Aegon Religare's new term plan: Added benefits at an extra cost

MUMBAI: In line with the ongoing trend of launching term insurance plans with added benefits, Aegon Religare Life Insurance has recently launched a pure protection cover.

The plan offers two death benefit - that is, amount available to the policyholder's nominees in case of his or her death - options. The first one is the regular option, which hands over the entire sum assured to the beneficiaries on the insured's demise.

The second one pays out the cover amount in two parts. While half of it is paid out after life assured ' s death, the balance - 3% of the sum assured - is paid out every month, for a period of five years. According to the company, the total payout amounts to 230% of the sum assured in this case.

The plan comes with an accidental death rider, where the cover is equal to the base sum assured. This apart, you can opt for three more riders - Critical Illness, Woman Care and Total and Permanent Disability - after paying the applicable premiums.

The minimum age at entry is 20 years, while the upper limit is 65 years; the maximum age at maturity is 75 years. The lowest cover that you can buy under the plan is Rs 10 lakh.

Upside : Given that a pure term cover is a must-have in every individual ' s portfolio, you can look at this plan if you don' t have adequate protection cover already. The in-built accidental death benefit rider enhances the sum assured.

Downside : It is costlier than many online term plans available in the market, including Aegon Religare' s iTerm plan. While a 25-year-old non-smoker male will have to shell out over Rs 16,000 every year for a cover of Rs 1 crore under this term plan, the online version (minus the accidental death cover) will charge just over Rs 6,000 for an equivalent sum assured. If you are conversant with computers and the Internet, you can buy a term plan as well as an attached accidental death rider at much cheaper rates.