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Missed your insurance premium? Here’s what you need to know

 

In the hustle and bustle of modern life, it’s not uncommon for even the most responsible individuals to overlook something crucial. At times, that something crucial can be their insurance premium payment.

 

The importance of insurance is known to many, if not all – whether it’s safeguarding our loved ones with term insurance or shielding ourselves with health coverage. So, what transpires when you miss a premium payment? It’s a question that lingers in the minds of many. Let’s explore.

 

Understanding grace period

When you miss your premium payment, a grace period comes to your rescue. Typically, it is 15 days for monthly premium payments and a generous 30 days for all other payment intervals, such as quarterly, half-yearly and yearly. You can pay your missed premium within this grace period.

 

For health insurance

During the grace period, your policy doesn’t lapse immediately, but the coverage remains in a state of limbo until the premium is settled. You retain the continuity benefits, including the coverage of pre-existing diseases and conditions, but claiming any insurance benefit is contingent upon clearing the outstanding premium.

 

However, should you fail to pay the unpaid premium within the grace period, your health insurance policy is considered cancelled. In such a situation, you will need to purchase a new health insurance policy and go through the waiting period once more.

 

Nevertheless, there is a possibility that certain insurers may consider reviving your policy under only specific requests and conditions. This would be at the discretion of the insurer and could involve undergoing the entire underwriting process once again.

 

For term insurance

Your insurance coverage remains intact during the grace period. It’s recommended to pay your premium within this timeframe to avoid late fees. If you miss this window, you still have a chance to revive your policy.

 

You can revive the policy within the period stated in the policy’s terms and conditions. However (as checked by us), some prominent insurance companies like ICICI and Max Life state that the policy can be revived within five years from the due date of the first unpaid premium until the policy’s termination date.

 

But, it is important to note that reviving a lapsed policy involves paying the overdue premium with late fees and going through the underwriting process again, potentially affecting your premium and coverage.

 

Note: In case of an unfortunate event of the insured’s demise during the grace period, the insurance company will deduct the unpaid premium from the benefits payable under the policy. It’s a crucial reminder that your protection endures, but prudence dictates meeting the premium obligation within the grace period.

Ways to avoid missing your premium payments

Now that you understand the implications, how can you ensure timely premium payments and safeguard your financial security?

 

  • Date tracking: Set reminders to stay vigilant about due dates. Most insurance companies offer timely reminders, and they extend a grace period if you miss the date.

 

  • Automate payments: Consider setting up automatic payment mandates with your bank to ensure seamless premium payments. While this is convenient for term insurance, health insurance might require fresh bank mandates as its premium changes every year depending on parameters like age.

 

Remember, a lapsed term policy can be revived, but terms may not be ideal. If conditions are unfavourable, consider buying a new term policy for uninterrupted coverage. These strategies keep your financial safety net intact. Keep premiums paid within the grace period – your protection will be there when you need it most.

 

Source- Valueresearchonline

Insurance Solutions for Education Institutes

Wide Scope of Insurance

 

Key Points for clients discussion

 

 

Risk Mapping “Education Institutions”

 

 

Issues Faced by Institutions

 

 

Segments, Risks, Solutions –Educational Instt. Liability

 

 

Liability Risks –Schools & Colleges(CGL)

CGL Insurance

 

 

Salient features of CGL Policy

 

 

Comprehensive Coverage

 

  • Hazardous Sports: Covers injury/death to students due to participation in hazardous sports during trips sponsored by the school
  • Exchange Students: Covers injury/death to exchange students, while on your school premises
  • Food & Beverage: Covers injury/death to students or other 3rdparties arising out of food and Beverage served in school premises
  • Trips sponsored by the School: Covers injury/death to the students during sponsored trip outside school premises
  • School Bus: Covers injury/death to students due to transport facility provided by school
  • Terrorism Legal Liability: Covers legal liability due to injury/death to 3rdparties because of terrorist attack on the school
  • School Activities / Picnics: Injury/death of students during school/institute activities (on and away from the premises)
  • Swimming Pool: Injury/death of 3rd parties due to swimming pool related accidents
  • Fire / Flood / Earthquake/Tsunami: Injury/death of students inside the institute/school due to fire, flood or earthquake or tsunami
  • Food Poisoning: Injury/death of 3rd parties because of food poisoning at your institute
  • Lift Related Accidents: Injury/death of 3rd parties due to lift related accidents
  • Accidental Damage: To 3rd party vehicle parked in institute’s parking area
  • Lab Related Accidents: Injury/death of 3rd party due to an accident in school lab

