Icici Pru Unveils Pension Products

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company is the first private life insurance player to offer pension products in India -- ICICI Pru Forever Life and ICICI Pru Reassure.

The former is targeted at the younger generation to save for retirement while the latter is aimed at those who have opted for voluntary retirement schemes and wish to opt for a combination of insurance and investment. ICICI Prudential has yet to get IRDA approval for ICICI Pru Reassure.

Unlike pension products in the market, ICICI Pru Forever Life offers policy-holders features like health cover up to the age of 65, postponement of retirement age and flexibility to change post-accumulation phase to another annuity provider.

These features are not offered by Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), said ICICI Prudential managing director Shikha Sharma. Moreover, ICICI Pru Forever Life offers 100 per cent spouse pension should the policyholder pass away. This is as opposed to 50 per cent in the case of the comparable product, says the company's press release.

Only ICICI Pru Forever Life and LIC's pension products qualify for tax benefit under section 80CCC(I), where policyholders get a Rs 10,000 benefit from taxable income. ICICI Pru Reassure offers guaranteed rate of returns varying between 8.55 per cent to 9.2 per cent depending upon the tenor and amount of sum assured. The insurer however, reserves the right to revise the guaranteed rate of return.