What are ULIPs and how are they better than older insurance-cum-investment schemes? While you’re looking around for an insurance product, talk of unit-linked insurance plans (ULIPs) will come up time and again. Most insurance agents will try to sell it to you as the ‘best-selling’ product....

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The life insurance plan that would suit you may not be a single policy but a combination of policies that will cover different financial needs You need to buy life insurance when you start earning. The important question is: How much? What type of plan should you invest in? Your insurance needs...

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While most of us purchase some insurance—usually as a tax-saving instrument—few of us stop to think if the amount of insurance we have is enough to cover all our liabilities and provide for our families. While asking friends and colleagues might give you an idea, there is a better way of...

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The deluge of schemes offered by mutual fund houses, insurance companies and other financial services providers have only served to confuse investors rather than easing their troubled minds. Various schemes with colourful names have been vying for investors’ attention, without actually offering...

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Life insurance comes in a variety of plans to suit the needs of different individuals. Each insurer claims to offer its customers unique plans. Most of these are designed around some basic plans with add-on features. Here are some basic plans offered by most life insurance companies.

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It’s no secret that the insurance industry has been patiently bearing underwriting losses for a long period. Delayed break-even and expense overruns are just some of the headaches faced by insurance players. At the recently held CII Insurance Summit, industry experts discussed some of these...

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We all know that the first question a healthcare provider asks before starting any treatment is whether the patient is insured. We suspect that if we reply in the affirmative, the cost of treatment shoots up. No wonder several health insurers are reporting a negative claim ratio which means that...

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Do not mix insurance and investment, even though ULIPs have become a bit cheaper By putting a cap on what insurance companies can charge on unit linked insurance plans (ULIPs – really a mutual fund product), the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has made a good beginning....

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You can buy a variety of insurance products online. But what are the pros and cons? Shalini Amarnani explains The Internet has brought the marketplace into our homes. You can buy books, clothes, appliances, homes, services and even financial products online. Insurance products (other than...

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Insurance companies offer unusual cover for businesses and individuals. Pallabika Ganguly explores You have insurance for life, car and house. If you are a businessman, you take cover for things like marine cargo or fire that protects your goods. But did you know that you can buy some unique...

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Insurance companies and their incentivised agents push unit-linked plans through high-octane marketing. Avoid them. Unit-linked plans (ULIPs) have been dominating our collective conscience when we think about insurance plans. This is because of the hard-sell tactics of insurance companies...

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Unit-linked Insurance Plans come in many varieties, like tulips, but could turn out to be weapons of mass wealth destruction. Debashis Basu and Shailendra Lotlikar expose the truth behind ULIPs Mutual funds (MFs) aim to generate only returns, whereas a unit-linked insurance product...

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Will you continue to pay for a crime that you have not committed, asks Pankaj Kapoor Reports published by the Australian Institute of Criminology say that 10% of the claims paid by Australian insurance companies are fraudulent and they add about A$70 to the premium of each Australian policy....

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Emerging trends in the insurance industry will benefit consumers, predicts Pankaj Kapoor Like in aviation and telecom, as a motor insurance buyer, you are headed for good times. Till 2000, you just had four government companies to choose from. Since then, you had a wider choice of names, but...

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More and more senior citizens are travelling abroad. They must make insurance an essential aspect of their travel plans, finds out Gaver Chatterjee The overseas travel sector is booming. Last year, Indians made six and a half million trips overseas. While 55% of this was corporate travel, a...

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They look attractive but they wilt easily. Here is why insurance and stocks still don't mix even after the new regulations Mutual funds aim to generate returns alone, whereas Unit-linked Life Insu-rance Products (ULIP) offer an added benefit of insurance. Using this attractive but...

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