 

Directors and Officers Insurance

 

Directors and Officers of an Institution have responsibilities towards various stakeholders like shareholders, regulators, employees. There could be high legal costs involved for such persons in case any stakeholder perceives that they have been negligent in their duties. The D&O policy provides the Insured Persons cover against such legal costs.

Coverage’s

  • Court awarded Damages
  • Out of Court Settlements
  • Defense Costs
  • Public Relations Expenses
  • Investigation Costs
  • Civil fines and Penalties wherever insurable by Law

 

Who does the policy protect?

 

  • Principal
  • Teachers
  • Other Staff

 

Employee Dishonesty Or Crime Insurance

 

Do these look familiar?

  • Generating fake invoices from a vendor and making payments thereof
  • Electronic Funds Transfer Fraud
  • Unauthorized fund transfers
  • Credit card abuse
  • Telephonic Misuse
  • Diverting money out of estates of deceased clients
  • Forgery
  • Fraudulent alteration
  • Counterfeiting
  • Trading in securities, to make gain for oneself

 

Crime Policy Coverage

RISKS ARE EVOLVING AND SO SHALL YOU….

 

EPLI Policy Coverage

 

Policy Highlights

 

  • Covers Loss of Insured arising from claims made against the Insured for Employment Practices Wrongful Act made in connection with the claimant’s employment or employment application (Section A)
  • Cover can be extended to cover Loss of Insured arising from claims made against the Insured by a Third Party (Section B)
  • Cover for New Subsidiaries

 

Policy pays for

 

  • Damages (including punitive or exemplary damages)
  • Front and back pay
  • Multiplied portion of multiple damages
  • Pre-judgment and post-judgment interest
  • Civil fines or penalties
  • Defense Costs;
  • Losses are covered on a Claims Made Basis

 

A case in point

 

Professional Indemnity

 

Salient Features of the Policy

 

The insurance covers Claims arising out of provision of professional services which are first made against the Insured, by a Third Party, during the Policy Period (or the Extended Reporting Period, if applicable) and reported to the Insurer as required under the Policy

 

Standard Extensions

 

  • Court Appearance Costs
  • Loss of Documents
  • Loss of Documents
  • Extended Reporting Period

 

A case in point

 

Source: ICICI

How to get free govt insurance for your bank FDs up to Rs 65 lakh

When a bank fails, the only respite a depositor has is the insurance cover offered by the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC). Though the insurance cover under DICGC was raised to Rs 5 lakh from Rs 1 lakh, effective from February 4, 2020, this amount can be inadequate for many depositors.

 

However, did you know that you can increase this insurance cover and enjoy a total cover of Rs 65 lakh or more without spreading your deposits across different banks? Read on to find out how you can get a cover of Rs 65 lakh or more in the same bank and same branch.

 

What are the types of deposits that enjoy DICGC insurance cover?
The insurance cover offered by DICGC works on deposits such as savings accounts, fixed deposits (FD), current accounts, recurring deposits (RD), etc. However, there are few deposits which are excluded such as the deposits of foreign governments, central/state governments, the state land development banks with a state co-operative bank, inter-bank deposits, any amount due on account of and deposit received outside India and any amount, which has been specifically exempted by the corporation with the previous approval of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

 

How does the deposit insurance work?
As per the DICGC guidelines, each depositor in a bank is insured up to a maximum of Rs 5 lakh for both principal and interest amounts held by her/him in the same right and same capacity as on the date of liquidation/cancellation of the bank’s license or the date on which the scheme of amalgamation/merger/reconstruction comes into force.

 

What this means is that all your accounts held in the same right and capacity whether savings or current account, FD or RD, will be clubbed and you will get only a total insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh. This amount includes both principal and the accumulated interest amount.

