Insurance

The total investments in the market by India' largest life insurer Life insurance Corporation will cross Rs 2 lakh crore this fiscal. "Our investments will be more than last year. We will top last year's total investment of Rs 2 lakh crore this year, " informed Thomas Mathew, Managing Director, LIC.



The company had invested 40, 000 crore in equities last fiscal. According to the Insurance Act, 50% of investments made by an insurance company has to be in government securities and about 15% in infrastructure related areas. The rest of the 35% has to be invested in equities and debentures. LIC is also planning to participate in the government's plans to raise Rs 40, 000 by divesting in various public sector units in the fiscal year 2011-12.

insurance provider Birla Sun life insurance has unveiled its two new products- Birla Sun Life Protector and Birla Sun Life Protector Plus. The insurance sector companies are increasingly putting focus on traditional endowment and term-insurance plans.



Both Birla Sun Life Protector and Birla Sun Life Protector Plus are purely terms plans. They offer no maturity benefit to the policyholder if he survives the term. The plans are quite cheap. They may not offer any investment purpose but they serve the basic promise of a life insurance plan- providing for the insured's family financially. One plan Birla Sun Life Protector provides cover of between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 49, 99, 999, while Protector Plus offers cover of above this amount. Interestingly there is no upper limit on the sum assured under Protector Plus, and it depends on the company's underwriting guidelines. Customers can choose between policy tenures of between 5 and 30 years.



In Birla Sun Life Protector plan, 1 35-year-old male will have to pay an annual premium of Rs 4, 920 for a Rs 20-lakh sum assured for a 20-year tenure. On the other hand, a woman has to pay a premium of 4, 170 for the same cover. According to terms of Protector Plus, a 35-year-old male has to pay an annual premium of Rs. 16, 900 for a cover of Rs. 1 crore.  On the other hand, a woman has to pay Rs 13, 850 as an annual premium for the same cover.