How to Get Affordable Term Insurance in 2022?
Term Insurance is one of the most crucial aspects of investment in the financial planning portfolio. It holds a greater significance for everyone, especially those who have financial dependents such as a spouse, kids, or parents. In today's era where everyone is occupied in some kind of earning methods and money contributed by each individual is important to run a family; term insurance becomes a must-have for every earning member of the family.
Term Insurance helps the breadwinner of the family to ensure that the financial stability of the family is never interrupted in their absence and the plans made for the future are accomplished despite their demise. Moreover, term insurance is one of the rarest personal finance plans that allow a person to accumulate a large amount of corpus by paying a nominal premium fee for the future.
However, with the constant increase in term insurance premium prices, term insurance plans are turning out to be a little expensive for people who are planning to buy a best term insurance plan in the future. However, inflation shouldn't be the case to avoid purchasing a term insurance plan as it can lead to a bigger loss if compared to paying a higher premium.
Why is Term Insurance becoming expensive?
Since the hit of the pandemic, the term insurance companies have been feeling under the pressure due to the sudden increase in the mortality rate in the country. As per media reports, Life insurance companies in India have received four to five times COVID-related death claims in FY 2021 as compared to the last fiscal year.
The increased number of deaths is directly proportional to the number of claims hence, the humongous acceleration in the payouts by life insurance companies forced them into sudden losses. Therefore, to balance out those losses, the premium of term insurance prices is pushed on the higher side.
Since the havoc spread of COVID-19 in the country, the term insurance premium has witnessed a hike thrice of a considerable amount in each round. In June 2020, the term insurance plans premium marked a steep hike of 20-25%, then in March 2021, there was a minimal increase of 4-5% and now, the premium prices have grown up by 30% consecutively in December 2021.
While the industry experts expect the term insurance premium prices to stabilize after the unavoidable acceleration, considering the regular reports of deaths either due to COVID-19 or any other disease and now the new variant being spread worldwide, the situation for the further increase is to wait and watch.
Thus, the outbreak of new COVID-19 variants has increased the necessity of having a term insurance plan manifold. Irrespective of the premium price rise, term insurance plans should be purchased to safeguard your families from any uncertain situation. However, there are certain options to make the premium amount of a preferable term insurance budget-friendly for policyholders.
Ways to make Term Insurance Premium prices affordable
It is pertinent to know that the increase in the price hike is not witnessed across all categories of buyers. The increase in price for term insurance plans is subjective to the age, income, and sum insured amount chosen by the respective person. Additionally, people who are already having a term insurance plan don't need to worry about the price hike as the premium prices remain the same throughout the policy tenure.
- Buy at Early Age Age is the topmost factor to determine the cost of the term insurance premium as in the books of insurance, it is considered that the younger you are, the lower will be the premium. Therefore, it is recommended to purchase a term insurance policy at an early age to ensure that the policyholder pays a minimal amount of premium to the insurance service provider. The ideology behind this is that policyholders are termed healthy when they are in their late 20s or early 30s wherein the health starts deteriorating with age causing a higher risk of life. Moreover, with the hit of the pandemic, the life insurance companies are refraining to issue policies to applicants above the age of 40 years; however, it varies from company to company.
- Healthy Lifestyle: The term insurance is all about life expectancy where the insurance service provider bets on your longer life. Therefore, people leading a healthy life with good practices are given leverage to bear a lesser premium. For instance, people following any routine such as gyming, cycling, yoga, etc. that promotes healthier life are given some kind of leniency on the premium wherein people having harmful practices such as smoking, drinking, or consumption of any harmful substance are charged an extra premium. But it is pertinent to note that the applicant must not lie or hide any kind of harmful practices to reduce the premium as it can create a challenge in their claim settlement ratio.
- Useful Riders: Term insurance plans come with several riders or additional features that give additional benefits to the policyholder by making their base plan comprehensive and wider in nature. However, they certainly seem attractive but it is important to understand their relevance before buying because they add up to the premium cost. Each rider comes with a cost in order to provide service, thus they tend to increase the premium price for the policyholder. A policyholder must evaluate whether or not to buy an additional rider, for example, Critical Illness. Adding on this rider to the insurance can be avoided if the policyholder doesn't have any relative reason to get this rider either due to lifestyle habits or family history.
- Payment of Premium Mode: It is a lesser-known fact that the payment mode that you select to pay for the term insurance premium also lays an impact on how much you are paying. The life insurance companies offer flexible options to make the payment for the premium such as monthly, annually, and bi-annually. While the monthly payment may seem lesser in figures and easy to shell out from the pocket every month but in reality, it adds up to the overall cost of the term insurance premium. On the contrary, when a policyholder pays for the annual premium, the insurance company provides some percentage of discount making the total premium lesser. Hence, the selection of payment of the premium should be carefully chosen.
Concluding Thoughts
Understanding the fact that assuring the future of the family and loved ones is not an option but a necessity; the premium should be the last deciding factor while purchasing a term insurance plan. Don't let a few bucks risk the future of your family when it comes to buying term insurance.
Last Updated : December, 2021
Naval Goel is the CEO & founder of PolicyX.com. Naval has an expertise in the insurance sector and has professional experience of more than a decade in the Industry and has worked in companies like AIG, New York doing valuation of insurance subsidiaries. He is also an Associate Member of the Indian Institute of Insurance, Pune. He has been authorized by IRDAI to act as a Principal Officer of PolicyX.com Insurance Web Aggregator.
Bharti AXA is a good life insurance company, and I am sure if something ha[opens to me, the company will look after my family s needs.