In India, available insurance policies can be broadly classified in two categories – pure life covers, which are also called as term life insurance and Insurance cum Investment Plans. Investing in insurance cum investment plans is often considered as a secured and profitable investment option since they are designed to serve the dual purpose of both savings and life care and are further classified into two categories.
1. ULIPs and
2. Traditional insurance plans.
There are a number of differences between them, but the most important to them that every investor must know prior to investment is that, in traditional insurance plans, it is the insurer who borne the risk while in ULIP the insured person is required to borne it. There are also some other differences in other factors like the transparency and flexibility of the policy, liquidity and the maximum equity exposure.
As the risk is borne by the insurer, traditional insurance plans are more secure than ULIPs and the available traditional insurance plans in India can be classified into three basic categories – whole life plans the money back plans and endowment plans. A whole life insurance cum investment policy is designed to provide insurance coverage for a lifetime and pays an assured sum with bonus to a designated nominee after the death of the policy holder and normally whole life insurance coverage is available up to a maximum age of 80 or 85.
Just like the whole life plan, endowment policies are also a mixture of savings and investment, but unlike the previous they provide insurance coverage for a specific period of time only.
Money back plans are also more or less same with the two that are already mentioned. But there is a major difference between them, and that is unlike the whole life plans or the endowment plans that offer payout only after the policy is matured in case of a survival, the money back policies offer a regular payout of a predetermined sum at regular intervals along with a sum assured with bonus at the maturity of the policy.
Compared to insurance cum investment plans, ULIPs or Unit Linked Insurance Plans consider as a high risk investment option. ULIPs are actually linked to the stock market and the premiums that are paid by the insured are actually invested in the stock market. Due to the unpredictable nature of the stock market gain from ULIP investment is also unpredictable and policy holders may sometimes face losses too. But ULIP also provides an investor the flexibility to choose an investment plan and premiums and as a return on ULIP can also be much higher than that of insurance cum investment plans they are also a pretty popular investment option in India.
Selection of any of the above mentioned investment plans actually depends upon your ability of taking financial risk. Compared to less risky insurance cum investment plans ULIPs are more aggressive and also have high volatility and return to them can also be pretty abnormal at times. But it is ultimately your decision to finalize where you will like to invest your hard earned money and if you can really afford a loss you can consider investing in ULIPs otherwise the insurance and investment plans are always going to be the safer option for you.