Life Insurance
Protection that keeps your family's plans intact
Life Insurance
Life insurance is a legal contract under which an insurer pays an agreed sum to the person you nominate if you die during the covered period, in exchange for regular premiums. Its job is to make sure your family’s financial plans survive you.
Before wealth creation comes wealth protection. A well-sized term cover is the cheapest, most powerful financial instrument most families will ever own — it converts an uncertain catastrophe into a defined, funded outcome.
We size cover against real liabilities: outstanding loans, your children's education corpus, and the income your household would need to replace. No jargon, no over-selling — only the cover you actually need.
What is life insurance?
A legal contract between you and an insurer. You pay regular premiums; in exchange the insurer pays an agreed sum — the death benefit — to the person you nominate, if you die during the covered period.
Depending on the type of plan, a policy can also pay out if you survive the term, and can carry optional riders covering critical illness, accidental death or waiver of premium.
In plain terms: it is a financial safety net for the people who depend on you, funded by you while you are earning.
What it is actually for
- Replacing the income your household would lose
- Clearing loans so debt does not pass to your family
- Keeping long-term goals funded — education, marriage
- Buying your family time to adjust without financial panic
Most Indian households are underinsured
Premiums keep rising, yet cover relative to the economy keeps falling. The gap is not a marketing line — it is in the regulator’s own numbers.
Life insurance penetration — 2.7%
Of GDP in FY 2024–25, down from 2.8% the year before — a third consecutive annual decline.
Premium collected — ₹8.86 L cr
Life insurers collected ₹8.86 lakh crore in FY 2024–25, a 7% year-on-year rise.
Registered life insurers — 26
As at March 2025, alongside 25 general insurers and 8 standalone health insurers.
Insurance for All — 2047
IRDAI’s stated goal, supported by initiatives such as Bima Sugam and Bima Vahak.
Source: IRDAI Annual Report 2024–25. If you have not reviewed your cover in the last two or three years — through a job change, marriage, a child or a new loan — you are statistically likely to be underinsured.
GST on life insurance changed in September 2025
From 22 September 2025, the GST Council exempted individual life insurance premiums entirely. The rate fell from 18% to nil, covering term, ULIP, endowment and similar individual policies — making both new purchases and renewals cheaper for the same cover.
Protection plans
Built to pay out if you die. Maximum cover for the least money, because nothing is being saved or invested alongside.
Term Insurance
The simplest and most affordable form of life cover. You pay a fixed premium for a chosen term, and if you die during that term your nominee receives the sum assured. If you survive the term, nothing is paid back — which is precisely why the cover is so large for the money.
Pure protectionTerm with Return of Premium (TROP)
Works like a term plan, but refunds the premiums you paid if you survive the policy term. Life cover is comparable to a plain term plan, though the premium is meaningfully higher for the same sum assured.
Protection + refundZero-Cost / Refund-of-Premium Term
A term plan with a built-in option to exit at a defined point and receive the premiums paid back. If you do not exit, it simply continues as a standard term policy to the end of its term.
Exit flexibilityWhole Life Insurance
Extends cover to age 99 or 100 rather than ending at a chosen term. Used where the objective is lifelong protection and passing on a defined sum to the next generation, rather than covering a finite working life.
Lifelong coverSavings & investment plans
Cover bundled with saving or investing. More expensive for the same sum assured, but they pay out whether you survive or not.
Unit Linked Insurance Plan (ULIP)
Combines life cover with market-linked investment. Part of the premium buys cover; the rest is invested in equity or debt funds you select. The maturity value depends on market performance, so returns are not guaranteed.
Endowment Plan
Life cover plus disciplined savings. Pays a lump sum on survival to maturity, and a death benefit with applicable bonuses if you die during the term. Suits conservative savers with a defined goal.
Money-Back Plan
Pays periodic survival benefits during the policy term rather than everything at the end, while cover continues. Suits people who want the insurance to also generate intermittent liquidity.
Child Plan
Built around a child’s education or marriage milestone. Most include a premium-waiver benefit, so if the parent dies the insurer pays the remaining premiums and the plan still matures as intended.
