Life insurance (or any kind of insurance for that matter) is not a fun subject. Don’t believe me, bring it up during a party and watch how quickly the crowd around you disappear.

Ever wondered why people dislike life insurance so much? Well based on my personal experience and observation, I would say the 2 top reasons are: One: it’s too complicated no one understands it. Two, it costs too much! Also, the fact that life insurance deals with death and sickness does not help. Too morbid! If you ask any insurance agent, they would say, “you need it”, so what is there to not understand?

Sure we can be suspicious of them but you know… they are right. Insurance (sadly) is that necessary evil we all hate to admit is important, and that we all need in order to safeguard ourselves and the ones we love against financial pitfalls. If you think life insurance is too complex, yet do not have the time to read up on it to understand why, here’s a simple guide for you. Take heed, if you fall into any one of these groups, you need life insurance.

A medical card is a handy thing to have when you fall ill or become hospitalized. Here are a few things to consider when choosing a medical card, whether for yourself or for your family members:

1. Panel Hospital

Each insurance company has their own list of collaborating hospitals. If you are admitted to a panel hospital, you don’t need to worry about the claims because all the expenses are directly payable to the hospital from the insurance company. The number of collaborating hospitals varies according to the insurance company. So, it makes more sense to choose a medical card that has more participating hospitals for better convenience

2. Co-Insurance

Co-insurance is an agreement between the insurance company and the insured that a certain amount of the medical fees, typically set at 10%-20% will be borne by the insured. The rest will be paid by the insurance company. But first, you need clear any deductibles you owe. For example, a 85/15 co-insurance plan with a RM1,000 deductible requires the insured to pay 15% of the covered cost after the RM1,000 deductible has been paid. Then, only the insurance company will be liable for the remaining 85%.

3. Exclusions

Having a medical card does not protect your assets from every medical bill and healthcare cost. Many medical cards in the market do not cover most chronic diseases and pre-existing medical conditions. Most cards only cover in-patient but not out-patient services. Make sure you choose a medical card that suits you best and understand what it really covers.

4. Guaranteed Renewal

This is one of the most important feature of a medical card. Not all medical cards offer guaranteed renewal, which means the insurance company does not guarantee lifetime coverage. Non-guaranteed renewal cards will require medical checkups upon renewal and its approval is subject to the insurance company.

5. Cashless

A medical card with cashless option offers the insured hassle-free admission. Simply present the card at the panel hospital to facilitate your hospitalisation process. However, that benefit comes with a cost, as cashless medical cards usually come with higher premium rates.

6.Conclusion

Extra perks do come with extra costs, but they might be helpful enough in times of need to justify paying for them. What type of medical card suits you best?

We all know that life is uncertain, but not death. Death is predestined which comes unannounced bringing along various arduous dilemmas with it. Thus, planning before the arrival of atrocious phase is a wise decision, which should be made priory by everyone in life. If you are the member of a family including a partner and children, and top of that you are the only breadwinner of your family, then choosing a reliable option for your loved ones’ security in your absence is extremely important. We all are very much aware of the term ‘Life Insurance‘ and its perks. It not only helps us to secure the future of our family but also to keep them financially independent throughout their life. The second most significant aspect is the place where you live in, yes, your sweet home.

An endowment policy is a life insurance plan that provides the benefits of both savings and insurance. In this way, best endowment policy help their policyholders to save regularly for a certain time period so that they will be eligible to get a lump sum amount on the maturity of the policy if they survive the policy tenure.

The insured gets the sum assured on the fixed date according to the terms and conditions of the policy. However, if the policyholder dies suddenly during the policy tenure, the insurance provider pays the sum assured including the bonus to the beneficiary of the policy.

Types of Endowment Plans

There are five types of endowment plans available in the insurance market that can be thought as best endowment policies:

Non-Profit Endowment Plan: In this endowment plan, a promised lump sum amount is paid on the death of the policyholder or at the maturity of the policy, whichever occurs first.

Unit Linked Endowment Plan: In this type of endowment plan, the insurance premium paid by the policyholder is bifurcated to different units held under some specific investment funds. These funds can be chosen by the policyholder.

Traditional/ With Profit Endowment Plan: In this plan, the sum assured is paid at the time of plan’s maturity or on the death of the policyholder. The policy payout amount increases with time because of the re visionary / regular bonuses.

Low-Cost Endowment Plans: This endowment plan gives an opportunity to the insured to accumulate the funds that should be paid after a certain time period, generally, it is a mortgage.

Traded Endowment Policy: This endowment plan can be thought of as a second-hand policy. This is because of the fact that the buyer of the policy buys it at a rate that is higher than the surrender value given by the insurance company because this policy will definitely fetch him/her a higher amount when it will be matured. In this way, all the benefits and rights of the policy are transferred to the purchaser. However, if the policyholder dies, the purchaser gets complete benefits from the plan without any claim from the deceased person’s beneficiary.

Features and Benefits of Endowment Plans

The best endowment policies have the following features and benefits:

1. Death as well as Survival Benefits: Upon the demise of the policyholder, his/her nominee or beneficiary of the plan gets the sum assured with all the benefits. Apart from this, the policyholder gets the survival benefits, if he/she outlives the policy tenure.

2. Frequency of Premium Payment: A policyholder can make the payments of the premium as per the policy selected by him/her. The mode of payment can be monthly, half-yearly, quarterly, or yearly.

3. Guaranteed Returns: A policyholder of any of the endowment plans gets guaranteed returns because the savings option in the best endowment policy is not linked with the performance of the market. The guaranteed returns like bonuses remain fixed and are paid on the maturity of the plan or at the death of the insured.

4. Fulfills the Purpose of Savings with Life Cover: The endowment plans serve the dual purpose of savings and death cover.

5. The benefit of Bonus: The insurance providers of best endowment policies time to time declare bonuses. Most of the times any profit to the insurance company comes as a bonus for its customers which is given at the end of the financial year. The bonuses offered by an endowment insurance provider can be classified as:

6. Terminal Bonus: This is the bonus that the insurance provider adds in its policyholders’ account after they complete a certain term such as 10 years or 15 years.

7. Reversionary Bonus: This bonus is added to the money that is paid on maturity of the policy or at the death of the insured with profit plan.

8. Riders Provided Under Endowment Plans

9. As a policyholder of one of the best endowment policy, one can choose any of the following riders to enhance the coverage of his/her plan:

10. Accidental Death Benefit: Adding this rider gives additional accidental death cover to the policyholder with the existing death benefit in case of his/her accidental death.

11. Critical Illness Cover: By adding this cover an insured gets a lump sum amount upon diagnosis of any critical illness mentioned in the policy documents.

12. Hospital Cash Cover: This rider provides a policyholder daily allowance and post-hospitalization advantages if the policyholder is hospitalized.

13. Premium Waive off Cover: If the insured has taken this rider then he/she needs not to pay the premiums for his/her endowment plan if he/she suffers from any critical illness or some disability.

14. Disability: This rider is very useful at the time of permanent or partial disability.