652c7bc0e6640eab567837f73f39865d

Friday, 7 October 2016

PLI/RPLI at a glance

PLI- INTRODUCTION
Postal Life Insurance (PLI) was introduced on 1st February 1884 with the express approval of
the Secretary of State (for India) to Her Majesty, the Queen Empress of India. It was essentially a
scheme of State Insurance mooted by the then Director General of Post Offices, Mr. F.R. Hogg
in 1881 as a welfare scheme for the benefit of Postal employees and later extended to the
employees of Telegraph department in 1888. In 1894, PLI extended insurance cover to female
employees of P & T Department at a time when no other insurance company covered female
lives. It is the oldest Life insurer in this country.
In the beginning, the upper limit of life insurance was only Rs 4000/- which has now increased to
Rs 20 lacs (Rupees Ten Lacs) for all schemes combined - Endowment Assurance and Whole
Life Assurance. Over the years, PLI has grown substantially from a few hundred policies in 1884
to 42,83,302 policies as on 31.03.2010. It now covers employees of Central and State
Governments, Central and State Public Sector Undertakings, Universities, Government aided
Educational institutions, Nationalized Banks, Local bodies etc. PLI also extends the facility of
insurance to the officers and staff of the Defence services and Para-Military forces. Apart from
single insurance policies, Postal Life Insurance also manages a Group Insurance scheme for the
Extra Departmental Employees (Gramin Dak Sevaks) of the Department of Posts.
PLI is an exempted insurer under Section 118 (c) of the Insurance Act of 1938. It is also
exempted under Section 44 (d) of LIC Act, 1956.
PLI- INSURANCE PLANS
PLI offers 6 (Six) types of plans:
1. Whole Life Assurance (SURAKSHA)
2. Convertible Whole Life Assurance (SUVIDHA)
3. Endowment Assurance (SANTOSH)
4. Anticipated Endowment Assurance (SUMANGAL)
5. Joint Life Assurance (YUGAL SURAKSHA)
6. Children Policy
WHOLE LIFE ASSURANCE:
This is a scheme where the assured amount with accrued bonus is payable to the assignee,
nominee or the legal heir after death of the insurant. Minimum Age at entry is 19 years and the
maximum Age at entry is 55 years. The minimum Sum Assured is Rs 20,000 and the maximum
Sum Assured is Rs 20 lacs. The policy can be converted into an Endowment Assurance Policy
after completion of one year and before 57 years of age of the insurant. Loan facility is available
after completion of four years and policy can also be surrendered after completion of three years.
The policy is not eligible for bonus if surrendered or assigned for loan before completion of 5
years. Proportionate bonus on the reduced sum assured is accrued if the policy is surrendered or
assigned for loan.
ENDOWMENT ASSURANCE:
Under this scheme, the proponent is given an assurance to the extent of the Sum Assured and
accrued bonus till he/she attains the pre-determined age of maturity. In case of unexpected death
of the insurant, the assignee, nominee or the legal heir is paid the full Sum Assured together with
the accrued bonus. The minimum age at entry is 19 years and the maximum Age at entry is 55
years. The minimum Sum Assured is Rs 20,000 and the maximum Sum Assured is Rs 20 lacs.
Loan facility is available and policy can also be surrendered after completion of three years. The
policy is not eligible for bonus if surrendered or assigned for loan before completion of 5 years.
Proportionate bonus on the reduced sum assured is accrued if the policy is surrendered or
assigned for loan.
CONVERTIBLE WHOLE LIFE ASSURANCE:
The features of this scheme are more or less same as Endowment assurance. Policy can be
converted into Endowment Assurance after five years. Age on the date of conversion must not
exceed 55 years. If option for conversion is not exercised within 6 years, the policy will be
treated as Whole Life Assurance. Loan facility is available. The policy can also be surrendered
after completion of three years. The policy is not eligible for bonus if surrendered or assigned
for loan before completion of 5 years. Proportionate bonus on the reduced sum assured is
accrued if the policy is surrendered or assigned for loan. The policy is not eligible for bonus if
surrendered or assigned for loan before completion of 5 years. Proportionate bonus on the
reduced sum assured is accrued if the policy is surrendered or assigned for loan.
ANTICIPATED ENDOWMENT ASSURANCE:
It is a Money Back Policy with maximum Sum Assured of Rs 20 lacs. Best suited to those who
need periodical returns. Survival benefit is paid to the insurant periodically. Two types of
policies are available - 15 years term and 20 years term. For the 15 years term policy, the
benefits are paid after 6 years (20%), 9 years (20%), 12 years (20%) and 15 years (40% and the
accrued bonus). For the 20 years term policy, the benefits are paid after 8 years (20%), 12 years
(20%), 16 years (20%) and 20 years (40% and the accrued bonus). Such payments will not be
taken into consideration in the event of unexpected death of the insurant and the full sum
assured with accrued bonus is payable to the assignee or legal heir.
JOINT LIFE ASSURRANCE:
It is a joint-life Endowment Assurance in which one of the spouses should be eligible for
PLI policies. Life insurance coverage is provided to both the spouses to the extent of sum
assured with accrued bonus with only one premium. All other features are same as an
Endowment policy.
All the above schemes have compulsory medical examination. For the non-medical
policy of any category (except AEA and Joint Life Assurance for which Medical Examination is
compulsory), the maximum Sum Assured is Rs 1 lac.
LIMITS OF SUM ASSURED IN POSTAL LIFE INSURANCE:
Any person who is eligible to the benefit of Post Office Life Insurance Fund under Rule 6, may
effect an insurance-Whole Life Assurance, Endowment Assurance, Convertible Whole
Assurance, Anticipated Endowment Assurance and Yugal Suraksha Policy or all of them on his
life for a sum not less than Rs. 20,000 in each class but not more than an aggregate of Rs.
Twenty Lac (Rs. 20,00,000/-) in respect of one class/all classes of insurance policy (s) taken
together. The value of policy shall be taken in multiples of Rs. 10,000/- after minimum limit of
Rs.20,000/- i.e. Rs. 20,000/-, Rs.30,000/-,Rs. 50,000/- and so on.
CHILDREN POLICY
The Department has introduced Children Policy under PLI/RPLI, with effect from 20th
Jan 2006. The salient features of this scheme are as under:-
. The Scheme is envisaged to provide Insurance cover to the children of PLI/RPLI policy
holders.
. Maximum two children in family will be eligible to take children policy.
. Children between the age of 5 and 20 years are eligible and maximum sum assured is Rs
3 lakh for PLI Child and Rs 1 lac for RPLI Child or equivalent to the sum assured of the main policy holder whichever is less.
. The main policy holder should not have attained the age of 45 years.
. No premium is required to be paid on the children policy on the death of the main policy
holder and full sum assured with the accrued bonus shall be paid to the child after the
completion of the term of the children policy. On the death of the child/children, full sum
assured with the accrued bonus shall be payable to the main policy holder.
. Main policy holder shall be responsible for payments for the Children Policy. No loan
shall be admissible on Children Policy. However, the policy shall have facility for
making it paid up provided the premia are paid continuously for 5 years.
. No Medical examination of the Child is necessary. However, the child should be healthy
on the day of proposal and the risk shall start from the date of acceptance of proposal.
. The policy shall attract bonus at the rate applicable to Endowment Policy. The POIF
Rules amended from time to time shall be applicable to Children Policy.
PLI- BENEFITS
PLI is the only insurer in the Indian Life Insurance market today, which gives the highest return
(bonus) with the lowest premium charged for any product in the market.
A PLI/RPLI policy holder also gets following facilities :
. Change of nomination.
. The insurant can take loan by pledging his/her policy to Heads of the Circle/Region on
behalf of President of India, provided the policy has completed 3 years in case of
Endowment Assurance and 4 years in case of Whole Life Assurance. The facility of
assignment is also available.
. Assignment of Policy to any Financial Institution for taking loan.
. Revival of his/her lapsed policy. Policy lapses after 6 unpaid premiums if it remained in
force for less than 3 years and after 12 unpaid premiums if it remained in force for more
than 3 years.
. Issue of Duplicate Policy Bond in case of the original Policy Bond is lost,
burnt/torn/mutilation.
. Conversion from Whole Life Assurance to Endowment Assurance and from Endowment
Assurance to other Endowment Assurance as per rules.