 

So, if your principal amount is Rs 5 lakh, then you will only get this amount back and not the accumulated interest on the deposits if the bank fails. However, if the principal and accumulated interest taken together is Rs 5 lakh or less, you will get the total amount back in claim if the bank fails.

 

Therefore, it is better to go by maturity amount of the deposits while calculating the insurance cover. Nevertheless, if you have a non-cumulative deposit, where you regularly earn interest, then you can keep the principal amount of around Rs 5 lakh as well.

 

Extra insurance cover with accounts held in different rights in capacities
If you hold deposits in different rights and capacities, each of your deposits will enjoy a cover of Rs 5 lakh separately in the same bank, as per DICGC guidelines.

 

“Depositors can open fixed deposits in the same bank, but in different rights and capacity. In simple words, if you open a fixed deposit in same bank as a joint holder with your spouse, brother or children, or you open a FD as a partner of a firm, guardian of a minor and so on, then all these FD will be considered as held in different capacity and different right, and each account will have the insurance cover up to Rs 5 lakh separately. So, ideally you should segregate your investment in FD, to enjoy higher deposit insurance coverage even in the same bank,” says Col Sanjeev Govila (Retd), a SEBI Registered Investment Advisor (RIA), and CEO, Hum Fauji Initiatives, a financial planning firm.

 

Let us understand how multiple covers of Rs 5 lakh can work on different accounts with an example of a family of six. Mr A and his spouse Mrs B have a minor son X and minor daughter Y, Mr C and Mrs D are the father and the mother of Mr A.

 

If Mr A, besides his individual accounts also opens other deposit accounts in his capacity as a partner of a firm or guardian of a minor or director of a company or trustee of a trust or a joint account, say with his wife Mrs B, in one or more branches of the bank then such accounts are considered as held in different capacities and different rights. Accordingly, such deposit accounts will also enjoy the insurance cover up to Rs 5 lakh separately.

 

As can be seen from the example, if you have 13 such separate accounts of Rs 5 lakh each, then you can get an insurance cover on each of these accounts, and thereby enjoy insurance cover of Rs 65 lakh (5 x 13 = 65).

 

Govila adds: If you want to make an FD of Rs 10 lakh in a bank which is offering better interest rate than another bank, you may invest Rs 2.5 lakh in FD as an individual investor, Rs 2.5 lakh each as joint investor with your spouse and child where you are the first holder, another deposit of Rs 2.5 lakh as a joint investor with your spouse (here your spouse should be the first holder). By doing so, all your FDs will be treated as separate accounts and each one will be ensured for up to Rs 5 lakh each.

 

Where this won’t work: However, the separate insurance cover does not work if you have a proprietorship account along with an individual account. In this case, your proprietorship account will be clubbed with your individual account and you will get a total insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh.

 

Does the DICGC insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh apply for all banks?
All commercial banks including branches of foreign banks functioning in India, local area banks and regional rural banks are insured by the DICGC. At present all co-operative banks are covered by the DICGC. However, deposits in primary cooperative societies are not insured by the DICGC. Moreover, deposits in any NBFC or HFC or corporate entity do not enjoy this insurance cover.

 

What you should do
Preservation of capital remains the highest priority for a majority of FD investors. Banks have traditionally been the most trusted institutions when it comes to safekeeping of public money.

 

However, this has changed of late. In the recent past, we have witnessed many instances where the financial stress and failure of several banks in India (like YES Bank, PMC Bank) have shocked conservative investors who invest their savings in bank deposits or keep it tucked away in bank savings accounts.

 

It is said that you should not put all your eggs into one basket. The same can be said about your deposits as well — do not put all your money into one account or FD. The best way to ensure the safety of your bank deposits is to make sure that you make deposits in different rights and capacities while keeping the maturity amount up to Rs 5 lakh in accounts held in the same right and capacity.

 

Source: Economictimes

What is Underinsurance & The Dangers of Being Underinsured

It has been noticed that people in India do not understand the necessity of buying insurance policies. The insurance penetration in the country is noticeably lower as compared to the universal average. Even most of the insured people in India are grossly under-insured. If you are someone, who comes under this category, it is important that you understand the consequences of being under-insured and take action to secure the future of your family.

