Saral Jeevan Bima Plan is a standardised insurance policy that ensures a fixed amount to be allotted after the demise of the policyholder. The insurance regulator has rolled out this plan to serve the masses falling in every class and section, aiming to offer financial protection to a large section of society. Keeping that in mind, the premiums are kept nominal with a higher insurance return.
Another ideology behind the introduction of the Saral Jeevan Bima plan is to come up with a standard language and uniform features, to simplify the process especially for the debutants in the term life insurance segment. Moreover, it offers standardised benefits to the insured without any disparity of income and any exclusions and conditions.
The minimum sum assured offered in Jeevan Saral Bima Plan is Rs. 5 lakh, which could be extended up to Rs. 25 lakh in multiples of Rs. 50,000. This standard term plan is available for customers between 18 and 65 years of age. The maximum age at maturity is 70 years, which means that when the person reaches that age, the plan will automatically terminate. The policy term can be between 5 and 40 years.
Since Saral Jeevan Bima is a uniform policy across every class and sections; this comes across as a blessing for the people with irregular incomes and unable to furnish required income surety. The interested buyers, especially those who come under the lower economic class can fix a sum insured suiting their incomes without taking the burden of the premium. This makes Jeevan Saral Bima policy the best plan to avoid the financial insecurities of the family after their non-existence.
This is a wholesome term insurance plan for the customers and mentioned below are a few Salient Features of the Saraj Jeevan Bima Plan:
- A flexible premium payments options, i.e. Single Premium, Regular Premium, and Limited Premium Payment for 5-years or 10-year term.
- The premium payment mode can be in a lump sum under the Single Premium or can be done Monthly, Half-Yearly, or Annually under Limited and Regular Premium options.
- There is a waiting period of 45 days beginning from the date of risk and no waiting period at the time of policy renewal.
- The death benefits are high as 125% of the Single Premium plan and the confirmed amount assured to be paid upon the demise. And a high of 10% of the actual premium or 105% of the paid premiums are paid on Limited and Regular Premium payment policy as on the date of demise.
Currently, six life insurance companies, including the Life Insurance Corporation of India, have started selling this product. While the features and terms & conditions of Saral Jeevan Bima are the same across insurers, the key differentiator is premium pricing. Let’s look at the premium prices offered by various companies:-
The foremost company to include the Saral Jeevan Bima plan in their package was Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance Co. In January this year. The company is offering the Bima plan at an annual premium of Rs. 13,798, for 10 premium paying terms to the 30 years standard male life and a basic sum assured of Rs. 20,00,000 for 30 years of the policy term.
And the latest company that started to deal with the Saral Jeevan Bima plan is Max Life Insurance Co. Ltd., which is giving a plan of around Rs. 12,000 for a 25-year-old non-smoker male and a sum assured of Rs. 25 lakh.
Indeed, the pricing of the Saral Jeevan Bima plan is higher than usual Term life insurance covers, primarily because it is believed that Saral Jeevan Bima Plan is generally bought by categories having higher mortality experience.
But should the premium price be the only way to weigh the right company to buy this plan? Absolutely not! It can be a wrong parameter to select the insurance company wherein several other factors should play a lead role in determining your decision. Here are a few parameters to select the right insurance company to buy a Saral Jeevan Bima plan-
The policy buyer must delve deeper into the solvency ratio and claim settlement ratio of the insurance company which describes the reputation of the insurance company. The solvency ratio tells about the insurance company’s ability to meet its obligations wherein the claim settlement ratio defines the percentage of insurance claims successfully settled by the company in comparison to the actual number of claims received. The data for both works parallelly to know the financial status of the insurer.
Other crucial factors suggested are the ease and support system created for onboarding the customers and also the after-sales support and service as well as a renewal of the insurers.
Nonetheless, if a person is having a sufficient educational background and income they should go for a regular term insurance plan; which comes at relatively cheaper rates than Saral Jeevan Bima.