There are so many LIC policies with different names ? For example –
LIC Jeevan Saral , Jeevan Anand , Jeevan Tarang and many more LIC
policies. So almost every person in India holds a LIC policy, but
majority of them do not know
how these LIC policies works ?
How LIC Policies Work ?
Most of the investors just take things for granted and keep dragging
the policies assuming it would be the best thing in their financial
life. In this article I will show you how Life Insurance Corporation
(LIC) policies work and talk about few aspects like LIC bonus, LIC
premiums and different other aspects which will help you in
understanding how these policies work.
Moneyback Plans or Non-Moneyback Plans
A lot of LIC policies pay you on a periodic basis like at the end of
4th, 8th and 12th year, and then finally at the end of the maturity
period. These policies are Money back policies, the example can be
LIC Jeevan Surabhi or LIC Komal Jeevan.
A lot people get attracted to these moneyback plans because they get
money “many” times in between and it looks attractive to them, but the
premiums are generally higher for these policies.
Then there are LIC policies which do not pay you back periodically
but only pays you at the end of the maturity period. They are generally
termed as normal Endowment plans. Some examples are
Jeevan Anand and Jeevan Tarang
LIC Bonus & Additions to your Policy
The biggest confusion I see is generally in Bonus by LIC. One thing
which investors in these policies don’t know and don’t care for to find
out is that there are different kinds of bonuses in LIC policies and
they are calculated differently. Let’s see them one by one.
1. Simple Reversionary Bonuses
Generally when we say “Bonus”, it is this “Simple Reversionary
Bonus”, which is declared per thousand of the Sum Assured on annual
basis at the end of each financial year. This bonus is declared today,
but is paid at the end of maturity period only or on death, whichever is
earlier. So for example if you hold a policy of Rs 10,00,000 Sum
assured and the bonus for this year is Rs 60 per thousand sum assured,
then your bonus amount is Rs 60,000 for this year, but you will only get
it at maturity (after many many years) or on death, but by then it’s
worth would be much lesser than today (this 60,000 today and 60,000 after 20 yrs).
A very important point to note here is that, if you surrender the
policy, you don’t get the actual accrued bonus because it’s the future
value, you will only get its reduced amount in today’s term and its very
less. Also note that you are eligible to get reduced Accrued Bonus only
if your policy has completed 5 premium paying terms. (This thread on
our forum discusses
Jeevan Anand in good detail)
2) Final Additional Bonus (FAB)
There is another kind of bonus in LIC which is generally called as
“FAB” or Final Additional Bonus and it’s paid to those policies which
are of a longer duration and has run for more than 15 yrs (The premiums
are paid for all 15 yrs). This is generally a token of appreciation for
being with the policy for long duration. The FAB is generally not paid
for policies which have “Guaranteed Additions” (explained below). Here
is an indicative list of FAB.
3. Loyalty Additions
This is again a bonus which is declared for being loyal to the LIC
and completing a longer tenure. Generally it’s declared at the end of
the policy, but for some policies it might be applicable after
completion of 5 or 10 yrs. For example – In
Jeevan Saral,
the policy holders will earn such additions after a minimum of ten
policy years have been completed. This is usually an amount declared
per thousand of sum assured depending on the corporation’s performance.
Loyalty additions are totally non-guaranteed.
4. Guaranteed Additions
For a lot of LIC policies there is a term mentioned like “Guaranteed
Additions”. These are assured sums which are given to policyholders for a
specific period at start or end of some event along with the sum
assured at the end of the term. Like for example, ,
Jeevan Shree-1
policy provides for the Guaranteed Additions at the rate of Rs. 50/-
per thousand Sum Assured for each completed year for first five years of
the policy. The Guaranteed Additions are payable along with the Basic
Sum Assured at the time of claim.
Surrender Value
Most of the people who buy any Traditional Policies from LIC or any
pvt companies’ don’t think a bit about terms and conditions on exiting
the policy much before maturity. A general assumption is that they will
at least get their paid premiums back with sum interest. I have seen so
many cases like that where people are literally shocked to hear that
they will get peanuts or nothing from their policy if they choose not to
continue the policy. Surrendering of the policy works this way -
You will not get anything back if you stop your policy without paying
for 3 years. Almost every traditional policy attains minimum surrender
value after the policy has run for 3 yrs.
After 3 yrs, if you surrender your LIC policy, still you will only
get a small fraction of your total paid premiums that too excluding
first year premiums. So suppose you have a policy which has Sum assured
of 10,00,000 for 20 yrs term with Rs 50,000 premium per year. If you
have decided to surrender your policy after paying 5 premiums (you paid
2,50,000 in 5 yrs i.e. Rs 50,000 each year), then you will get around
30%-40% of 4 premiums paid (first year premiums are excluded), hence the
total would work out to be only Rs 60,000 – Rs 80,000 only +
proportionately reduced amount of accrued bonus if any (only because you
completed 5 yrs, else you will not get this also).
A very important point to Note : A lot
of people do not like to close their LIC policies after paying for 1-2
premiums because they will not get anything back for the 1-2 premiums
already paid. They think that they will surrender the policy after
completing 3 yrs, so that they will get at least something back. This is
total emotional decision and not mathematical, because if you do maths
you will see that surrendering the policy after 3 yrs is the worst
decision if you have already realised that you should not continue with
the policy. For example, if you are paying Rs 10,000 premium per year
and completed 2 yrs, you paid Rs 20,000, If you close this policy now,
you will lose all money (Rs 20,000), but you can save Rs 10,000 as third
premium. If you choose to complete 3 yrs and then surrender, then you
have paid Rs 30,000 and you will get back 30% of 2 premiums (first year
premium not included), so you get back Rs 7,000 (loss of 23,000 as you
paid 30,000 and got back 7,000). Do the math if you completed 1 yr only
yourself, its more worst!
Note that surrender value is nothing but your future maturity value
reduced to today’s value, so if the maturity value is Rs 10,000 after 20
yrs and if you want it before LIC will pay you the Net present value as
per today’s term.
Paid up Policy
A lot of times when you have completed 3 yrs of policy, you might not
want to get your money back immediately, in which case you can made
your policy paid up (just stop paying premium and it becomes Paid up).
When you do this, you can stop paying further premiums but you will get
your total premiums paid + accrued bonus any at the end of the maturity
period. This might work out better sometimes compared to surrendering if
you were going to invest the proceeds in some debt instrument.
What are mortality charges
A lot of agents advertise these policies under the head “
Free Insurance Cover“,
But all the policies charge premium or charges for providing Insurance
cover and it’s called “Mortality Charges”, these are the same charges
which are there in
Term plans
and ULIP’s, but may be in a different way, so nothing is free, some
part of premium goes in covering you and rest of it is invested in Debt
instruments which can give you assured returns at the end of the
maturity.
Loan on LIC Policy
You can also get loans at the time of crisis on your LIC policies,
but the maximum loan amount available under the policy is 90% of the
Surrender Value of the policy (85% in case of paid up policies)
including cash value of bonus. The rate of interest charged on loans is
at 9% to be paid half-yearly. Is there any other terms and conditions
which you dont understand in your LIC policies ? We can all help you
understand it in comments section .
Are you looking for surrendering your LIC Policies ?
By now you must have got a good understanding of your LIC policies
and how they work. You can find out the return of your policies using
the IRR method taught in this article. If you feel that you want to
continue your Policies then well and good. But if you feel that you want
to close your policies, do it soon because delaying the decision will
cost you a lot in long run. I hope its clear to you how your LIC policy
works for you .