About ICICI Pru iProtect Smart Term Plan

Do you know any term insurance which gives coverage after the detection of terminal diseases like AIDS? Do any term plans pay in event of permanent disability due to an accident?

The answer to all the above-mentioned questions is one i.e. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance - iProtect Smart Term Plan. This product was launched by ICICI Prudential Life Insurance and ever since its launch, the plan has become the top-selling online plan of the company. It provides advanced protection to the policyholder by offering claim payment on the diagnosis of any of the listed 34 critical illnesses. In addition to delivering protection to the family of the policyholder in his/her absence, it also gives flexibility in paying premiums as per the comfort of the policyholder with tax benefits. This plan was also given the honor of Product of the year 2016 in products innovation under the life insurance category.

To help you decide if ICICI Pru iProtect Smart is the right plan for you or not, we've provided complete information about this plan in the sections given below. Read along to find out.

Key Features of ICICI Pru iProtect Smart Plan

ICICI Pru iProtect Smart plan comes with a long list of useful features and benefits, which are designed to provide maximum financial protection to the family members of the insured when he is no longer around. For the convenience of readers, we've listed down all the key features of this plan. Read below.

1. Death Benefit

   In the event of death, the company will pay the claim amount either in lump sum/ regular income/ increasing income/ lump sum plus income as selected by the policyholder at the time of purchase.

2. Long Term Cover

   Under the provision of this plan, customers are allowed to get covered till the age of 85 and also have the option to get whole life cover till the age of 99.

3. Optional Covers

   One of the best things about the iProtect Smart plan is that it comes with useful optional benefits including accidental death benefit and critical illness benefit. In the sections given below, we've discussed both these covers in brief. Read along to find out.

4. Special Privileges to Women

   Women while purchasing iProtect Smart term insurance will get relaxation in the rate of premium to be paid. Additionally, they get an option to cover diseases like breast cancer, cervical cancer which are common in today's time.

5. Payout Options

   The plan provides four payout options such as lump sum, monthly income, increasing income, and lump sum plus income. Customers have the flexibility to choose the desired option as per their needs.

6. Add-on Benefits

   To ensure enhanced protection of its customers, the ICICI Pru iProtect Smart plan comes with a variety of add-on benefits such as terminal illness benefit and waiver of premium benefit.

7. Life Stage Benefit

   Sometimes people feel short of funds on the happening of life-changing events that can financially affect their savings and income. Events like childbirth, the marriage of children are the major responsibilities of parents. With due attention to this thing, the iProtect Smart plan grants the flexibility to increase the current sum insured to meet the responsibilities.

   Events	Additional Death Benefit (% of original death benefit )	Maximum Additional Death Benefit
   Marriage	50%	Rs 50,00,000
   Childbirth/ legal adoption (1st child)	25%	Rs 25,00,000
   Childbirth/ legal adoption (2nd child)	25%	Rs 25,00,000

   **Last Updated on June, 2021

8. Tax Benefits

   The premiums submitted for the policy will receive all the benefit options under section 80C. While premium payment under life & health and all in one option will receive benefits under section 80D.

ICICI Pru iProtect Smart Coverage Options

There are four coverage options available within this plan. Let's learn about them in detail.

1. Life Options

   By choosing this option the beneficiaries or the nominees of the insured will get a complete payout of the sum insured in the event of death or incurable illness. This option becomes resourceful when you are detected with personal disability happening due to an accident.

   Consequently, future premiums are waived off to minimize the load of the insured.

2. Life Plus

   It includes all the benefits under life options and in addition, it also covers accidental death benefit which would come in function in the event of death due to an accident. The policy shall terminate following the payment of claims made under such benefits.

3. Life Plus Health

   In supplement to the life options benefits, Life Plus health also offers coverage for Critical Illness. On the occurrence of any one of the listed Critical Illness, the company shall pay the whole sum insured opted for Critical Illness benefit regardless of the actual amount incurred on the treatment of the disease.

