Since being a pure term plan there are no creamy layers or additional benefits or assured returns, maturity or surrender benefits for this particular policy from ICICI Prudential, but likewise the premium will be considerably low when compared to other endowment and ULIP plans.  iProtect can be brought online but the premium will be slightly higher due to agent commission that is involved in it unlike when buying it online.

Options Available:

There are two options available with the ICICI Prudential i-Protect plan namely

Option I where the death benefit will be exactly equal to the sum assured.

Option II where there will be an additional death benefit which will be equal to that of the base sum assured or Rs. 50 lakhs whichever is lower is payable to the nominee in case of accidental death of the insured person.

Just like the iTerm plan, the premium for iProtect is way lesser even when compared with their own term plans namely ICICI Prudential Pure Protect, Pure Protect Elite, etc.

Key Features of iProtect:

• Protection with Affordable Premium
• Instant Insurance Cover with less paper work
• Special plans for non-tobacco users
• Additional benefit in case of accidental death (Option II)
• Tax benefits for the premium paid

ICICI Pru iProtect at a Glance:

• Minimum entry age is 20 and maximum 65
• Maximum age of policy expiry – 75
• Policy terms are 10/15/20/25/30 years
• Minimum premium around Rs. 2000
• Mode of payment of premium – Yearly
• Tax benefit under section 80C of Income Tax Act

How to buy iProtect:

You can just visit ICICI Prudential website and select the iProtect plan and just give your basic details like sex, age, tobacco smoker or not, date of birth, policy term, etc to get your premium details (which in fact is excluding the service tax) and then you can proceed to make the payment either via any of your online banking accounts or even credit cards.  Before that you will need to enter your various personal details and proceed for payment.

For an average a person of 32 years the policy premium for 30 years term came at Rs. 4830 for a sum assured of Rs. 30 Lakhs which is by far the least premium as far as I can think of when it comes to term insurance.  It is around 3 times cheaper when I compared it with the LIC’s term insurance plan.

But as far as comparison with iterm plan is concerned this iProtect scores a lot better due to factors like policy term, riders, online/offline availability, minimum/maximum age entry, etc.  But the policy premium looked as though they are almost nearly similar when compared with iTerm plan from Aegon Religare.  Although I would suggest you to go for the ICICI Pru iProtect than iTerm, as a personal suggestion.

I guess more such plans will be brought forward by many other Insurance companies in India and this is just the start when it comes to buying term insurance plans online for cheap.

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• LIC Profit Plus Insurance
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The policy term is 10 years, and the minimum premium amount is Rs.50,000 per annum. The policy offers both half-yearly and yearly premium payment modes. The age eligibility for owning this policy is 8 to 65 years old. You can surrender the policy after the 3rd year. But you are eligible for no surrender charges only after the 5th year. The Pinnacle fund option aims to generate optimal returns through well managed equity portfolio while using debt instruments to manage the guarantee.  Just like LIC Wealth Plus and BSLI Platinum Premier Plan, this plan that is, ICICI Pru Pinnacle too guarantees you with highest NAV that is recorded for the first 7 years of the plan.  Let us see how different is ICICI Pru Pinnacle from the other two that were already reviewed here.

Benefits of Pru Pinnacle:

• Promises highest NAV recorded in the first seven years.
• Serves as a cost-effective guaranteed return plan.
• Offers the benefit of guaranteed highest NAV on maturity.
• Offers limited premium payment term.
• Enables you to enjoy insurance protection for longer period (10 years) by paying premiums for only 3 policy years.
• Allows partial withdrawals from the 6th year of the policy.
• Enables you to increase or decrease the insured amount anytime during the policy term.
• Offers excellent tax benefits on the premium paid and the benefits received, based on the prevailing income tax laws.
• Enables you to receive additional 3 per cent of fund value upon maturity.
• Provides excellent death benefit by providing the nominee with higher assured amount (five times the annual premium) or the fund value.

As mentioned above, partial withdrawal benefit for ICICI Prudential Pinnacle can be enjoyed to the full only after 6 years but surrender is allowed after 3 years.

Allocation Charges:

The respective allocation charges for ICICI Pru Pinnacle for the first year it is 14% and 4% for the second year and 3% for the third year and so on.

Related Posts:

• Birla Sun Life Insurance Platinum Premier Plan
• ICICI Pru ACE the Super ULIP Review
• Birla Sun Life Insurance (BSLI) Foresight Plan

This plan from Birla Sunlife looks a lot similar to that of LIC Wealth Plus and ICICI Pru Ace, although with minor changes though.

Benefits:
This Birla Sun Life Insurance Platinum Premier Plan helps you direct your investment to the Platinum Premier Fund and thus be able to derive higher returns with either the starting unit price of Rs. 10 or the maximum unit price recorded for the next 7 years and 3 months or the final unit price at the end of 10 years.  You can get to choose whichever option you want.  Thus this eventually mean that the highest NAV is always protected no matter what eventuality happens.  The rest of the premiums can be made either 100% debt or 100% equity depending upon your need.

Loyalty Additions:
Apart from the above protection, you will get 5% as loyalty additions of the annual premiums when the policy gets matured will only help you add more wealth to your existing plan.

