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Top-up options in term insurance plans usually serve the purpose of enhancing your life cover. If you find yourself thinking that the initial quantum of life insurance may not suffice to serve the purpose of financial protection of your loved ones, you may want to expand or enhance the life cover. If you are keen on hiking your insurance cover, then you can opt for the built-in options under the iSelect term plan. These options are namely the Accidental death and accidental disability covers. Under the accidental death benefit, your beneficiary stands to receive an additional lump sum amount equal to accidental benefit sum assured along with the original sum assured under the term plan. You can choose to have an accidental death benefit amount of up to Rs 3 crore. How it will be meted out to your beneficiary depends upon the payout option you choose at inception.

The other option is called the Accidental Permanent and Total Disability benefit. Here the sum assured for payout is capped at Rs 1 crore, meaning you can get a cover of up to a maximum amount of Rs 1 crore. It will include incidences of loss of sight, severance of limbs, loss of speech, loss of hearing - all of these medical conditions also need to be checked by a registered medical practitioner who can testify that these are permanent and total in nature.

Thus, you can choose either or both covers for an additional layer of financial protection to your term insurance.

The ‘My Spouse and I’ option of the iSelect term plan allows you to cover your spouse under the same term insurance plan. The age of the spouse at the time of entry should be between 18 years to 50 years. The death benefit for the spouse is fixed at Rs 25 lakhs.
The process of including your spouse for a sum assured fixed at Rs 25 lakhs can be done without any hassles. In the unfortunate event of death/ diagnosis of the terminal illness of the spouse during the policy term, the sum assured under Spouse Cover will be paid out as a lump sum. Your insurance cover will continue (with a reduced premium) with all benefits intact as planned. In the event of death/ diagnosis of terminal illness/ Accidental Total and Permanent Disability (if opted for) of the life assured, the entire sum assured (as applicable) will be paid out, as per the benefit payout option chosen by you and your cover will terminate thereafter. However, the Spouse Cover will continue with a reduced premium, for sum assured of Rs. 25 lakh.

You can convert your policy from "Only Me" to “My Spouse and I” option, anytime during the policy term, provided the policy is in force, by adding a spouse cover within one year from the date of your marriage, where the marriage takes place after the policy commencement date.

Since the policy has a clear provision to add a spouse to the policy, the process is well laid out and hassle-free. In the case of divorce, you have to show appropriate documentation in order to opt-out of the spouse cover option.

Usually, the medicals of a person help the insurer assess the premium rates for you on the basis of the risks on your health, lifestyle, occupation, etc. For example, premium rates applicable to non-tobacco users will be lower than those for tobacco users because of how likely the latter group is to develop health conditions. Thus, to buy or to revive the policy, all the premiums due in the past need to be paid by you along with applicable interest rate and you may also be asked to undergo medical tests if required by the Company’s underwriting policy, to prove continued insurability. A medical test before buying the iSelect term plan might be identified on a case-by-case basis, however, if during the term of the policy there is a diagnosis then medical tests and medical practitioners involved are very specific.

For example, take the case of a terminal illness diagnosis, that is, if the life assured (or insured spouse, as the case may be) is diagnosed as suffering from an advanced or rapidly progressing incurable disease like cancer. In such a situation, the opinion of two appropriate independent medical practitioners is to be counted. If they say that the life expectancy is no greater than six (6) months from the date of notification of the claim, then the claim is admitted. These medical practitioners are required to be specialists from the field of medicine under which the terminal illness is categorised. Additionally, they should also be registered with the Medical Council of any State or Medical Council of India or Council for Indian Medicine or for Homeopathy set up by the Government of India or a State Government.

Term plans by their very nature are pure life insurance product: in return for your regular premium payments, the term plans promise the financial protection for your loved ones on the occurrence of an unforeseen event. Thus, term insurance plans only offer death benefits to the beneficiaries if the life assured under the policy dies during the term of the plan. Term insurance plans are pure insurance products or a pure protection instrument with no element of savings or investment in them. This means that the entire premium amount paid by you is diverted towards servicing this protection function and not towards an investment. In plans that contain an investment part, maturity benefits are paid upon maturity but that is not the case with term plans.

iSelect is a term insurance plan, therefore no benefit is payable on the maturity.

As a pure insurance product, iSelect term plan offers stronger financial protection. The premium you pay goes towards the cost of insurance and administrative expenses. Therefore, you can rest assured that the entire cost is going to ensure the financial protection of your loved ones should something happen to you. While there is no upfront investment with returns, the returns in the form of death benefits coming to your family are greater.