Sample Term Insurance Quotes from various insurance companies

There was a very well researched comment on the forum the other day where reader SM Gupta had researched term insurance quotes from various insurers, and presented his findings.

You can see the comparison below.

Sample Quotes:

  • Age – 31 Years
  • Policy Term – 25 Years
  • Sum Assured: Rs. 50, 00, 000
Company Name Plan Annual Premium
Met Life India Insurance Met Protect Rs. 5,800
Aegon Religare Life Insurance iTerm Plan Rs. 5,900
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance iProtect Rs. 5,900
Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance E-Term / E – Preferred Term Rs. 6,370
Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance Preferred Term Plan Rs. 7,638
Bharti AXA Life Insurance Elite Secure Rs. 9,850
Future Generali Life Insurance Smart Life Rs. 10,050
HDFC Standard Life Insurance Term Assurance Plan Rs. 11,871
Aviva Life Insurance Life Shield Plus Rs. 12,243
Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance New Risk Care Rs. 13,540
Tata – AIG Life Insurance Life Raksha Rs. 13,900
Birla Sunlife Insurance Term Plan Rs. 15,332
LIC of India Amulya Jeevan Rs. 15,450

You can see that there is a wide range in these quotes, and the natural question is which one to of these policies should you choose. I haven’t double checked these quotes, but the ball – park seems right to me.

Unfortunately, I can’t answer that question since I’m not well versed with insurance, but I thought I’d post this here with my own thoughts, and also share what I have done myself as far as term insurance is concerned, and then leave it open for discussion.

When I searched for term insurance I found out about this wide range, and ultimately decided to go for a LIC policy even thought it cost more.

One of the primary reasons for opting for LIC was that we have known a particular LIC agent for a very long time, and he has provided my family excellent service in the past for car and other insurance needs.

We have had our share of Mediclaims and car insurance claims that have been processed without hassle, so that added to my confidence in going with him.

No one contemplates mortality, but if something were to happen, then I feel comfort in the thought that this gentleman is more likely to assist my family than a stranger.

The second reason is that LIC has a fairly high claim settlement ratio, and while I’m not intimately familiar with how these numbers are calculated  – it does inspire confidence that they payout on a large number of claims.

The third reason is that I plan to split the total insurance into two policies – one LIC and one other insurer, as that makes it easier to manage the insurance if in the future I decide that I don’t need so much cover, or if one insurer declines to pay, then at least there is the other one.  So far, I haven’t been able to get to the second insurance cover, but that was the initial plan.

The last reason was that while in percentage terms the numbers might vary a lot – in absolute terms it is not very significant, and I’m not too concerned with paying the extra money.

So those are some of my thoughts – please add to the discussion, as I’m sure a lot of you have dealt with the insurance question, and chosen one over the other. You can leave a comment here, or at the forum post.

89 thoughts on “Sample Term Insurance Quotes from various insurance companies”

  1. Missed out on this… The Claim Settlement ratio of Max New York Life Insurance (90% in case of term plans) is the best / highest in private sector and on the 2nd position (just behind LIC which has 95% Claim Settlement ratio for term plans) in the overall insurance industry.

  2. Hello All,

    The oldest & first ISO certified private insurance company in India has been missed out in this forum which is Max New York Life which I believe also offers the best and must have term plan in the insurance industry. Max New York Life offer Platinum Protect Term Plan and sample illustration is mentioned below

    Age – 31 Years
    Policy Term – 25 Years
    Sum Assured: Rs. 50, 00, 000
    Annual Premium Amount : Rs. 10,550/- (excluding Service Tax)

    Benefits which are not available in any other Term Plan
    1. USP of MaxNewYorkLife Platinum Protect Term Plan :- For a 30 Year policy Term pay premium for first 15 years and get a reduced 25% term insurance of Sum Insured Amount for next 15 years without paying any premium. For example, if a 25 year old man takes a 1 crore term policy for 30 years then if the person stops paying the premium from 16th year onwards (i.e., from the age of 40years to 55 years) then the company gives reduced Sum Insured of 25 lacs for next 15 years.
    2. A cost effective term plan.
    3. Low premium rates for non-smokers/preferred non-smokers.
    4. Optional Presonal Accident Benefit & Dread Disease Rider which cover 10 critical illness.
    5. Premium Discounts on High Sum Assured.
    6. Comprehensive Medical Report at the time of policy issuance.
    7. Tax Benefits under Section 80 C & Maturity Benefit under 10 (10D) are subject to changes in tax laws

    If you are interested, Contact me at 9967715560 / 9987095610.

