The product covers risks of pregnancy complications, child with congenital disorders, cancer in female organs and death of spouse besides death of the insured covered by regular ULIPs. Ensure that you know the fine prints before buying the product

HDFC Life has launched “Smart Woman” targeted for working women of the age of 18 to 45 years, policy term options of 10 or 15 years and maximum sum assured of 40 times annualized premium, which has an annual limit of Rs1lakh. It is an innovative unit-linked insurance plan (ULIP) covering risks of pregnancy complications, child with congenital disorders, cancer of female organs and death of spouse. While death of the insured is covered by all the plans, the other features vary in the three benefit options offered by the insurer. It is important to understand the exact risks covered in each product features.

It is a first ULIP covering woman centric features. Smart Woman product fine print is that only specific pregnancy complications, which may be rare occurrences, are covered. E.g. it covers disseminated intravascular coagulation which needs treatment with frozen plasma and platelet concentrates, postpartum hemorrhage and molar pregnancy. The positive aspect is that the coverage for this feature is till the age of 40 years. There is higher risk of pregnancy complications with woman’s age.



On similar lines, the birth of a child with congenital disorders covers specific events of surgical repairs of specified child defects and diagnosis of Down’s syndrome. The advantage is that the cover for these defects is till age of 40 years at the time of the child’s delivery. There is higher risk of birth of a child with congenital disorders with woman’s age. A child with congenital disorders can cause financial burden on the family.

Being a ULIP, it comes with host of charges like Premium Allocation (PA), Policy Administration Charge (PAC), Fund Management Charge (FMC), Mortality and other risk benefit charges. Buyers need to be aware of all the charges.

PA – It is 2.5% till year 10. PA rate is 97.5% till year 10 and 102.5% from year 11 to 15. It means it gives back 2.5% from year 11 to 15.

PAC – 0.4% per month. Inflating from 6th year onwards at 5.5% p.a. It is subject to maximum of Rs500 or 0.5% of premium per month, whichever is lower. This charge is high, but is in line with other products in the market considering PA + PAC together.

FMC – 1.35% p.a. of the fund value.

Mortality and other risk benefit charge – There will be mortality charges for life cover of the insured as well as charges for other risk benefits like pregnancy complications, child with congenital disorders, cancer of female organs and death of spouse.  

The mortality charges for life cover of the insured are higher than in the standard LIC mortality table. E.g. HDFC Life Smart Woman mortality charge per Rs1,000 sum at risk is 1.7489 for insured of age 28, which is same as its other HDFC Life products currently in the market. LIC standard mortality charge for the same parameters is 1.166, which is much lower. Moreover, this HDFC Life product is for women and it should have lowered the mortality rates; many insurers offer a lower rate based on the woman’s longevity.

The other risk benefit charges (also called morbidity charge) vary depending on the chosen benefit options. While the mortality charges are guaranteed for the policy term, risk benefit charges are guaranteed only for period of three years from commencement date of the policy. This could change depending on the actual morbidity experience of the insurer.

There are woman-specific critical illness products in the market from Aegon Religare Life (rider) and Bajaj Allianz General. LIC’s Jeevan Bharathi–I, a traditional product, has a congenital disability benefit rider.