There are a lot of term insurance plans available in the market today. Further almost all of them have taken their term plans online. So a comparison of term plans is easy to do and is strongly recommended too.

Since there are a large number of options, it becomes a bit difficult to choose. And since you are taking a large cover and committing to an age often after retirement, it becomes crucial to get the right term plan for yourself.

Just before getting into the options and which plans you should consider, let us briefly understand the major benefit of a term insurance plan and why you should definitely take one. Term insurance plans offer the most comprehensive protection for your family. By paying Rs. 10,000 per annum a 30 year old can get a cover of Rs. 1 crore. Such kind of protection is crucial in today’s time and age. Ideally one should take a term insurance cover of 15-20 times their annual income. Keep reviewing regularly, maybe once in 5 years. Also, do not rely on your company provided life insurance cover. Take a policy term which will give cover till you reach the age of 65 years. Taking term insurance for an age beyond 70 is a waste of money in my opinion. There is a detailed video on Why you should take a term insurance plan?

If you are looking for the best term insurance plan option, you should consider the points mentioned below.

# 1. Claims Settlement Ratio of the Company

This measures the total number of death claims paid to the nominee by the total number of death claims received by the company. If you have filled up the application form correctly (again something which I strongly recommend that you do yourself), there isn’t much to worry about when it comes to claims. But still a good history is something which you can definitely keep in mind while selecting your plan. 

We have listed the companies with Claims Settlement Ratio greater than 90% consistently for the last 3 years. 
 

Company	2016-17	2015-16	2014-15
LIC	98.3	98.3	98.0
Max Life	97.8	97.0	96.0
HDFC Life	97.6	95.0	91.0
Aegon Life	97.1	95.3	90.0
ICICI Prudential	96.7	96.2	94.0
Tata AIA Life	96.0	96.8	95.0
Canara HSBC	95.0	93.0	90.0
Bajaj Allianz Life	91.7	91.3	92.0

More details on this video on Claims Settlement Ratio of Life Insurance Companies.


# 2. Annual Premiums

You need to pay the premiums each year, even after your retire. So it makes sense to go with an affordable premium value. Since you can choose from a large variety of brands, you can choose one which suits you the best and also feel confident about. You can refer to this table for sample annual premiums for a 1 crore cover for a 30 year old for 35 years. I have considered the basic term plan variant.

#	Company Name	Annual Premium
1	Canara HSBC - iSelect	Rs. 8,365
2	Edelweiss Tokio - Total Secure+	Rs. 8,592
3	Future Generali - Flexi Online Term	Rs. 8,601
4	Aegon Life - iTerm Plus	Rs. 8,844
5	Max Life - Online Term	Rs. 9,204
6	Birla Sun Life - Protect @ Ease Term	Rs. 10,537
7	IDBI Federal - iSurance Flexi	Rs. 10,703
8	HDFC Life - Click 2 Protect 3D Plus	Rs. 11,001
9	ICICI Prudential - iProtect Smart	Rs. 11,014
10	Bajaj Alllianz - eTouch	Rs. 12,095
11	LIC	Rs. 27,158

You can Compare Premiums of Term Insurance Plans on MyInsuranceClub

# 3. Brand Preference

Most of the life insurance companies are from very established financial services players in India with partnerships with global majors. So not much to worry about on this front. You may still have a preference and can go with that.


# 4. Riders available

I would recommend that you take a plan which offers a critical illness benefit, either as a rider or as an in-built feature. You can take a stand-alone critical illness plan too, but I would recommend that you take this along with your term insurance plan as you premiums are set now itself and you don’t have to bother about managing another plan and paying for it every year. 

Considering all the factors mentioned above, a good shortlist for your term insurance plan can be as follows:

• Max Life Online Term Plan
• HDFC Life Click 2 Protect 3D Plus Plan
• Aegon Life iTerm Plus Plan
• ICICI Prudential iProtect Smart Plan

All of them have the following:

• Good claims settlement ratio
• Decently priced
• Good brands and history
• Have critical illness as an option or as a built-in feature

So, hope this was useful to you and helps in selecting a good term insurance plan for yourself. If you have any questions on this, please do drop a comment and we will get back to you. Getting a term insurance plan is one of the best financial decisions and support you will be providing to your family. So do it now … Get a term insurance plan.

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