4. All in One Option

   This will cover death benefits on the detection of terminal illness or personal disability due to an accident, accidental benefit, and critical illness benefits.

Add-on Benefits of ICICI Pru iProtect Smart Plan

As discussed above, this plan comes with two major add-on benefits to offer the best financial protection to the insured and his/her family. The best part about these benefits is that they are available with all policy options. Given below is a detailed explanation of these benefits. Let's learn about them.

1. Premium Waiver Benefit

   Under this benefit, all the future premium amounts of the policyholder get waived off if in case he/she becomes disabled due to an accident. The future premiums are borne by the company and the cover stays intact till the policy term. Please note that permanent disability includes blindness, incompetent to climb or lift or write anything properly, and can't even bend knees.

   Let's take the help of the example given below to understand better.

   Naman Joshi, a 28 years old healthy person buys the iProtect Smart to ensure the financial protection of his family members if in case he dies suddenly. He opts for a life cover of Rs. 1 crore for a policy term of 30 years. One day while returning home from work, he meets with an accident that leads to permanent injury in his legs and he becomes unable to move, climb or bend. After receiving intimation about the injury from Naman, the company waived off all his future premiums and the life insurance cover stayed in force till the policy term.

2. Terminal illness Benefit

   A distinguishing feature of this plan is the additional benefit of terminal illness. Under this benefit, complete coverage is provided to the insured person if he/she gets diagnosed with a terminal illness including AIDS as well. Unlike most term insurance plans in India that exclude death due to AIDS, the ICICI Pru iProtect Smart plan pays the AIDS-infected policyholders also.

   For example:

   Let's assume that Aditya buys the iProtect Smart term policy of Rs. 50 lakhs in 2015 and after five years he gets diagnosed with a terminal illness. He informed the company about the same and the company provided him with the whole coverage amount. With the help of the cover amount, Aditya cleared all his liabilities like home loans and other financial debts to make sure that his family won't suffer in the future when he is no longer around.

Optional Benefits Available in ICICI Pru iProtect Smart Plan

The plan comes with two optional benefits and allows customers to select any of these options as per their needs and convenience. Read below to know more about these optional benefits.

1. Accidental Death Option

   Accidents are uncertain and cost you heavily which can drain your savings and income. To give protection against this, iProtect smart policy provides maximum coverage of 2 crore in case of death that happens due to an accident. A policyholder can choose this benefit during the policy term or at the time of purchase.

   For example- Yash, a senior analyst of 35 years has purchased a cover of Rs. 1 crore iProtect smart insurance policy along with an accidental death benefit of Rs. 50 lakhs as optional cover. After ten years from the date of purchase, he succumbs to death due to a road accident. The company on the claim intimation by the nominee will pay Rs. 1.5 crores in a lump sum.

2. Critical Illness Benefit

   As per the terms and conditions of this optional cover, if the policyholder is diagnosed with a critical illness then the complete cover amount is provided to him/her immediately. The plan provides coverage against 34 critical illnesses as listed below.

   • Cancer of specified severity
   • Angioplasty*
   • First Heart Attack - of Specified Severity
   • Open Heart Replacement or Repair of Heart Valves
   • Surgery to aorta Heart and Artery Benefit
   • Cardiomyopathy
   • Primary Pulmonary hypertension
   • Open Chest CABG
   • Blindness
   • Chronic Lung Disease
   • Chronic liver disease Major Organ Benefit
   • Kidney Failure Requiring Regular Dialysis
   • Major Organ/ Bone Marrow Transplant
   • Apallic Syndrome
   • Benign Brain Tumour
   • Brain Surgery
   • Coma of specified Severity
   • Major Head Trauma
   • Permanent Paralysis of Limbs
   • Stroke resulting in permanent symptoms Brain and Nervous System Benefit
   • Alzheimer's disease
   • Motor Neurone Disease with Permanent Symptoms
   • Multiple Sclerosis with Persisting Symptoms
   • Muscular Dystrophy
   • Parkinson's disease
   • Poliomyelitis
   • Loss of Independent Existence
   • Loss of Limbs
   • Deafness
   • Loss of Speech Others
   • Medullary Cystic Disease
   • Systematic lupus Eryth with Renal Involvement
   • Major Burns
   • Aplastic Anaemia

   The claim amount will be paid immediately on the investigation of critical illness by just submitting the photocopy of the diagnosis report only. The maximum payout is up to 1 crore. If a critical illness cover is availed by the policyholder, then the claim amount is subtracted from the actual sum insured and the future premiums will be decreased.