 

What is underinsurance?
To understand what is underinsurance, you have to know the goal of a life insurance cover. It is designed to provide financial cover to the family of the policyholder in case of their untimely demise. Under-insurance is the condition where the life insurance cover is not enough to take care of the financial needs of your loved ones. It means the sum insured by your policy is not adequate. Underinsurance can put your family in a financial crisis when you are not there to take care of them.

 

Example of underinsurance
Imagine if your current lifestyle requires ₹50 lakh as financial support for your family for the next five years, but your term insurance cover is ₹30 lakh. That means you are under-insured by ₹20 lakh.

 

Reasons for being under-insured
Now that you understand the underinsured meaning, you need to know what results in underinsurance. These are some of the most defining reasons:

 

Investing in insurance to save taxes
Most life insurance products come with huge tax benefits. So, many people buy insurance policies to save taxes and forget that the main purpose of life insurance is to offer death benefits. Hence, they end up settling for underinsurance.

 

Greedy agents
Most insurance agents try to sell you products that can ensure them a hefty commission. Hence, they do not prioritize the benefit that you require. This results in underinsurance.

 

Wrong product
There is a huge range of life insurance products available. However, not every product is designed to meet the needs of every single policyholder. If you end up buying the wrong product, you will either unnecessarily pay a higher premium or end up with an inadequate cover.

 

The risks of being under-insured
There are many disadvantages of being underinsured, and the biggest one is that your family will suffer financially when you cannot be there for them. They will receive less than the amount of money they need to meet their financial responsibilities. It also means what you invest as a premium will be wasted.

 

Underinsured Renovating Cost
Similarly, when you only insure your building’s market price and not the re-build cost, then you’ll lose the insurance amount you have put while re-building it or renovating it.

 

How to identify when you are under-insured
A term insurance plan can be a very fruitful investment if you are not underinsured. So, how do you even know when you are underinsured? Firstly, you have to calculate your yearly household expenses, which must include rent, bills, groceries, and repairs. Add to that the loans that you need to repay and the investments that you hold. Also, do not forget to include the expenses for your children’s education and marriage.

 

Once you have an idea about the yearly average expense, multiply it by 15, and that number is the required sum assured to make sure that your family will be financially covered for a long time.

 

You can consider buying online term insurance, as that way you can easily compare different products and their specifications. This will ensure that you buy a suitable life insurance plan for the family.

 

What happens when you are underinsured?
The most serious risk of under-insurance is that it produces a false sense of security in the mind of the individual acquiring the life insurance policy, which is actually worse than not having any protection at all. Only after an unexpected incident does the family realise that the quantity of insurance is insufficient to pay off obligations, let alone develop a corpus for the children’s education and a replacement income stream, etc.

 

This is covered in underinsurance

Term insurance
It is much better to keep investments and insurance separate than to combine them, and term insurance allows you to acquire a lot larger cover at a fraction of the cost.

 

Furthermore, in a growing economy like India, where inflation is causing prices to rise on a daily basis (especially medical and educational inflation, which is in the double digits), 10 lacs today will not have the same value as it will ten years from now and will certainly not provide you with the same purchasing power. As a result, treating insurance purchases as a one-time “fill it, close it, forget it” activity is insufficient.

 

Underinsurance vs over insurance
Underinsurance generally means that your out-of-pocket healthcare costs exceed 10% of your family income or that your deductible exceeds 5% of your income.Underinsurance can lead to people going without medical care or incurring debt.Insurance add-ons can help fill coverage gaps, but they are not cheap.There are free and low-cost healthcare services available for the uninsured and underinsured.

 

Source: Kotaklife

How to choose a term life insurance plan

Term insurance plans were introduced with a very basic structure – the plan will offer a sum assured upon the death of the policyholder, will provide coverage till 65 years and premiums can be paid in only the annual mode. However, it started getting more complex, when more and more insurers started offering online term life insurance plans. Today there are – limited pay plans, increasing cover plans, staggered payout plans, return of premium plans and dozens of combinations. While this profusion of choices is good, it is also becoming a problem for most of us to decide which plan to buy.

 

In this blog we will tell you about the most important variables to consider to make the process of choosing a term insurance plan.

 

And, here are the 5 things to consider when buying a term life insurance plan.