Pension / Annuity Plan
Designed for income after you stop working. An immediate or deferred annuity converts a corpus into a regular payout, providing cash flow in retirement while cover continues in some structures.
Comparing the plan types
How a life insurance policy works
Choose the right policy
Decide the type of plan, the sum assured and the policy term. Compare cover and features rather than headline premium alone.
Underwriting and issue
The insurer assesses your age, health, lifestyle, occupation and medical history to set terms. Once the proposal is accepted and the first premium is paid, cover begins.
Keep the policy in force
Pay premiums on the chosen frequency. Set auto-debit or reminders — a missed premium can lapse the policy and end cover entirely.
Claim and settlement
The nominee notifies the insurer, submits the required documents, and the insurer verifies and pays. IRDAI requires insurers to respond within 30 days of intimation.
How much life insurance do you need?
A memorable way to arrive at a defensible number rather than a round one: the D.I.M.E. method.
Debt
Clear outstanding car loans, personal loans and credit card balances.
Income
Ten to fifteen times your annual income, as a general rule of thumb.
Mortgage
Cover the outstanding home loan so the family keeps the house.
Education
Fund your children’s education and stated aspirations in full.
Add the four together, then subtract savings and assets already earmarked for those purposes. The remainder is the cover you actually need — which is usually higher than people expect, and almost always higher than an employer’s group policy provides.
What actually determines your premium
Insurers price from actuarial mortality tables, then adjust for your individual risk. Two people buying identical cover can pay very different amounts, and none of it is arbitrary.
The single most controllable factor is when you buy. Age is the largest driver and it only moves one way.
Age and gender
The single largest driver. Cover bought in your twenties costs materially less than the same cover bought in your forties, and women typically pay slightly less owing to longer life expectancy.
Medical history
Pre-existing or hereditary conditions such as diabetes or hypertension raise the assessed risk and therefore the premium.
Health and lifestyle
Current health, BMI, blood pressure and cholesterol matter, as do tobacco and alcohol use. Tobacco users pay substantially more than non-users for identical cover.
Type of plan
Pure term cover is the cheapest because it buys protection only. Endowment, whole life and ULIPs cost more because part of the premium is saved or invested.
Hazardous activities
Regular skydiving, scuba diving, mountaineering or motor racing raise the risk assessment.
Sum assured
A larger payout is a larger liability for the insurer, so the premium scales with the cover.
Occupation
Physically hazardous work — mining, construction, armed forces, firefighting — attracts a higher rating.
Policy term
A longer term means the insurer carries the risk for more years, which is reflected in the price.
Riders that strengthen a policy
Attached to the base policy for an additional premium. Add what addresses a real risk in your situation; ignore the rest.
Critical Illness
Pays a lump sum on diagnosis of a listed critical illness, helping with treatment costs and lost income during recovery.
Waiver of Premium
If permanent disability from an accident stops you earning, future premiums are waived and the policy stays in force.
Terminal Illness
On diagnosis of a terminal illness, the sum assured is paid immediately rather than after death.
Accidental Death Benefit
Pays an additional amount over and above the base cover if death results from an accident.
Accidental Total & Permanent Disability
A lump sum if an accident leaves you permanently disabled, supporting future needs when income stops.
Hospital Cash
A fixed daily benefit during hospitalisation, with enhanced payouts for ICU stays and major surgery.
Who should hold life insurance?
The test is simple: does anyone rely on your income or your unpaid work? If yes, you need cover. If genuinely nobody does, you may not.
Salaried professionals
If people depend on your income, your absence creates an immediate gap. Cover replaces that income.
Married couples
A dependent spouse, or joint financial commitments, make cover a shared responsibility rather than an individual one.
Parents
Cover ensures a child’s education and milestones stay funded regardless of what happens to the earning parent.
Homemakers
A homemaker’s contribution has a real replacement cost. Several insurers now issue cover against a spouse’s income proof.
NRIs, PIOs and OCIs
Non-residents can insure their families in India, generally with tele or video medicals completed from where they live.