   Let's check the availability of several benefits under benefit coverage options.

   Benefits/ Benefit options	Life option	Life Plus	Life Plus health	All in one option
   Critical Illness Benefit	Not applicable	Not applicable	Provided	Provided
   Accidental Death Benefit	Not applicable	Provided	Not applicable	Provided
   Terminal Illness	Provided	Provided	Provided	Provided
   Premium Waiver Benefit	Provided	Provided	Provided	Provided
   Death Benefit	Provided	Provided	Provided	Provided

   **Last Updated on June, 2021

Death Benefit Payout Options

There are four types of death benefit payout options available in this plan. Customers can opt for any of these payout options depending upon the way in which they desire to provide the payment of the coverage amount to their family members in the future. Given below is a brief explanation of all these options. Let's take a look at them.

1. Lumpsum Payment

   The nominee of the policyholder will receive the complete coverage amount in one go or lump sum after death.

2. Regular income

   Let's take an example to illustrate this option- Prerna has taken a life cover of Rs 2 crore and has opted for regular income as a death payout option. After her demise, the nominee will obtain a regular income of 10% (same in all cases) on the sum insured for 10 years i.e. 20 lakhs (10% of 2,00,00,000). Whereas the monthly payout would be @ 0.80% of 2 crores i.e. 1,60,000.

3. Increasing income

   In this option, the benefit amount will keep on ascending following each year. The benefit amount will be determined on the sum insured. The first-year income should be 10% of the sum insured which will increase by 10% every year. Let's say, a life cover is bought for Rs 6 crores and after the death of the policyholder, the first-year income must be 60 lakhs (10% of 6,00,00,000). After implementing an increase of 10% in the first-year income, the second-year income would be Rs 66,00,000. This process will repeat till the completion of 10 years.

4. Lumpsum plus income

   The beneficiaries of the policyholder will get the benefit of both lump sum and fixed regular incomes on the sum insured. If the total coverage is 2.4 crores where the lump sum amount paid is 60 lakhs and the regular income would be 10% of 1.2 crores i.e. 12,00,000 every year and the monthly income would be Rs. 1 lakh.

Eligibility Criteria for ICICI Pru iProtect Smart Plan

The table below highlights the eligibility criteria to buy ICICI Pru iProtect Smart plan. Go through this table if you wish to buy this plan.

**Last Updated on June, 2021

Eligibility Criteria for Premium of ICICI Pru iProtect Smart Plan

**Last Updated on June, 2021

Sample Premium Illustration of ICICI Pru iProtect Smart Plan

Before buying an insurance plan, it is important to get an idea about its premium rates that you'll be paying in the future. That is why we've provided here a sample chart to illustrate the different premium rates of the iProtect Smart plan. The chart here shows a graphical representation of different premium rates for different amounts of the sum insured.

Note that the premium amounts in this chart are calculated for a 30-year old nonsmoker male, buying the plan with no add-on riders or optional benefits, opting for a policy term of 40 years, and monthly premium payment mode.

Sample Premium Illustration of ICICI Pru iProtect Smart Plan

Exclusions

Although ICICI Pru iProtect Smart Plan offers comprehensive coverage to the policyholders, there are a few conditions or situations for which the coverage is excluded in this plan. Given below is a list of the same.

No benefit is provided in respect to any of the listed condition arising directly or indirectly due to-

• Pre-Existing diseases
• Self-inflicted injury, suicide, insanity
• Consumption of drugs, alcohol
• Participating in a criminal act with criminal intent
• Injuries happening due to war