Factors to be considered before purchasing Investment Plans
Investment
policies need a lot of study before purchase unlike term insurance products
where we shall arrive at the purchase decision by just taking a few factors
into consideration. Any investment policy has to be selected based on our
requirement. This requirement can be identified by profiling. Profiling is
listing out the financial details such as annual income, investment, other
sources of income and loans. These details need to be kept side by side with
the financial goals for the next 15 - 20 years. Now, a conclusion can be drawn
on how much investment to be made and what is the required corpus.
After
deciding the premium and corpus required, we can start browsing for investment plans which will fit our requirement.
Key
elements to be considered, while purchasing investment Plans
1. Premium payment term:
Premium
payment term, will decide the maturity returns that we would receive at the end
of the investment period. Longer payment period is advised for people looking
for high returns with low premiums. Otherwise, lower premium payment term with
high premium rate is recommended for short term investors.
2.
Policy term:
Policy
term is to be aligned with the future goals. A 35 year old person who wants to
retire at 55, needs to take a policy for 18 year only. This 2 years will give a
chance to modify his plans or plan for next 10 years, if any contingency
occurs.
3. Bonus rate/ Loyalty addition:
Bonus
or loyalty addition will constitute the major chunk of returns. So, bonus/
loyalty addition should be high in order to yield better returns. These
additions are generally announced every year, which will vary based on
company’s performance. The bonus/ Loyalty history of the respective insurer
have to be checked to get a fair idea of bonus rates further.
4. Money backs:
Some
policies offer money backs, which will be given in regular interval of time
till the policy term ends. Money back plans are good option if your financial
status is instable. These plans will give less returns compared to other plans,
as returns are being provided in multiple trenches before policy term ends.
Still these policies are worth purchasing considering “Time value of money”
(Value of money today is higher than value of money tomorrow).
5.
Insurance cover:
All
the investment plans from insurance companies will have life cover as their
default feature. As the target is insurance, most people bat an eye for
insurance part. But, insurance coverage part should be considerable enough to
cover family financial security.
6.
Lock in period:
Lock
in period is the time the premium needs to be paid before the policy can be
surrendered. This will be 3 years in most of the products but will vary. Lock
in period needs to be as low as possible, in order to close the policy if case
of contingency.
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