Top 5 term insurance plans for working women; 3 things to keep in mind while purchasing policy

If a woman is the only earning member of the family or has someone depending on her for financial support, then a term plan is something that shouldn’t be ignored.

By Santosh Agarwal

Many of the working women know that insurance is one of the most viable ways of providing financial security to their families. However, most of them don’t know what kind of insurance policy needs to be taken to ensure maximum benefits at an affordable premium. Women opt for different insurance policies at different stages of lives, depending on their needs. However, for a working woman, a term insurance plan is one of the most important insurance products offered by various insurance companies to provide financial security for loved ones.

So, if a woman is the only earning member of the family or has someone depending on her for financial support, then a term plan is something that shouldn’t be ignored. Here are a few pointers that any working woman must know and consider before buying a term plan for herself:

1. Choose what suits you the best
Currently, there are various kinds of term plans available in the market for women with different requirements. Unlike other policies or investment plans, a term insurance is simple and easy to understand. For example, if you are a married woman in your early thirties and working to contribute in your family’s income, then you must consider a term plan, especially if you are sharing responsibilities with your husband in paying a home loan, expenditure for children and other bills. In case anything happens to you, the burden will not fall on your husband entirely.

One of the crucial deciding factors is the time period that you choose – opt for a longer term to ensure coverage for a longer span and ideally investing at an early age is the right way to go about it. For most term policies, the minimum entry age is 18 years and the maximum 65 years. So you can buy it any age when you are at the prime of your health – although, with increasing age, the risk factors go up, hence the premium may increase. Most insurers have term policies that have a sum assured starting from Rs 25 lakh and it can go up to as much as you want. The basic calculation is done based on your current income, and the cover should ideally be 15 to 20 times of your income. (Please see the table).

The following is a comparative table of 5 leading insurance companies providing term insurance of Rs 1 crore sum assured for a period of 40 years for a non-smoker, 30-year-old woman who earns between Rs 5 and Rs 7 lakh annually.

(Source: www.policybazaar.com)

2. Single mothers, pay attention
If you are a single mother and your child is dependent on you for all kinds of financial needs, then you must consider a good life policy so that after you are gone, your child or children do not suffer due to lack of funds. A term insurance, by and large, is a replacement of your financial worth when you are gone. Hence it is calculated on your current income. In case you have a loan and your children are young, the risk factor goes up.

3. Benefits
Term life policies are becoming a popular commodity among women as they don’t have to go through the hassle of understanding the complicated terms and conditions that are more common with other policies. There are a lot of combination plans available for those who are looking at variants. For example, a simple term plan will give the nominee a complete lump sum amount after the death of the insured. In other options, if your dependents are too young or not sure of how to invest the lump sum amount, one can choose to divide and give a certain percentage of the death benefit in the beginning and rest can be given as monthly income to the beneficiary. And, the last option is the one where a woman can choose a term plan that will give a death benefit as increasing monthly income so as to counter inflation rate plus a lump sum amount as decided by the insured.

Now if you think about a term insurance policy, we are sure that you won’t have any qualms in investing in one to ensure a safe future for your loved ones.

(The author is Head of Life Insurance, Policybazaar.com)