Be a Responsible Parent by Choosing the Best Child Insurance Plan

It has been observed that most parents start planning for the child’s future quite late. Their focus on meeting the rearing priorities usually leads to overlooking their financial planning. To reap the benefits of financial investments, it is always advisable to opt for financial planning for child’s future during the child’s formative years (3-8 years) to ensure ready sufficient funds when the child is ready to embark on a career. Given the rising costs of school fees, this is a significant moment of truth for today’s parents. The earlier they start planning and investing, the longer is the investment period and better the returns.

There is a bewildering range of choices available today in child insurance plan market. So, what do parents do? Parents must choose child insurance plans that are designed to serve the sense of responsibility that sets in new parents about giving the best to their child’s needs. If chosen well, a child plan is a solid long-term vehicle to manage the future of a child’s different milestones. These plans inculcate a sense of discipline among the parents to invest systematically over the long-term. These investments can be made in funds that can earn returns that match the escalating costs of education. Finally, these plans have options that protect the child’s future plans in the unfortunate event of death of the parents.

So, how should you choose an insurance plan for your child’s future? I will offer you four simple tips.

·         Start planning and invest for your child’s future as early as possible : Insurance companies offer plans with maturity benefits structured to coincide with the child attaining 18 yrs or ‘timed’ release of payouts at critical lifestage from 18 yrs onwards. These plans offer a long horizon to invest which helps you systematically build the corpus. So, quantify your goals with a certified financial planner and choose a plan that encourages such long-term behaviour.

·         Invest in plans that offer premium waiver benefit: Most child plans offer premium waiver benefit either as an option or as an essential feature in the main plan. What premium waiver does is this – in case of the death of the parent, the insurer waives off future premiums to be paid while the insurer continues to fund the insurance policy till the maturity. This makes sure that the maturity benefit that was set for a certain age remains intact as planned in addition to the death benefit paid.

·         Choose a plan that offers a mix of investment options and adequate risk cover: Make sure you invest in a child plan which offers a balanced mix of growth & debt funds and option of risk cover. Empirically, equities give the best returns in the long run. Make sure that insurance plan that you choose offers you the right mix of capital protection and growth. Also, choose a plan that has the system transfer option to make sure your gains in the investment are protected. Lastly, take adequate risk cover (atleast twenty times the annual premium) to ensure that the death benefit is a substantial lumpsum that can help your family in case of your demise.

·         Read the product brochure and understand the costs of the product: Insurers lay out the charges that the customer needs to pay for the policy clearly in the product brochure. Compare the products available in the market on their charges, the reputation of the insurer, claim settlement ratios (available on the websites), flexibility offered and their service quality perception.

Buying a best child insurance plan is a significant step in securing your child’s future. I suggest you make it a high involvement purchase by researching the products in the market, probing the insurance agent on the features, charges and past performance and satisfying yourself with evidence on every aspect of the product. Do this and your child will think of you as smart parents twenty years from now. That should make it worth it.

Source:  http://blog.hdfclife.com/best-child-insurance-plan-532360#

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Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.

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