Life Insurance: V Philip

Some life policies offer the benefit of indexation. What exactly does this mean?
The benefit of indexation is offered under life insurance policies. Generally, benefits are linked to external indices like inflation or stock market. However, as of now, insurers are not offering this benefit in India.

Recently, I wanted to use the free switch option in my unit-linked plan. However, the insurer offered me to either switch or use redirection. What is the difference between the two? How helpful is redirection?
Switching and premium redirection are two different methods of managing your investment in various funds. You have the option to change your current investment and all future investments in the same policy.

A fund switch enables you to shift the existing units in your unit-linked policy to a new fund and will not change your future premium allocation. Some products offer free, unlimited switches throughout the policy term. In case you are not too market savvy or want a hassle-free option of maximising returns, you can choose the asset allocation fund, which dynamically switches funds. This is managed by the insurer’s fund manager. Some like Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance provide a portfolio strategy called “Wheel of Life” that manages the investment of the units in a predefined manner with automatic switches by gradually investing in a mix of debt and equity, according to the policyholder’s outstanding term.

In comparison, a premium redirection will enable you to change the premium allocation for all the future premiums of your policy. However, your existing units will not be shifted into a new fund.

I lost my uncle some time back. We know he had life cover but are not able to find the documents. Is there any way the insurance company can help us? How can we find his policy details and file the claim?
Policy details and records will be available with the insurer as most of them issue and process the policies online these days. You can trace the details either through the intermediary/agent or the insurer directly. There are various ways to trace the policy details. If you know the insurer, you can furnish basic information like your uncle’s complete name (including expanded surnames in case they have been using only initials in general transactions), father’s name, date of birth, address, spouse’s name to the insurer, who can check their database for matching records with these details.

In case you do not know the insurer, check for his bank account/credit card transaction details to ascertain if there are any payments made in favour of any insurance company. You can then approach the insurer with the details mentioned above to search for the policy details. Once you have the details, you can file the claim through the insurer’s customer care.

The writer is managing director & CEO at Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance. You can send your queries to yourmoney@bsmail.in.