    Thank You,
    Bhavna Gandhi

  3. You should consider your children as dependents and you require a term plan. An accident insurance plan is no substitute to a term plan.

  4. POLICIES MORE CHEAPER FROM TERM COVERS
    well thats a very good point do we need insurance if our spouse are capable of handling family finances single handedly chances of both dying due to illness are very remote particularly in age before 50 years.
    but both could die due to a road traffic accident in that case to ensure safety to our kids we should go for accidental policies which are even cheaper than term policies you could get 500000 lakh cover for 3000.
    this is based on medical statistics which shows that before 50 deaths are predominantly due to accidents not due to diseases

  5. Hi

    just want to ask 1 question. If claim is ten and one is rejected, and if claim is 100 and 5 are rejected….. can you compare the claim settlement ration on the basis of these figures??? LIC is very old body and no. of claims is very high compared to few rejections by new life insurance companies where no of claims are to less to conclude on ratios.

    LIC is a body which gives highest commision to its agents and its a laggard if it comes to innovation and reducing costs. please go through the post and you will find some logic why LIC term insurance policy is not the best.

    http://www.assettreat.com/2010/10/reasons-why-online-term-insurance-aegon.html

    1. The other aspect is as Loney pointed out that a lot of these insurers are less than 2 years old so they have a lot more claims that can be repudiated, and thus will get their ratio impacted.

      Just to be clear – I’m not saying in the post that LIC Is the *best*. I’m saying that it is one of the two insurers that I’ll select based on the rationale given in the post – one of which is a good settlement ratio.

    1. That’s a good thought for a future post – I’ll try to write something about it. In general though it should be who is dependent on you. How much do they need in a month, are there any big expenses lined up in the future, what other assets do you own, are any of them cash flow generating like a house that can be rented, and then come up with an amount that can be used to create a FD and earn interest from it.

        1. I wasn’t aware of this – does it sound right to you though? I mean when I think about it there is usually a marked difference between what you get in hand and what your annual salary is. So, a person whose salary may be 8 lacs may only be getting 6 lacs after taxes and other deductions in a year. So, keeping that in mind insurance of 60 – 80 lacs – sounds reasonable I guess.

          1. Manshu/Hema,
            Further, how about having no dependent or already having good money/assets which will cover for the person when he/she is not there. There are so many other factors which need to be considered when getting insurance.
            This week’s edition of Economic Times Wealth Newspaper (14-March-2011) provides good information on calculating the insurance amount required. Could not locate the online version of it, I guess if somebody tries a little harder/smarter he/she will be able to find 🙂

            1. @Manshu..the general rule is to calculate 7-8 times your annual income not salary but most insurance guys and experts suggest 10 times to be on the conservative side. But irrespective of whatever someone suggests its upto oneself on how he/she feels about what his/her dependents should get in their absence.
              @Vikas..insurance is generally taken, incase the primary bread earner or income generator is not there, the dependents are not left in the lurch. If someone does not have any dependents or if the family will not suffer significant financial loss because of the persons absence then there is no need for insurance. I did read that ET wealth management article.. it suggests 10 times the annual income which is to be considered after analysing whether you actually need the insurance. About the ET wealth paper…I too did not find an online edition..dont think they have one.

            2. Vikas – I haven’t seen the article but I don’t expect this to be all that complicated – misplaced confidence perhaps 🙂 I have a simple post today on my thoughts on how this can be calculated. Check that out too.

              1. @ Manshu,
                I agree, this should not be complicated 🙂
                Most of the people are under insured (KILB), we all are aware but I remember reading somewhere (don’t remember where, onemint ?) that due to term insurance being so cheap people are over insured .. why so .. misselling because of low awareness/understanding … not sure.
                Anyways, I’ll catch you on your new post 🙂

                @ Hema
                Agree with your rule of thumb; my point was that simply multiplying by 10 will not exactly help, we need to take into consideration other factors too. Not sure, as of now, what Manshu has in the new post for us, catch you too there 🙂

  6. Mr SM Gupta’s observations may be valid for him specifically. However, it is important to understand that the ranking/pricing offered by insurers will vary for each individual.

