LIC ULIP: Compare & Buy Plans, Premiums, Reviews & More!

The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LICI) offers a range of life insurance plans for its customers. These plans include pure protection plans which provide financial security to your family, pension plans for retirement planning and savings plans for creating a corpus. Under saving plans, there are traditional saving plans and unit-linked insurance plans (ULIPs). While a traditional savings plan creates a secured and risk-free corpus, ULIPs provide market-linked returns which are non-guaranteed.

What are ULIPs?

ULIPs stands for Unit Linked Insurance Plans. They are life insurance plans which invest the premiums into securities of the capital market. These plans offer you a variety of investment funds, each of which has a different investment strategy and risk profile. You can choose any investment fund based on your risk appetite. The premiums are invested in the selected fund which, in turn, invests the money in capital market securities. Thereafter, as the value of the securities grows, the value of your investment grows and you get attractive returns.

ULIPs also offer various flexible benefits to policyholders like changing the investment fund, partial withdrawals, investing additional premiums, etc. These features make ULIPs a popular means of investing which not only offers investment returns, it also offers life insurance coverage.

LIC ULIP Plans

LIC offers one unit-linked insurance plan called LIC’s New Endowment Plus. Let’s understand the plan in details –

Overview of LIC’s New Endowment Plus Plan

LIC’s New Endowment Plus is a LIC ULIP plan which gives you the benefit of insurance as well as investment. The premiums paid are invested in a selected fund and you get market-linked returns. In case of death during the policy tenure, the minimum death benefit which you would get is the sum assured of the policy. Thus, the plan gives you an opportunity to invest in the market and also promises an insurance cover.

Advantages of LIC’s New Endowment Plus Plan

Here are the main features of this LIC ULIP plan which makes the plan effective

1. Premiums for the plan are payable throughout the policy tenure
2. You can choose LIC’s Linked Accidental Death Benefit Rider with the policy. This rider gives you an additional sum assured in case of accidental death
3. There are four investment funds and you can choose to invest your premium in any one of the available funds
4. Partial withdrawals and switching make the plan flexible
5. You can choose to receive the maturity benefit in instalments through the settlement option benefit

Benefits offered by LIC’s New Endowment Plus Plan

Under the LIC ULIP plan, the following benefits are available to the policyholder

1. Maturity benefit
   If the term of the policy comes to an end, the available fund value is paid as the maturity benefit. You can receive this benefit in one lump sum or in five equal instalments over a period of five years. The benefit of receiving the maturity proceeds in instalments is called settlement option.
2. Death benefit
   If the insured is aged below 8 years, risk cover starts two years after the plan is bought or on the policy anniversary falling after the insured’s 8th birthday, whichever is earlier. If the insured dies before the risk cover have started, the fund value is paid. However, if the insured dies when the risk cover is operational, higher of the sum assured or the fund value is paid.
3. Surrender benefit
   You can surrender the policy and avail the fund value if you want. If you surrender the plan before the completion of the first five policy years, the fund value would be transferred to the discontinued policy fund. A discontinuation charge would also be levied. After the first five years are over, the available fund value in the discontinued fund would be paid. If, on the other hand, you surrender the policy after five years, the full fund value would be paid immediately.
4. Discontinuation of premiums
   If you don’t pay the due premiums within the first five years of the policy, you can surrender the policy and avail the surrender value as stated above. If you don’t surrender, you would be given two years to revive the coverage. If you don’t revive within the specified duration, the policy would be deemed to be surrendered. If you, however, discontinue the premiums after the completion of five years, you can continue the policy as a paid-up policy. The sum assured would be reduced. On death, higher of the reduced sum assured or fund value would be paid. On maturity, the fund value would be paid.
5. Partial withdrawals
   Once the first five years of the policy have come to an end, you can withdraw from your fund partially. The maximum withdrawal which you can do would be such that the fund value after withdrawal should be at least thrice the annual premium or 50% of the original balance whichever is higher if you are withdrawing between the 6th to 10th policy years. If, however, you are withdrawing after the 11th policy year, the fund value should be maintained at thrice the annual premium or 25% of the original value, whichever is higher.
6. Switching
   You can switch your investments from one fund to another anytime during the policy tenure. The plan allows you a facility of four free switches.
7. Revival
   A policy in which the premiums have been discontinued can be revived within 2 years of discontinuing the premiums. To revive you would have to pay the outstanding premiums and the interest on them. Proof of continued good health might also be required before the policy is revived.

Riders available under LIC ULIP Plan

There is one rider under the policy which is LIC’s Linked Accidental Death Benefit Rider. This rider covers instances of accidental death occurring within the policy duration. If the insured dies during the term of the policy due to an accident and the rider is selected, an additional sum assured would be paid for the accidental death suffered.