 

Number 1: Calculate how much term insurance coverage you need:

 

Your term life insurance coverage should broadly assess how much money your family would need if you were to meet with an untimely death. The best way to do this is to grab a piece of paper and start calculating the following.

 

• One, estimate your dependent family’s monthly expenses and multiply it with 150. The multiple of 150 factors in future inflation.

 

• Two, add your liabilities on the account of home loan, personal loan, credit card bills.

 

• Three, deduct all the liquid assets you already have in the form of FDs, stocks or mutual funds.

 

• Four, add your expenses planned on the account of important life goals that are likely to happen in the next 15 years. Like your children’s higher studies or their marriage.

 

• Five, add the retirement corpus that you would want to leave for your spouse on his or her retirement.

 

Number 2: Determine the tenure of your plan:

 

Once you know how much coverage you need, it is important to know till what age you would need it for. The tenure should not be too little as the policy might lapse before your financial obligations are completed. At the same time, the tenure should not be too long because the premium charged would be too high on the account of the higher tenure.

 

The right way to estimate the tenure of your term life insurance plan is to determine by what year your liquid net worth, i.e. the total investment you have in mutual funds, provident fund, stock, etc after subtracting your liabilities, will be more than your term life insurance cover that we have calculated in the earlier section.

 

The age at which these two numbers coincide should be the age till which you need coverage. Post that, your assets will be enough to take care of your family in your absence.

 

Number 3: Target the highest Peace-of-Mind per rupee premium:

 

Here, we use the term Peace-of-Mind rather than coverage per rupee of premium because consumers often value some key intangibles while making a decision.

 

For choosing a term plan, these factors could be the stability of the insurance provider or its reputation in the eyes of the policyholder. Term life insurance is a long-term contract, often running for 30 to 50 years. Hence, it is important for you to be happy with your decision about the insurance plan you have picked, which would be a combination of the premium you pay and your perception about your insurance provider.

 

 

Number 4: Choose your add-ons wisely:

 

Term life insurance plans offer riders at a reasonable cost which should be certainly considered by you even if they might not fit your requirement.

 

There are four major riders that are available:

 

• Additional cover for death due to accident:

In case you die due to an accident during the policy tenure, this amount would be paid to you in addition to the basic sum assured.

 

• Cover for critical illness:

A lump sum amount is paid to the policyholder on being diagnosed with one of the diseases which has been mentioned as a critical illness in the policy by the insurer.

 

• Waiver of premium on disability:

If the policyholder becomes permanently disabled during the policy tenure, the future premiums for the policy would be waived off.

 

• Waiver of premium on critical illness:

If the policyholder is diagnosed with one of the critical illnesses mentioned in the policy during the policy tenure, the future premiums for the policy would be waived off.

 

Of the four riders, two riders, i.e. waiver of premium on disability and waiver of premium on critical illness, come at a low premium. The rider for critical illness cover is the most expensive. Hence, you have to run sum research to find out if the additional benefits match up with the premium charged. And read the fine print of all the add-ons as they tend to be different for different insurance companies.

 

Number 5: Broadly look at the claim settlement ratio:

 

Claim settlement ratio usually attracts a lot of consumer attention. It indicates the efficiency at which the policies are settled by the insurance company. So when you see the 95 percent in the claim-settlement ratio column, it means 95 out of the 100 claims reported to the insurance company were settled.

 

However a word of caution here. The claim settlement ratio is merely an indication. If the claim settlement ratio of a company is more than 95 percent, then the company has been very efficient about settling claims. You really don’t need to go much deeper into it to see who has 99, or who has a 98.5 percent ratio. You should consider the claim settlement ratio as a filter rather than a key decision-making criteria.

 

Bottomline:

 

Term life insurance is a long term contract between you and your insurer, and it will benefit your family when you are not there. It is in your best interest to choose the right plan for your family by considering all the five factors discussed in the article.

 

Source: ETMoney

Export Credit Insurance – an overview

Our Credit Insurance Policy is designed for companies that are selling their goods and/or services on credit to overseas buyers. This policy provides coverage to companies for outstanding receivables that are within approved credit terms, thereby protecting the Insured against non-payment risk by its buyers.

