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Features
Ref. No. KLI/22-23/E-BB/492
Under-insurance is where the life insurance coverage is insufficient to protect your family's financial needs. Know what underinsurance is and the risk and dangers of being underinsured.
To understand what is underinsurance, you have to know the goal of a life insurance cover. It is designed to provide financial cover to the family of the policyholder in case of their untimely demise. Under-insurance is the condition where the life insurance cover is not enough to take care of the financial needs of your loved ones. It means the sum insured by your policy is not adequate. Underinsurance can put your family in a financial crisis when you are not there to take care of them.
Imagine if your current lifestyle requires ₹50 lakh as financial support for your family for the next five years, but your term insurance cover is ₹30 lakh. That means you are under-insured by ₹20 lakh.
Now that you understand the underinsured meaning, you need to know what results in underinsurance. These are some of the most defining reasons:
Most life insurance products come with huge tax benefits. So, many people buy insurance policies to save taxes and forget that the main purpose of life insurance is to offer death benefits. Hence, they end up settling for underinsurance.
Most insurance agents try to sell you products that can ensure them a hefty commission. Hence, they do not prioritize the benefit that you require. This results in underinsurance.
There is a huge range of life insurance products available. However, not every product is designed to meet the needs of every single policyholder. If you end up buying the wrong product, you will either unnecessarily pay a higher premium or end up with an inadequate cover.
There are many disadvantages of being underinsured, and the biggest one is that your family will suffer financially when you cannot be there for them. They will receive less than the amount of money they need to meet their financial responsibilities. It also means what you invest as a premium will be wasted.
Similarly, when you only insure your building’s market price and not the re-build cost, then you’ll lose the insurance amount you have put while re-building it or renovating it.
A term insurance plan can be a very fruitful investment if you are not underinsured. So, how do you even know when you are underinsured? Firstly, you have to calculate your yearly household expenses, which must include rent, bills, groceries, and repairs. Add to that the loans that you need to repay and the investments that you hold. Also, do not forget to include the expenses for your children’s education and marriage.
Once you have an idea about the yearly average expense, multiply it by 15, and that number is the required sum assured to make sure that your family will be financially covered for a long time.
You can consider buying online term insurance, as that way you can easily compare different products and their specifications. This will ensure that you buy a suitable life insurance plan for the family.
The most serious risk of under-insurance is that it produces a false sense of security in the mind of the individual acquiring the life insurance policy, which is actually worse than not having any protection at all. Only after an unexpected incident does the family realise that the quantity of insurance is insufficient to pay off obligations, let alone develop a corpus for the children’s education and a replacement income stream, etc.
It is much better to keep investments and insurance separate than to combine them, and term insurance allows you to acquire a lot larger cover at a fraction of the cost.
Furthermore, in a growing economy like India, where inflation is causing prices to rise on a daily basis (especially medical and educational inflation, which is in the double digits), 10 lacs today will not have the same value as it will ten years from now and will certainly not provide you with the same purchasing power. As a result, treating insurance purchases as a one-time “fill it, close it, forget it” activity is insufficient.
Amit Raje is an experienced marketer who has worked in various Fintechs and leading Financial companies in India. With focused experience in Digital, Amit has pioneered multiple digital commerce in India. Now, close to two decades later, he is the vice president and head of the D2C business department. He masters the skill of strategic management, also being certified in it from IIMA. He has challenged his challenges and contributed his efforts in this journey of digital transformation.
Prasad Pimple has a decade-long experience in the Life insurance sector and as EVP, Kotak Life heads Digital Business. He is responsible for developing user friendly product journeys, creating consumer awareness and helping consumers in identifying need for life insurance solutions. He has 20+ years of experience in creating and building business verticals across Insurance, Telecom and Banking sectors
Features
Ref. No. KLI/22-23/E-BB/2435
The information herein is meant only for general reading purposes and the views being expressed only constitute opinions and therefore cannot be considered as guidelines, recommendations or as a professional guide for the readers. The content has been prepared on the basis of publicly available information, internally developed data and other sources believed to be reliable. Recipients of this information are advised to rely on their own analysis, interpretations & investigations. Readers are also advised to seek independent professional advice in order to arrive at an informed investment decision. Further customer is the advised to go through the sales brochure before conducting any sale. Above illustrations are only for understanding, it is not directly or indirectly related to the performance of any product or plans of Kotak Life.
