Insurance queries: Keep lifecycle needs in mind

While taking an insurance product, what should I look at and is it better to purchase a term policy instead of an endowment policy?

-G K Srinivasan

Insurance is purchased to secure yourself and family against unforeseen eventualities such as death, permanent disability, financial emergency or loss of income and planned events with high financial implication such as child’s education, marriage etc. Choice of a product should be based on an individual’s lifecycle needs, financial capacity and risk appetite. A pure term plan does not have a savings component hence you can buy higher cover at relatively lower rates. Ulips focus more around generating higher investment returns and are opted by more aware investors who are willing to take calculated risks. Traditional plans on the other hand are feature-based products that normally have a larger insurance component than Ulips. They provide higher death benefits, even growth of investments over the policy term...