Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the country's largest insurer, today launched two new plans, one on the pension side and the other on the unit-linked (Ulip) front. LIC has launched a Ulip product after a gap of almost two years. The products that were launched include 'New Jeevan Nidhi', a deferred pension plan and 'Flexi Plus', a unit-linked assurance plan.
Flexi Plus plan not only provides a lump sum benefit on death but also the maturity benefit irrespective of survival of the policyholder. The policyholder can choose the amount of premium he/she desires to pay, depending on which equivalent level of cover will be provided.
This plan offers flexibility to choose policy term, mode of payment and fund type. One has facility to make partial withdrawals and switch the fund types. The policyholder will have the option to choose from debt fund or mixed fund. Mixed fund has 15% to 25% investments in listed equity shares and investment of not less than 45% in government guaranteed securities/corporate debts and short-term investment such as money market instruments.
'New Jeevan Nidhi' is a conventional with profit pension plan, which provides for death cover during deferment period and offers annuity on survival to the date of vesting. It offers participation in profits in the form of bonus, from the sixth year onwards and also provides accident benefit rider. The policy term is available from 5 to 35 years.
Further, the option available to people for utilisation of the benefit amount include facility to either purchase an immediate annuity or purchase a new single premium deferred pension product from LIC.
"There is a dearth of good deferred pension products in the market and hence the product was developed specially keeping in mind the needs of the people. This will ensure regular income in the form of annuity or at any time in future as opted by the policyholder," said LIC in a statement.