RPLI- INTRODUCTION
Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) came into being as a sequel to the recommendations of
the Official Committee for Reforms in the Insurance Sector (Malhotra Committee). The
Committee had observed in 1993 that only 22% of the insurable population in this country had
been insured; life insurance funds accounted for only 10% of the gross household savings. The
Committee had observed:
“ The Committee understands that Rural Branch Postmasters who enjoy a position of trust in the
community have the capacity to canvass life insurance business within their respective
areas…..”
The Government accepted the recommendations of Malhotra Committee and allowed Postal
Life Insurance to extend its coverage to the rural areas to transact life insurance business
with effect from 24.3.1995, mainly because of the vast network of Post Offices in the rural areas
and low cost of operations. The prime objective of the scheme is to provide insurance cover to
the rural public in general and to benefit weaker sections and women workers of rural areas in
particular and also to spread insurance awareness among the rural population. As on 31.03.2010,
we have 99,25,103 RPLI policies.
RPLI- INSURANCE PLANS
RPLI offers following types of plans:
1. Whole Life Assurance ( GRAMA SURAKSHA)
2. Convertible Whole Life Assurance (GRAMA SUVIDHA)
3. Endowment Assurance ( GRAMA SANTOSH)
4. Anticipated Endowment Assurance (GRAMA SUMANGAL)
5. GRAM PRIYA
The salient features of the Whole Life, Endowment, Convertible Whole Life and Anticipated
Endowment Schemes of RPLI are same as the corresponding schemes of PLI except that the
minimum Sum Assured is Rs.10,000 and the maximum Sum Assured is Rs.5 lac. The maximum
age limit of entry is 55 years in case of Whole Life and Endowment Assurance but 45 years in
case of other plans.
All the schemes have compulsory medical examination. For the non-medical policies, the
maximum limit of Sum Assured is Rs.25,000/-, and maximum age is 35 years. In case of Non-
standard age proof for Rural PLI policies, the maximum age limit is 45 years.
RPLI- BENEFITS
PLI is the only insurer in the Indian Life Insurance market today which gives the highest return
(bonus) with the lowest premium charged for any product in the market.
A PLI/RPLI policy holder may also get following facilities :-
. Change of nomination.
. The insurant can take loan by pledging his/her policy to Heads of the Circle on behalf of
President of India, provided the policy has completed 3 years in case of Endowment
Assurance and 4 years in case of Whole Life Assurance. The facility of assignment is
also available.
. Assignment of Policy to any Financial Institution for taking loan.
. Revival of his/her lapsed policy. Policy lapses after 6 unpaid premia if it remained in
force for less than 3 years and after 12 unpaid premia if it remained in force for more than
3 years.
. Issue of Duplicate Policy Bond in case the original Policy Bond is lost, burnt or
torn/mutilated.
. Conversion from Whole Life Assurance to Endowment Assurance and from Endowment
Assurance to other Endowment Assurance as per rules.

Source: Mc Camish

No comments:

Post a Comment