Life Insurance
HDFC Life
Founded in 2000, HDFC Life is a leading life insurance company having a country-wide presence with 390 branches. In fact, coming from a solid lineage of the biggest private bank, today HDFC Life has become the 3rd largest private life insurer in the country. Its product offerings span across term insurance, savings plan, unit-linked plan, and also group.
| Annual Business | ₹27,490 cr. |
| Claims Settled | 99.20% (avg. of last 3 years) |
| Claims settled within 30 days | 95.16% |
Term Insurance offered by HDFC Life
Click2Protect Life
Click2Protect Life is one of the most popular term plans in the market. It provides a range of comprehensive options so that you can choose whatever best suits you and your progressing lifestyle. Also to enhance your plan further, there are three riders and three add-ons you can opt for by paying a slightly extra premium.
Plan options under Click2Protect Life:
- Life Protect:
This is the most basic type of plan. Just how a term plan works. If you die, your family gets a lump sum death cover. That’s it.
- Income Plus:
Under this plan option, your family gets death cover when you die. But there’s also a survival benefit. When you turn 60, the insurer starts paying a monthly income of 0.1% of the sum assured. This income continues till your death or completion of the policy tenure, whichever is earlier. However, keep in mind that the sum assured paid to your family is reduced by the amount of income already paid.
- Life and Critical Illness (CI) Rebalance:
Under this plan, your sum assured is split between death cover and critical illness payout. At the start of the policy, death cover is set at 80% and CI benefit at 20%. Thereafter on every renewal, the death cover decreases, and the CI benefit increases by the same amount. Say you buy a sum assured of 1 cr with 80 lakhs of life cover and 20 lakhs of CI benefit. On the next renewal, 80 lakh will reduce to 78 lakhs and the critical illness benefit will increase to 22 lakh. On diagnosis of critical illness, you’ll be paid the CI amount and the death cover will continue from thereon. The idea behind this plan is that as you get older, the chances of you getting a chronic illness are very high.
Add-ons available under the policy:
- Return of Premium:
You get back all the premiums you paid if you survive after the policy matures.
- Waiver of premium on CI:
If you’re diagnosed with any of the listed 36 critical illnesses, all your future premiums will be waived off. Meaning you don’t have to pay the premiums but your policy will still be active
- Accidental death benefit:
An additional amount equal to the sum assured will be paid to your family if you die particularly because of an accident. This add-on is only available under the Life Protect variant.
Apart from add-ons, you can also opt for these riders:
- Critical Illness Plus Rider:
A lump sum payout of 10 lacs, 20 lacs, 50 lacs, or whatever you choose is paid to you if you are diagnosed with any of the 19 critical illnesses specified for this rider.
- Income Benefit on Accidental Disability Rider:
If you are permanently disabled after an accident, a monthly income equal to 1% of the rider sum assured is paid to you for the next 10 years.
- Protect Plus Rider:
This rider provides three benefit options. You can opt for an option where you are paid a lump sum or monthly income in case of accidental death or accidental permanent disability. Or you can go for the option where a lump sum amount is paid if you are diagnosed with cancer.
Click2Protect 3D Plus
Click2protect 3D Plus is one of the most diverse plans you can find in the market. From accidental death benefit and waiver of premium on critical illness to return of premium and regular income benefit, this policy comes with 9 plan options so that you can choose whatever fits your requirement.
A good thing about Click2Protect 3D Plus is that it has two riders that are in-built in the plan:
- Terminal Illness Benefit:
If you are diagnosed with an illness that confirms the death within the next few months, the insurer pays the entire death cover on the diagnosis itself.
- Waiver of premium on accidental total permanent disability:
If you get permanently disabled because of an accident, the insurer waives off all your future premiums and your policy still remains active.
Riders you can select with this policy:
- Accidental Death Benefit:
A lump sum amount in addition to the base sum assured is paid to your family if you die particularly because of an accident.
- Critical Illness Benefit:
A lump sum amount of 10 lacs, 20 lacs, or whatever you choose, is paid if you are diagnosed with any of the listed 36 critical illnesses.
- Top-up:
The sum assured increases every year at renewal to keep up with the inflation up to a maximum of 100% of the base sum assured. However, keep in mind that the premiums will also increase every year or right at the start when buying the policy.
HDFC Life Term Insurance plan details
| Plan Name | Entry Age | Sum Assured | Policy payment options |
|---|---|---|---|
Click2Protect Life | 18-65 years | Minimum: ₹50,000, | Yearly, half-yearly, |
Click2Protect 3D Plus | 18-65 years | Minimum: ₹10lakhs, | Yearly, half-yearly, |
ULIP Plans
Unit Linked Insurance Plans or widely known as ULIPs are part insurance, part investment plans. So the premium that you pay, some of it is allocated towards providing a death cover and the rest is invested in equity and debt funds, whichever you choose. So if something were to happen to you, your family either gets death cover or the fund value, whichever is higher at that time.
Say you’re paying a premium of 1 lakh every year for 20 years and for a death cover of 10 lakhs. You die after 15 years and your family naturally gets 10 lakhs. However if at that time the value of your invested premiums is 13 lakhs, your family gets this 13 lakhs. But if the fund doesn’t earn good returns and values at 8 lacs, then you get the death cover. So 10 lacs, i.e., your death cover is the minimum payout. But if you survive after 20 years, then you get all those invested funds back, whatever the value is at that time. That’s your maturity payout.
But there are other things to look for as well. Firstly, there is a lock-in period of 5 years, meaning you won’t be able to get back your premiums before 5 years. It’s only after 5 years that you’re allowed to withdraw some funds and even that is partial withdrawal. You can never withdraw the entire amount. Also, there are different charges that are deducted from your premium every year like premium allocation charge, policy administration charge, fund management charge, etc. So the entire 1 lakh is never invested.
Make sure you read the policy document diligently. And remember ULIPs are largely dependent on how the market is performing, both stocks and bonds.
ULIP Plans offered by HDFC Life
| Plan Name | Entry Age | No. of Funds |
|---|---|---|
| HDFC Life Click2Protect ULIP | 30 days to 65 yrs | Total: 10 Debt: 3 Equity: 7 |
| HDFC Life Click2Invest | 30 days to 65 yrs | Total: 11 Debt: 4 Equity: 7 |
| HDFC Life SL Crest | 14 yrs to 55 yrs | Total: 10 Debt: 3 Equity: 7 |