 

Scope of cover

 The policy covers loss due to any or all of the following risks:

 Commercial Risk

 Non payment by the buyer – protracted default

 Insolvency of the buyer

 

Political Risk

 

 Military or civil war, revolution, riot or insurrection

 General moratorium on payment by the government of buyer’s country

 Cancellation of import license

 Government decision preventing performance

 Political events, economic difficulties, legislative or administrative measures preventing payment

 Non payment by government buyer

 Premium

 The premium is expressed as a rate in % of the insurable turnover

 

Basis of premium calculation:

 

 Extent of coverage sought

 70% / 80% / 90% of the individual bill

 Risk rating of business sectors

 Countries included in the portfolio

 Insured turnover

 Trade losses of insured

 Exclusions

 

Significant exclusions are:

 

 Non-payment arising due to trade disputes

 Sales to a private individual who intends to use the goods or service for non-professional purposes

 Sales to an associate company (political and AOG risk can be covered)

 Sales contracts where payment is received in advance

 Sales under irrevocable and confirmed Letter of Credit

 Loss due to foreign currency fluctuations

 

Nuclear risks

 

A war between two or more of the following countries: France, China, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America
A war between the Insured’s country and the country of the buyer

 

Source: ICICIlombard

What is Trade Credit Insurance?

Your business is likely to be affected by risks which are beyond your control. These entail commercial and political risks. Trade credit insurance has been especially formulated to protect the policyholder’s business against risks which are beyond their control. A comprehensive trade credit insurance policy ensures improvement of bottom line quality, increase profits and reduce risks of unforeseen customer insolvency. You can also offer credit to new customers. This improves funding access at competitive rates. This is an insurance for short term account, due within 12 months.

 

Benefits of Trade Credit Insurance Policy:

 

Trade Credit Insurance has many benefits, they have been listed below –

 

 It protects your business against risks which are out of your control.

 It improves bottom line quality of the business.

 It increases profits and reduces risks of unforeseen customer insolvency.

 It lets you offer credit to new customers.

 It improves funding access at competitive rates.

 It protects from anticipated earnings restatement.

 It optimises bank financing. This is done by insuring trade receivables.

 It supplements credit risk management.

 

Trade Credit Insurance Covers:

 

Trade Credit Insurance provides coverage against commercial and political risks for your business. This insurance helps companies attain goals by turning over their sales into cash conversation.

 

 Covers the complete turnover with stipulated limits. This is done for top purchasers. For small purchases the limit is discretionary.

 

 This insurance provides coverage to large purchasers of clients.

 

 Open accounts sales-export and domestic are protected by trade insurance against non-payment from the purchaser. This can be caused due to buyer insolvency i.e. if the buyer declares bankruptcy of business, buyer doesn’t declare bankruptcy but is unable to pay (protracted default), political risk like inconvertibility of currency.

 

Who is Trade Insurance ideal for?

 

As mentioned, Trade Credit insurance assists companies who sell their goods on open account basis. They seek protection by manufacturers and wholesalers, who dispatch goods on credit. This targets both domestic and off-shore customers.

 

Example of credit insurance

 

Say your company has profit margin of 5%. But one of your buyers piles up a debt of Rs. 100,000 on you. In this scenario, you need to create enhanced sales worth Rs. 2,000,000. This is required to compensate for lost profits. If your company faces non-payment, it makes your company weaker by reducing your company’s investment power. If you have a comprehensive credit insurance policy, you can handle the account receivables and lessen the losses of the company in case there is a non-payment. This type of insurance is tailor-made according to the size of your company, the type of business, business needs and the sector your business belongs to. This insurance is extended from small-medium entreprises (SMEs) to large multinationals.

 

Trade Credit Insurance Claims settlement process:

 

It is a quick and hassle free process to settle your trade insurance claim. Just ensure that you furnish all the essential documents (valid and duly filled/stamped) with your claims from. For further details on this, seek assistance from your insurance provider.

 

The aforementioned reasons clearly show how buying trade credit insurance is a smart and wise choice. But before you settle down with buying a certain policy, make sure that you do a thorough groundwork and identify your requirements, i.e. exactly what do you need the trade credit insurance cover for.

 

Source: Bankbazaar