Insurance is one of the big industries, influencing the economy flow in India. There are more than 25 insurance companies in India, as of today. This number includes insurance companies run by both public sector as well as private sectors. Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), quoted recently that nowadays people in India are aware of the importance of being insured and the rate of new insurance policy acquirers have increased rapidly.
Insurance in India can be generally classified into two types
- Life Insurance
- General Insurance
Life Insurance
Life insurance offers full protection against the risk of death to the insured and his family. Life insurance in India can be classified further as,
- Whole-life plan: The premium is collected until the retirement or for the term of the policy and it is paid back to the nominee, in case of death of the insurer. Else it can also be claimed by the insurer with a fixed return.
- Money back plan: Here the investors are given periodical payoffs, for the premiums he had paid. In case of death of the investor, the sum assured amount is paid to the nominee.
- Endowment plan: In this plan the insurer has to pay the premiums for some years like 10, 20 or 25 years. After this tenure he can claim his sum assured and bonuses acquired or in case of death during the policy period, the amount is paid off to the nominee.
- Term plan: In term plan the insurer pays premium for a fixed time. On the termination of the time period the insurer can extend the tenure or discontinue the policy. If u wish to discontinue only the part of the premiums will be repaid. But this plan offers maximum death cover with minimum premiums.
- ULIP: Unit Linked Insurance Plans collect the premiums from the insured and invest them into other investment funds. The return generated through this is given to the insurer at the end of the policy period. Thus with providing insurance cover it also accounts for some investment gains.
General Insurance
It is basically meant for all non-life insurance including property, vehicle, business, etc. Their tenure is for only a short period of time. They have four main categories:
- Personal insurance: Includes the medical, property, vehicle, accidental insurance plans that an individual can avail for his personal well being. The tenure for personal insurance ranges from 1 year for vehicle to 5 years for property insurance.
- Rural Insurance: This provides cover for rurally based business entrepreneurs. It provides a wide range of coverage from life, accident, etc to protection against any natural disaster or accidents that may affect the business.
- Industrial Insurance: This covers work related damages to the worker in case of injuries or illness. It accounts for the medical, hospital and related services for his recovery. It also provides partial wage replacement for the workers who are temporarily unable to continue their work due to ailments.
- Commercial insurance: It is for all business related mishaps like unexpected damage to property, theft, liability, etc that results in the interruption of business or accounts to some losses.
There is a wide range of Insurances that normal people are unaware of! Maybe this insurance might help thousands of Indians as we always prefer to luxurious life and are really negligible about heath risks and money. Thanks author for choosing this write, because it will help a lot more people to enhance their awareness of policies.