30	250,000	5 Cr	4602
Kotak	Term Prefered	18	55	60	5	30	250,000	5 Cr	3143
Max New York	Level Term	18	55	60	5	25	250,000	5 Cr	3050
LIC	Anmol Jeevan	18	55	65	5	25	500,000	3 Cr	3821
Metlife	Suraksha TA 60	18	60	65	5	25	50,000	None	3600
Reliance	Term Plan	21	60	65	5	25	250,000	None	3070
SBI Life	Shield -Level	18	60	65	5	25	300,000	25 Cr	2964
Tata AIG	Raksha	18	50	60	10	25	NA	None	2640

Additional notes for the above table:

• Most companies mention that taxes are extra. Some dont. Its been assumed that quotes are exclusive of taxes whereever the official website did not specify.
• Most companies provide additional riders, typically Accidental Death Benefit, Permanent Disability Benefit and Critical Illness Benefit. Some companies have other innovative riders like Waiver of Payment, etc.
• ICICI provides online purchase of risk cover for upto Rs 10 Lakhs if the life covered is in the 20-40 age bracket.
• Most companies have lower premiums for female life covers.
• The sum assured can typically be increased in increments of Rs 1 Lakh, while the term can be incremented typically in blocks of 5 years.

DISCLAIMER:
meraMD.com is not connected to any of the insurance companies listed above and does not recommend any specific insurance company. All rates and information given above is taken from the respective company websites, as of July 2007. meraMD.com is not responsible in case this information is outdated or no longer applicable.

Frequently Asked Questions

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