    This is because pricing of a pure term Insurance plan varies greatly, depending on many variables such as: age, sum assured, premium paying term, whether medical tests have been done or not, whether the insured is a smoker/non smoker etc.
    For Example, individuals such as a 25 year old male (non smoker) seeking a Rs. 10 lac cover for 30 years, a 35 year old male (non smoker) seeking a 10 lac cover for 20 years or even a 45 year old male (non smoker) seeking a Rs. 25 lac cover for 10 years, would find Future Generali Smart Life the cheapest option instead of the ranking in the table that Mr. Gupta has prepared.

    So remember, that one has to research the best plan-brand-premium value combination for their own specific needs (online portals, on the Internet are the best way to do that) and not go entirely with another person’s choice as it may not be the best option for them.

    1. Why is that Yuvraj? I mean from this comparison they are not even close enough so I’m curious how they could be cheapest?

      This is also a good time to disclose if you’re related to them in any way like a distributor or employee or something.

      1. Our intent when we responded was merely to ask readers to do their own specific comparison, given the variables (specific to each buyer) that directly affect pricing offered by various insurers.

        We are not claiming that we are the cheapest but merely illustrating with some examples that while FG may not be the cheapest when it comes to Mr. Gupta’s specific need/variables such as age, sum assured sought etc., they could be in others, and so for other Insurers too .

        One insurer could be cheaper in some segments while another cheaper in others but none across all.

        Readers should do their own comparison and identify which insurer is best for them.

  7. One of the reason for difference in premiums is that some policies cover death due to Terrorist Acts or War Like Activities while others do not cover such death.

    In todays world if Terrorist Acts are not covered, the policy is useless in my eyes.

    An ideal policy should cover all type of deaths. AFAIK, this LIC policy covers all types of death.

  8. In my experience it is cheaper getting term life insurance quotes online. Some of the bigger companies offer discounts when ordering online, because it is less work for them. But to be safe you could compare quotes online, pick the best offer and try a local agency to see if they can match it or do better.

    I recommend this site for online comparing:
    http://www.quotes-center.com/term-life-insurance-calculator

  9. Thanks Manshu and SM Gupta Ji for this list !
    Just don’t understand the reason for “Low” claim settlement ratio.
    If somebody dies, he/she is dead, now what can be the reason for an insurer to refuse the claim? If the reason is some issue in the filled in information, then what is insurer doing when they are taking their time to issue the insurance !!
    Would appreciate, if somebody can enlighten me on this.

    1. I’d guess this to be things like incorrect medical history declared at the time of getting the insurance. So, like they don’t really take blood tests for giving out policies of 20 lacs or lesser (to the best of my knowledge and experience), so if someone says they don’t smoke, and then get lung cancer after that then that might be a case for the insurer to investigate their smoking habit.

      I’m just guessing though, this isn’t based on first hand knowledge.

  10. maybe for year the difference is 10000 but for twenty years of term cover its more than 2 lakhs and for 5 members in family its 10 lakh rs.so you can now smell the dirt of comission

    1. That’s another good point actually – who should take term insurance? I mean if my parents are self sufficient and my wife working, then do I even need to take insurance?

      1. That’s a good point. That’s why insurance companies have this statutory information printed on all their information brochures that “INSURANCE IS A SUBJECT MATTER OF SOLICITATION”. Why would anyone who doesn’t have dependents (say, parents – self-sufficient, wife – employed) need an insurance policy? This is also the only point that insurance agents tend to ignore or disagree with or take exception to.

        1. Hi Loney/Manshu, Please reply to below query
          I have gone through to each and every comment but i have few doubts while choosing online policy
          1. Are all the online term insurance policy cover all types of death like death out site india due to any reason, tsunami, earth quake flood, terrorist attack etc
          2. I heard ICICI I Protect online policy do not cover above said deaths and metlife online polciy covers.
          3. Please suggest any 2 good online policy covering all sort of deaths with good claim settlement ratio with term insurance of 50Lakhs. I am at the age of 31yrs and want term insurance of 1cr.

          Regard
          Sumit

          1. Hi Sumit – I’m not familiar enough with online policies’ terms and conditions to be able to answer your question. Your best bet is to call them up and ask to meet with their agents.

            Again, I’ve not taken an online policy for myself, so won’t be able to recommend anything to you.

