Bimadeals

Extra medical kitty for parents

Planning for parents’ expected health problems can be quite a tough task. It is mainly because there is no assurance about the amount that one might require — a truism for any health problem at any age but with ageing people this risk is much higher. As a... Read >

Complete your cover story with a health insurance policy

The change of season among other things is host to several ends of season sales and it is common to come across compulsive shoppers at such sales busy looking for the best bargain. Many swear by the deals they have spun, but I have always viewed these wit... Read >

Sometimes it makes sense to revive lapsed plans

Insurance should be taken after giving sufficient thought to your requirements. Like, for how long it is needed and what kind of policy may suit your needs and so on. And insurance plans may not be required to satisfy every need. In many cases, insurance ... Read >

Don't forget a personal accident cover

Individuals should have a standalone policy, over and above any rider taken on life insurance. When we take the newspaper in the morning, we see at least two pieces on road accidents, everyday. Apart from the mental trauma, such incidents can lead to ter... Read >

Reforms marked 2011 for insurance sector

After a long wait and prolonged consultation with stakeholders, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) finally came out with guidelines on initial public offers (IPOs) during the year. This development will see private insurers hitting ... Read >

DTC changes may impact life insurance products

The Direct Tax Code (DTC) is proposed to be introduced as a Bill in Parliament's winter session. The proposed DTC, if passed, will replace the existing Income-Tax act of 1961 and will come into force from April 1, 2012. However, the proposed new Direct Ta... Read >

Annuity now mandatory in pension products

Positive return guarantee but with conservative bias; rider to check insurer hopping by customers. The bad news is that the guarantee of 4.5 per cent on unit-linked pension products has been done away with. The good news is that all pension products wi... Read >

Pension plan: Now, a person can draw annuities at 55 years of age

The insurance regulator plans to lay a floor of 55 years of age for a person to draw annuities from pension plans as it moves to reduce risks for insurance companies and revive a pension market that's ignored by private insurers. However, the move may thr... Read >

There is a shift from Ulips to traditional products

SBI Life, the life insurance subsidiary of State Bank of India, has expanded its operations despite Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority's sweeping changes in the norms of unit-linked insurance plans from September last year. MN Rao, managing d... Read >

Don’t let accessible diseases cut into your health cover

Most claims are turned down for diseases that are pre-exiting. India is known as the capital of diabetes in the world. As the per capita estimates, about 10-12 percent of the urban population of India who have diabetes. The numbers are expected to take... Read >

Get the right health insurance cover under portability

Until portability was allowed for health insurance, customers were wary of shifting to a new insurer, even if they were unsatisfied with the existing one. The fear was the loss of accumulated loyalty benefits or having to begin the waiting period for exis... Read >

Pure term plans save money

Invest the rest in mutual funds or debt instruments to create corpus. One of the basic principles of sound financial planning is to buy insurance only if and when needed - the policy of choice being term insurance. However, most investors have difficulty... Read >

Irda wants annuity a must with all pension plans

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) wants all pension products to do exactly what they are expected to do — provide pension to policyholders. Speaking to Business Standard, Irda chairman J Hari Narayan explained, “There are many tra... Read >

Insurers weigh options to save NAV products

Trying to persuade Irda to tread a middle path and drop the idea of scrapping the net asset value products entirely. In a last-ditch effort to save the controversial “highest NAV guaranteed products”, the Life Insurance Council, which represents life i... Read >

New Ulip rules rob market of insurance

With flows for Ulips drying, life insurance companies invest just a fraction of what they did last year. Indian bulls are missing their earlier close allies in the fight against the latest bear onslaught. Domestic life insurance companies, which had ac... Read >