This post was updated on December 25, 2012

By chance, I happened to read in a financial newspaper that the Bharti AXA Life eProtect Online Term Plan had some updated terms and conditions. Previously, I’d said that I like the simple and no-frills approach of this plan. I take that statement back now because in an attempt to extend the maximum age at maturity parameter, Bharti AXA has managed to kind of mess-up the plan and has made at more confusing. Take a look at the new terms —



I tried to interpret the meaning of the term “To Age XY” but couldn’t. What’s the difference between “Entry Age 50 + Policy Term 10-Years” vs. “Entry Age 50 + Policy Term ‘To Age 60′”? I tried to download the product brochure but the file seems to be corrupted. Not a good experience at all and does nothing to get to the top spot.

The original post below was published on July 18, 2012.

So finally, I am coming around to reviewing online term life insurance plans. I’ve lost track of how many requests I have received through Capital Advisor over the past few months asking for my thoughts and perspectives on purchasing term life insurance plans online. I’ve also been meaning to buy one for myself from quite some time now, but you know the whole ere-thing has me totally consumed reading up on strategies and ways and means.

I thought I’d keep my reviews a bit different by simply jotting down quick notes on whatever plans I happen to review. Each quick note will compare an online term plan against the one from the previous quick note and then pick my choice from the two. That way I hope to emerge with the one online term plan that looks like the best bet.

I’d be delighted if you could participate in this process by offering your own thoughts, perspectives, and experiences as well as suggesting other online term plans that you’d like reviewed in subsequent quick notes.

So here’s the first one inspired by an email ad that I received for the Bharti AXA Life eProtect online term plan.

Quick Notes on Bharti AXA Life eProtect—

• Maximum age at maturity is 60. But the maximum policy term is only 30 years. So, if you’re some bits below 30, you will be left uncovered (!) for a few years before you retire (taking the traditional retirement approach and when you’d typically not need life insurance anymore due to your retirement corpus kicking in).

• I like the Family Care Benefit clause that promises an initial payout of Rs 1 lac within 2-business days of claim submission. Immediate cash is always useful in such situations.

• I also like the simple and no-frills approach of this plan. For a 30-30-1 plan (30-year old buying a 30-year plan for Rs 1 crore cover), the indicated premium is Rs 7,300 excluding service tax.

• I’m also comfortable with the Bharti AXA brand but this is extremely subjective and also subject to bias. You might have experienced otherwise. But when in doubt, simply go by your gut feel and you will do fine. I’ll also stick my limb out and say that all those arguments about claim ratios and payouts shouldn’t bother you if you’re honest when filling up the forms. Plus with IRDA cleaning-up it’s own act and that of the industry, things would only get better.

That takes us off to a good start.

Again,

I’d be delighted if you could participate in this process by offering your own thoughts, perspectives, and experiences as well as suggesting other online term plans that you’d like reviewed in subsequent quick notes.

I’ll pick the next one based on your comments.

Note: To help you to keep up with new term plan reviews, to go back and refer to past reviews, and to share all of this content with your friends, I’ve created the following easy to remember link — http://bit.ly/termplans. So, go ahead, bookmark and share.