Retirees
Annuity and pension structures convert a corpus into regular income once the salary stops.
Business owners
Business borrowing often sits against personal guarantees. Cover stops that debt landing on the family.
Anyone carrying debt
A home or personal loan outlives you. Cover clears it instead of passing it to your dependants.
Cover is still available if…
What life insurance does at each age
How to choose a life insurance plan
Nine checks, in the order they actually matter.
Myths and facts
Do’s and don’ts
Do
- Buy as early as you can. The lowest premium your profile will ever attract is the one available today.
- Read the policy document. Understand what is covered and what is excluded before a claim, not during one.
- Choose riders deliberately. The right add-on materially strengthens a policy for a modest additional premium.
- Compare on more than price. Cover, claim record, solvency and rider availability all matter alongside the premium.
Don’t
- Don’t give false information. Omissions or inaccuracies in the proposal form can void the policy or see a claim declined.
- Don’t miss premiums. A lapsed policy means no cover at all. Automate the payment.
- Don’t delay the purchase. Every year of delay costs more premium and buys less cover.
- Don’t under-insure. A sum assured that does not meet your family’s actual needs defeats the purpose of buying at all.
How the benefit can be paid out
Chosen when you buy, and worth thinking about properly — a lump sum and a monthly income serve very different families.
Lump sum
The entire benefit paid at once, letting the family clear loans and stabilise immediately.
Monthly income
The benefit paid as a regular monthly amount, replacing the income the household has lost.
Lump sum plus monthly income
Part paid immediately for urgent obligations, the balance as monthly instalments.
Increasing monthly income
Monthly instalments that rise at a fixed rate each year, to keep pace with rising costs.
Documents needed to buy a policy
Documents needed for a claim
- Completed claim form and the original policy document
- Death certificate issued by the municipal authority (original and attested copy)
- Medical records — admission notes, discharge or death summary, test reports
- Nominee’s photograph and identity proof (PAN, Aadhaar or passport)
- Post-mortem report, where one exists
The claim process
1. Intimation — the nominee notifies the insurer online, by phone or at a branch.
2. Documents — the claim form and supporting papers are submitted.
3. Settlement — IRDAI requires the insurer to respond within 30 days of intimation.
Suicide within the specified period
Death by suicide within the period stated from commencement or revival is normally excluded.
Self-inflicted injury
Claims arising from intentional self-inflicted injury are generally not payable.
Homicide involving the nominee
If the nominee is implicated in the death, the claim is investigated and the benefit may not be paid to them.
Death under the influence
Death in an accident while under the influence of alcohol or drugs may be excluded.
Hazardous pursuits
Some policies exclude death during adventure sports or other declared hazardous activities.
What life insurance does not cover
Every policy carries exclusions. They vary by contract, which is exactly why the policy document is worth reading when you buy rather than when you claim.
If there is no valid nominee
Where no nominee survives, the insurer cannot pay immediately. It becomes an “open title” case requiring a succession certificate or legal proof of title from a competent court, with distribution under the succession law applicable to the policyholder. IRDAI requires interest to be paid on the amount held meanwhile. Keeping the nomination current avoids all of this.
When to revisit your cover
A policy bought once and never reviewed drifts out of line with the life it is meant to protect.
01 You get married
Financial responsibilities become shared, and joint assets such as a home need covering.
02 You have a child
A new and long-dated dependant changes the sum assured you actually need.
03 You take a large loan
A mortgage or business loan should be matched by cover, so the debt does not outlive you.
04 A dependant’s health changes
A serious diagnosis in the family raises the financial support your cover may need to provide.
Life insurance terms you should know
Frequently asked questions
Other products in our suite
Not sure if this fits your plan?
Tell us your goal and timeline. We will tell you honestly whether Life Insurance belongs in your portfolio — or whether something simpler would serve you better.
- A senior advisor calls you, not a call centre
- Recommendation matched to your goal and risk profile
- Written summary after the call
- No cost and no obligation
Is Life Insurance right for you?
Every product suits a particular goal, horizon and temperament. A short conversation is the fastest way to find out where this fits in your plan — or whether something else serves you better.