INSURANCE


Moneylife Digital Team 16 June 2011
Conservative investors will still prefer bank FDs IDBI Federal Retiresurance Milestone Pension Plan is a single-premium pension ULIP. Only Life Insurance Corporation of India has come out with a regular premium pension ULIP after the 1 September 2010, ULIP changes by Insurance Regulatory and...

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Moneylife Digital Team 16 June 2011
Is it sustainable? Aviva Life Insurance launched i-Life online term plan with 20% lower premium than its next competitor. It boasts a Rs1-crore life cover at less than Rs22 per day. Is it a gimmick, considering that online term life insurance premium is already at rock bottom? It has a...

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Max New York’s Fast Track Plan is offering customers the opportunity to catch up on lost time and faster accumulation of wealth. The sales pitch is nothing short of mis-selling. Don’t touch it Max New York Life is offering customers "the opportunity to catch up on lost time" for those life...

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N Madhavan 16 June 2011
Our online survey shows that Moneylife readers are cautious; and consider term life insurance a good product Our survey on term life insurance shows that Moneylife readers are surprisingly prudent; they go in for term life insurance in large numbers. This finding contradicts the common...

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Bancassurance has under-delivered till now. Mis-selling by untrained personnel, fat upfront fees from insurers—ultimately drawn from customers—and lack of customer service has been ailing the ‘future’ of the insurance distribution channel The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority...

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Moneylife Digital Team 07 June 2011
LIC Jeevan Arogya Insurance offers comprehensive hospitalisation benefits, while Chola Healthline mediclaim even covers dental care and ayurvedic treatment under an ‘advanced’ option LIC of India has launched a new non-linked health insurance plan called Jeevan Arogya that offers...

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Should you buy insurance from agents, banks, over the Web... or other sources In an era of hi-tech distribution channels using mobile, Internet, distance marketing and other innovative channels, how should you be buying your insurance (health and life)? From banks, from individual or...

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Moneylife Digital Team 02 June 2011
Insurers will save money. But will they pass on the cost savings to customers? In a move to lower the costs for insurance companies and bring transparency to policyholders, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has issued guidelines for creating insurance repositories and...

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Moneylife Digital Team 02 June 2011
Even after joining a preferred provider network, some hospitals are still dodging cashless claims State-owned insurance companies are threatening to punish 30 hospitals in Mumbai for making their patients choose the ‘reimbursement’ system of insurance over the convenient ‘cashless’ scheme....

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Moneylife Digital Team 02 June 2011
Insure Smart Plan offers one of the lowest mortality rates Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance has launched an unit-linked insurance plan (ULIP)—Insure Smart Plan. The minimum premium is a hefty Rs50,000 annually with no maximum limit. It provides the option of highest NAV...

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Moneylife Digital Team 02 June 2011
The ‘Defined Growth Endowment Plan’ from Star Union Dai-ichi will fetch just 3.25% The ‘Defined Growth Endowment Plan’ from Star Union Dai-ichi allows a customer to know how much he would receive on the maturity date on the very date of taking the policy. The rate of return is low, but there...

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From 1st July, you would be able to switch your health insurer. What can you do with this facility and what are the limitations? Last July, Moneylife started receiving complaints from Reliance HealthWise policyholders about an incredible jump—of almost 500%—in premiums. If any supplier...

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Investing in ULIPs (Unit-linked Insurance Plans) to provide for your child? It might not be a good idea It bothers me to see so many plans for children being floated by insurance companies. They lure you with sentimental but irrational and false advertisements. All of them promise that if...

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Moneylife Digital Team 19 May 2011
Heavy losses in third-party cover prompt the move The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has raised the premium rates for third-party motor insurance policies by 10%-65% across different categories of vehicles and ownerships from 25th April. While third-party premiums for...

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IRDA has permitted health insurance portability from July 2011. There are several concerns about how it will work and whether it will really work. Moneylife Foundation took the lead to initiate a public debate on this important regulatory change and proposes to send a Position Paper to IRDA with...

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A common databank is needed to make portability work. We don’t have it Portability will be a non-starter if the features of a policy are not easily portable—as there would be many impediments from the consumers’ angle. There can be a huge issue among the insurers as well, if they cannot, and...

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You will need lots of support The terms and conditions of an insurance contract are not easy to understand. Buying correct health insurance is not easy; porting of insurance will be as difficult. You have to accept the terms of the new insurer and may lose some of the benefits you already...

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Current regulations allow banks to sell insurance from  only one life and one general insurance company. Should it change? Raj Pradhan asks the experts The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) set up a committee in 2009 to examine whether banks could be allowed to sell...

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Moneylife Digital Team 19 May 2011
This does not come as a surprise IRDA has warned that health insurance, motor insurance and other general insurance policies might turn costlier, with settlement claims going up. “The demand and supply position in the non-life industry will be such that prices should harden and I expect to see...

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Moneylife Digital Team 19 May 2011
The amendments made last year did not help the industry. Sales have tumbled after the new rules mandating a guaranteed return of 4.5%  for pension ULIPS  IRDA will come up with changes for pension products soon due to the dismal six-month performance of pension products. Before 1 September...

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