Dear Manish,
I am a 27 year old software engineer working in Mumbai. I am thinking of buying a 1 crore term plan insurance for me. However, as per your advice as well as others, term plan insurance is must at least till the age of retirement that is 60 years. So I understand, I need a policy for at least next 33 years. My dilemma occurs out of the fact that only Aegon, Aviva and LIC are offering a term plan for more than 30 years. Out of these Aegon Religare’s iTerm plan stands out of the crowd ad wins hands down owing to the option of riders at minimum cost (accidental and critical illness) and option to avail it till 75 years of age.
However, as mentioned everywhere and at your website too, the settlement ratio of Aegon is very low (bottom three). I understand the in the IRDA pdf, the numbers which are shown are for all the policies and not just term plans.
So I asked Aegon relationship manager to provide me death settlement ratio figures for last three years of this particular policy i.e iTerm on a company document. I am attaching his reply below.
On Tue, Apr 22, 2014 at 3:10 PM, xyz@aegonreligare.com> wrote:
Hi Mr. Ankit,
As discussed please find the below claim settlement ratio for last 3 years:
2011/12—88
2012/13 – 88%
2013/14 – 93%
Regards,
Relationship Manager
Aegon Religare Life Insurance Co. Ltd.
I am withholding the name of the person due to obvious reasons.
I talked to him again today and asked if he can show me these numbers in a company document to which he expressed his inability since these are company internal documents. Then I explained to him why I am asking this document. I told him that their term plan is one of the best in market but is losing a lot of prospective clients due to low settlement ratio. Wouldn’t it help if they can somehow publish the settlement ratio of this individual plan. It would seriously help me putting aside my doubts.
He has asked for two more days o discuss it with his team and respond back.
What do you think I should do? And if you can recommend any other company term plan for 35-40 years (possibly with riders).
I also understand that if I disclose all the information while proposing the policy, nothing on earth would be able to stop my claim, but low ratio is somehow discouraging and I would not like to have even an iota of doubt in my mind before buying something as crucial and important and as a life insurance.
Thanks,