Eligibility parameters of LIC’s New Endowment Plus Plan

Investment funds available under LIC’s New Endowment Plus Plan

There are four types of investment funds under the plan which are as follows –

1. Bond Fund
   This is a debt-oriented fund which does not invest in equity-oriented securities. The fund invests at least 60% of the portfolio in Government securities, guaranteed securities and corporate debt. The remaining portfolio is invested in short-term investments like money market instruments. The fund has low risk and is suitable for risk-averse individuals.
2. Secured Fund
   This is also a debt-oriented fund which also invests in equity. At least 45% of the portfolio is invested in Government securities and fixed interest bonds, a maximum of 40% is invested in money market instruments and a minimum of 15% is invested in equity. This fund has low to moderate risks.
3. Balanced Fund
   This is a mix of debt and equity investment. In this fund, a minimum of 30% of the portfolio is invested in Government securities or corporate bonds, a maximum of 40% is invested in short term securities and up to 70% of the fund is invested in equity. Since this is a balanced fund, this fund has moderate risk.
4. Growth Fund
   This is an equity-oriented fund where a minimum of 40% of the portfolio is invested in equity, up to 40% of the portfolio is invested in short term securities and a minimum of 20% is invested in Government securities and other fixed-income securities. Being an equity-oriented fund the fund has high risk and is suitable for risk-taking investors.

Charges applicable under LIC’s New Endowment Plus Plan

Under this LIC ULIP Plan, the following charges are applicable

1. Premium allocation charge
   This charge is the first charge which is deducted from the premium before the premium is invested in a chosen fund. The charge is applied annually and is as follows –

2. Mortality charge
   This charge is also applied annually and is charged for providing life insurance coverage to you. Mortality charge is applicable as long as the sum assured is below the fund value. Once the fund value exceeds the sum assured, the mortality charge is not levied.
3. Rider charge
   If you opt for rider coverage you would have to pay for the rider charge. The charge is levied monthly and the rate is INR 0.40 per INR 1000 rider sum assured.
4. Policy administration charges
   This charge is levied to meet the administrative costs of servicing the policy.
5. Fund management charge
   This charge is levied for managing the investments in the fund. The charge is 0.70% for each fund.
6. Discontinuation charge
   This charge is applicable if you discontinue or surrender the policy before the first five policy years.
7. Miscellaneous charges
   If you do any alteration under the policy a miscellaneous charge would be levied. The charge is INR 50 per alteration request.

Exclusions under LIC’s New Endowment Plus

Under this LIC ULIP plan, suicides would be excluded. If the insured dies due to suicide within one year of buying the policy or within one year of reviving it, the fund value is paid.

How to buy LIC’s New Endowment Plus?

You can buy this LIC ULIP plan through the company’s branch or by meeting a company’s agent and buying the policy from him/her. You can also buy the policy online from the LIC website.

However, if you wish to buy any other Unit Linked Insurance Plans from any other company, you need to first compare and then choose the plan which best suits your needs and to do so Turtlemint would provide you with the best platform. It even allows you to buy the policy directly from its website.

Visit www.turtlemint.com/life-insurance and choose ‘Investment and Tax Planning’. This would ensure that you get a list of the best unit-linked insurance plans. Provide your details like age, gender, income, investment tenure, investment amount, etc. and you would be able to check out the plans which give the best coverage. Compare the available plans and choose the one which suits your needs the best and then buy the plan online directly from Turtlemint.

Documents required for buying LIC’s New Endowment Plus

To buy this LIC ULIP Plan, you would have to submit the following documents –

• Photographs
• A valid identity proof
• A valid age proof
• A valid address proof
• Income proof if you pay high premium amounts
• Medical check-up reports if required by the insurance company

Claim process of LIC’s New Endowment Plus

In case of a claim under the LIC ULIP Plan, the following steps should be taken –

• Maturity claims
  In case of maturity claims, you should submit a claim discharge form to get the claim credited to your bank account.
• Death claims
  For a death claim, LIC has to be informed of the insured’s death. The nominee should inform the company of the death and submit the relevant documents associated with the claim. The company would, then, peruse the documents and submit the claim
  You can also make a maturity or death claim through Turtlemint. If you have bought the policy from Turtlemint the company would help you in getting your claims settled. To raise your claim to inform Turtlemint by calling 1800 200 0101 or by sending an email at claims@turtlemint.com. Your claim related documents would also be required after which the company would take the claim related steps and get your claims settled.

Documents required for claims

For the processing of your death or maturity claims, the following documents would be required –

1. Maturity claim
   1. Policy bond
   2. Claim discharge form
   3. Identity proof of the individual making the claim
   4. Cancelled cheque or passbook of the claimant’s bank account
2. Death claim
   1. Claim form number 3783
   2. Death certificate
   3. Police FIR, post mortem report, police inquest report and other documents in case of an accidental death
   4. Identity proof of the claimant
   5. Policy bond
   6. Cancelled cheque or passbook of the bank account of the claimant