Insurance is certainly growing by leaps and bounds. As the Country’s Education Levels are increasing, more and more individuals have started planning for future and have started opting for Insurance Plans.

While the demand for Insurance Plans has been increasing, New Insurance Companies have also entered the Country offering a variety of Products. The increase in the number of Insurance Companies and Variety of Products has ended up confusing the Individual.

So in this article we’ll showcase the points to be kept in mind while opting for an Insurance Plan. Although there is no hard and fast rule and it depends on case to case, the following must be given a thought before buying any Insurance Plan:-

1. The Insurance cover you should take

While buying an Insurance Plan, the first thing to be decided is the Policy Amount i.e. how much should be the Policy Worth. According to experts, the Policy Amount should be 12 times of your Annual Income, minus your Investment Assets, plus any Liabilities

2. Ideal Tenure of the Policy

The Ideal Tenure of the Policy should be your Retirement Age minus your Current Age. That means if you are 35 today and you wish to retire at 60, then the term of the Policy should be 60 – 35 = 25 Years

3. Prefer to buy Insurance Online

Insurance products are also sold online and that too much cheaper (sometimes at a discount of 30%) compared with the products sold through agents or brokers. Selling these Products over the Internet does away with the Agents Commission, thus bringing down the overall cost of the Policy.

4. Check the Add-on’s before adding one

It is a very old saying that – “Add-on’s may not always act as Icing on the Cake”

Add-on’s with respect to Life Insurance Plans refers to Health/Mediclaim Insurance Plans that are offered alongside. Many Insurers have now started offering the benefits of both Life Insurance as well as Health/Mediclaim Insurance in the same Policy.

Although these may look lucrative, they may turn out to be more expensive as compared to buying them as Separate Plans. Always check their individual Value before opting for the combined benefit plan.

5. Disclose Everything

It is always better to disclose everything to the best of your knowledge in the form provided, while buying Insurance Policy including your existing Health Conditions, Family History and all existing and proposed Insurance.

6. Take Medical Tests

It is always better to go for medical tests as this will reduce any chances of claims being denied, especially since you’ve disclosed all the facts. It is always better to pay additional premium for a small health problem rather than the family facing problems with the claim on the ground that the facts were not fully disclosed.

7. Review your Needs Regularly

Once you’ve bought a term insurance policy, you should always review it every 3 to 5 years. Over this period, your personal circumstances, income, assets and liabilities would have gone through certain changes. So it’s always good to review your requirements regularly.

8. Buy Policy in Blocks

Rather than opting for 1 Insurance Policy it is always better to split it into 2 Insurance Policies of a smaller amount. The benefit of this is that it gives you the flexibility to discontinue one policy while continuing the other.

Just like it is advisable to split Fixed Deposits into small units so that you can break them as per your convenience, similarly it is always advisable to buy Insurance Policies in Blocks.