      2. well thats a very good point do we need insurance if our spouse are capable of handling family finances single handedly chances of both dying due to illness are very remote particularly in age before 50 years.
        but both could die due to a road traffic accident in that case to ensure safety to our kids we should go for accidental policies which are even cheaper than term policies you could get 500000 lakh cover for 3000.
        this is based on medical statistics which shows that before 50 deaths are predominantly due to accidents not due to diseases

  11. Thanks a lot Mr. Gupta and One Mint for sharing this with all of us. Can you also let us know how can we contact these insurance companies if i have to buy the insurance. If you have any links for the same pls do share with us.

    Thanks once again

  12. I agree with the earlier view that its better to save our hard earned money and take an online insurance than with LIC or any other provider who charge heavily since part of our insurance payment with them goes into paying commission to agents. You can actually take two online insurance with two different cos to diversify risk with the cost of one term insurance with LIC or get insured for double the amount.
    If all the information we have provided during the application stage is correct, there is no need to fear since there will be no grounds for the insurance co to reject our claims.

    1. Yes, Hema – I’d expect this line of reasoning to be correct, but then Religare which is the cheapest has much lower volumes than most others, so that makes me a little wary. Perhaps a combination of the cheaper ones, but not necessarily the cheapest.

      1. Hi,
        I have gone through to each and every comment but i have few doubts while choosing online policy
        1. Are all the online term insurance policy cover all types of death like death out site india due to any reason, tsunami, earth quake flood, terrorist attack etc
        2. I heard ICICI I Protect online policy do not cover above said deaths and metlife online polciy covers.
        3. Please suggest any 2 good online policy covering all sort of deaths with good claim settlement ratio with term insurance of 50Lakhs. I am at the age of 31yrs and want term insurance of 1cr.

        Regard
        Sumit

    1. Claims ratio will not give you a complete picture. Because, Claims on policies that have run less than two years are subjected to inquiry. Policies more than 2 years old can’t be called into question by the insurance company.
      LIC being the oldest insurance company has a very large number of old customers and has a very large number of policies that have been in-force more than the regulatory requirement. Hence the claims ratio would be very large. For newer companies, it is only now acquiring customers and most policies are new.
      If you want to analyze, consider only policies that have been in-force less than say 3 years in both LIC and private insurance companies and only then you can compare the two claims ratios.

      1. In Uk you do not have to but the rub here is that if the repair goes wrong and you are with the ineursrs recomended repairers they will take matters up for you but if you insist on your own reparer yoy are on your own if things go wrong. money always talks

      1. Loney – I was wondering how insurers repudiate polices older than 2 years old? There are quite a few of those in the ballpark of 10% and above for LIC. Is this the case of fraud or something?

        1. Policies that have run for more than two years can also be called into question, if it can be proved that the insured has wilfully withheld information in the proposal.

          1. The material facts should be established beyond doubt that the insured has willfully hidden information or has stated to the contrary.

            1. Thanks Loney – I was trying to find the Act or notification which lays this out but couldn’t get it. Will try some more, and see if I can see what this is exactly about.

              1. Section 45 of Insurance Act, 1938 states: In accordance with Section 45 of Insurance Act, 1938, no policy of life insurance shall, after the expiry of two years from the date on which it was effected, be called in question by an insurer on the ground that a statement made in the proposal of insurance or any report of a medical officer, or a referee, or a friend of the insured, or in any other document leading to the
                issue of the policy, was inaccurate or false, unless the insurer shows that such statements was on material factor or suppressed facts which it was material to disclose and that it was fraudulently made by the policyholder and that the policyholder knew at the time of making that the statement was false or that it suppressed facts which it was material to disclose.

  13. just gofor cheapest one nowadays as lic is the biggest commision giving body in this country crores of hard earned money of investors is given as commision without knowledge of investor .lets give a chance to direct investments and discourage dalali and commisions

  14. The main reason for the huge difference in the premiums is that the list contains two different classes of term plans
    1. Online term plan – The first few term plans in the list are online term plans which are not sold through intermediaries. You apply DIRECT with the insurer. So, since there is no agent commission to be loaded into the premium, the benefit is passed on to the customer.
    2. Term Plans – The rest of the plans are term plans sold through intermediaries and has a loaded commission.

    As you mentioned, diversification is good. I have two term plans
    1. LIC Anmol Jeevan – I
    2. Aegon Religare iTerm
    and the sum assured is equally divided between these two.

    1. Is there an easy way to identify these online insurers? I mean I know I could probably just go to their website and check out, but something easier than that?

      1. No. We should go to the website of the insurance companies one-by-one. But, now-a-days, online policies are prefixed with ‘e-‘ or ‘i-‘. So, that should be an indicator

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