I am a 61-year-old retired authorities worker. I had taken out an insurance coverage coverage and paid annual premiums for the primary two years however skipped the final three as a consequence of unsettled retirement advantages. What’s the deadline for reviving this coverage?
—Title withheld on request
As per relevant Irdai laws, if a policyholder fails to pay renewal premium earlier than the top of grace interval, the coverage shall lapse and the policyholder will be unable to avail any of the advantages underneath the coverage. Nonetheless, the policyholder can revive the coverage throughout revival interval. You should contact the insurance coverage firm to find out if the coverage is inside the revival interval.
Insurance coverage corporations usually present a revival interval of 2-5 years, throughout which policyholders can reinstate their lapsed insurance policies by paying the due premiums and fulfilling any extra necessities. The length of the revival interval is determined by the insurance coverage product, phrases, and situations of the coverage. You should be certain that the premiums are paid on time to keep away from lapses and termination of the coverage.
I’ve a household historical past of hypertension. Do I must do a medical check-up earlier than buying a time period plan?
—Title withheld on request
Insurance coverage is predicated on belief and transparency, and it’s advisable that each one data is shared by clients in direction of their life insurance coverage coverage. This allows a easy declare course of, which might be essentially the most crucial stage in a life insurance coverage journey.
Time period plans often provide the next sum assured for a nominal premium quantity, and contain the next danger for an insurer. Therefore, most of those insurance policies are medically underwritten. In your case, to evaluate the potential danger, you might be required to do a medical check-up topic to the underwriting coverage of the life insurer.
I began an Nationwide Pension Scheme (NPS) account for my 55-year previous mom three years in the past. We now plan to withdraw the sum invested earlier than its maturity. Are there any penalties for withdrawing funds from NPS earlier than retirement age?
—Title withheld on request
As per the laws of NPS, a subscriber can voluntarily exit from the scheme earlier than attaining the age of 60 years, offered he/she has subscribed to NPS for no less than a minimal interval of 5 years.
If the collected pension wealth is the same as or lower than ₹2.5 lakh, you possibly can withdraw your entire quantity. Nonetheless, if the corpus is larger, it’s essential to use no less than 80% of the collected pension wealth to buy an annuity plan that gives for a month-to-month pension. The remaining 20% might be withdrawn as a lump sum.
A subscriber can withdraw funds from the scheme earlier than retirement age solely in particular circumstances, comparable to therapy of specified sickness or dying of the subscriber. If a subscriber withdraws funds from NPS earlier than the age of 60, besides within the aforementioned circumstances, they must bear a penalty of 1% of the overall collected pension wealth, topic to a minimal penalty of ₹1,000. This penalty is along with the tax implications which will come up from untimely withdrawals.
It is very important be aware that untimely withdrawal of NPS corpus can lead to a decrease retirement corpus, as you’ll miss the advantages of compounding and long-term development of investments.
Sameer Joshi is chief company officer, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance coverage.