Choice of Investments:
The BSLI Platinum Premier Plan gives you the choice of two options to get your premium invested, namely, guaranteed option and self-managed option.  With the guaranteed option Birla Sun Life will create a new series regularly during your policy tenure and each of these units starts at Rs. 10.  For this option the guaranteed unit price would be the highest daily NAV that was recorded during the seven years and three months period of the plan.

And with the self-managed option you get to choose where you want your money to be invested, either full 100% equity or full 100% debt or any percentage of your money in either option depending upon your risk taking behavior and/or safe measures.  There are in fact 10 investment funds to choose from.  You can switch between them any number of times during the policy period.

Life Cover:
Apart from this you will get life cover for you and thus your family is well protected no matter what happens to you.

Partial Withdrawals:
Partial withdrawal is allowed in this Platinum Premier Plan after 3 years.

Policy Details:
The minimum annual policy premium is Rs. 25,000 and Rs. 30,000 if paid using half yearly, quarterly or monthly.  The sum assured is a minimum of 5 times annual policy premium.  The premiums can be paid online and even the switching between the funds can be done online by you and thus making, the BSLI Platinum Premier Plan a flexible insurance policy among the existing similar plans available.

Tax Benefits:
Under secion 80C the annual premiums are given tax benefits, i.e., up 1 Lakhs can be invested in such insurance policies.

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• ICICI Pru ACE the Super ULIP Review
• ICICI Pru Pinnacle Review
• Post Office Interest Rates 2012

The 5 super benefits of ICICI Prudential Ace ULIP are:

1.  Low charges and thus improving the net yield.

2.  Protection of profit from the volatility of the market

3.  Dynamic P/E fund option.

4.  Rewards with extra units every 5th policy year from 10 years.

5.  Tax saving (obviously).

Low Charges:

To explain these super benefits:  This plan i.e., the ICICI Pru Ace, comes with low charge structure when compared with any other ULIP plans in India.  The policy administration charges being only Rs. 60 per month and fund management charges ranging between 0.75% to 1.35%.

Profit Protection:

With the option of automatic transfer between funds depending upon the volatility of the market, and distribution between 2 funds of equity and debt fund in the proportion of 75 and 25%, your money is safe even when the markets go down.

Dynamic P/E Fund:

With the dynamic asset allocation of funds between debt and equity and thus will provide you long term capital appreciation.  That is your fund will be invested depending up on the P/E ratio and thus you can derive the maximum benefit out of your investment and protection as well.

Rewards:

With ICICI Pru Ace you will be rewarded at regular intervals with loyalty additions, that is every fifth policy year but only starting from the 10th policy year onwards only.  After the 6th year of the policy you will be allocated with additional units from the premium paid.

Tax Saving:

Just like any other ULIP policies you can save up to Rs. 30,900 under section 80C for the premium paid every year.

Plan Details:

The minimum premium for ICICI Pru Ace is Rs. 18,000 per annum which you can pay either monthly, half yearly, or yearly.  The minimum sum assured for this plan is 5 X annual premium but subject only to a minimum of Rs. 1 lakh.  Minimum entry age is 0-65 years.  The policy term for ICICI Prudential Ace is 10 years to 30 years.

The above are the facts and reviews on why ICICI Prudential calls this ICICI Pru Ace a Super ULIP, although the benefits and plans described above looks just like any other ULIP plans though with some additional benefits like rewards with loyalty additions and low charges, etc.  In this ICICI Pru Ace ULIP you have two unique options to choose when it comes to portfolio strategies namely trigger portfolio strategy and fixed portfolio strategy.

You can get more details and get the free ICICI Pru Ace Brochure here.

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• Birla Sun Life Insurance Platinum Premier Plan
• ICICI Pru Pinnacle Review
• Post Office Interest Rates 2012

LIC’s Profit Plus is a Unit linked Insurance plan which gives you the twin benefits of security and returns. You and your family will have the insurance protection and will also be able to reap investment benefits.

Features:

• Twin benefits of insurance and investment
• PPT or Premium Payment Term is limited to single, 3 , 4, or 5 years
• Premiums payments can be done yearly, half yearly, quarterly, monthly or single lump sum
• Policyholder should be between 0 to 65 years of age
• Policy term can be between 5 to 20 years
• Offers 4 investment fund options (Bond, Secured, Balanced, and Growth) which one can choose from depending on the risk profile.
• Policyholder is allowed to switch between fund options during the term; maximum 4 switches are allowed
• Minimum premium amount is Rs. 20000 for single mode and Rs.10000 for others while there is no limit for maximum amount

• Partial withdrawals:
  • Policyholder is allowed to encash units partially only after premiums have been paid for 3 years
  • In case of minors, partial withdrawal is only allowed once he attains majority i.e. 18 years of age
  • In limited PPT, policyholder should have a minimum fund value of Rs. 10000
  • In single premium policies, policyholder’s fund value should at least be Rs. 5000
• Policy lapse: If premiums are not paid within the grace period, policy will lapse. The same can be revived within two years from the due date of unpaid premium.
• On Maturity: Policyholder will get the fund value
• In case of death: Higher of the Sum Assured or Policyholder’s Fund Value
• Accident benefit rider and Critical Illness rider options can be opted for under this plan and can be claimed
• Settlement Options: On maturity, policyholder can choose to receive policy money in installments at regular intervals for a period of not more than 5 years from the date of maturity.

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