Looking at the tremendous pace of online shopping trend of Indian consumers, insurance companies have also gone online and started selling insurance policies online. And interested policy buyers are highly attracted towards online buying as they offer many benefits.

Benefits of online term plan

There are many benefits of online term insurance policies such as:

• They are much cheaper than the ones sold offline through term insurance agents.
• Since everything is online they have an option to explore multiple choices and select best one depending on their need. Otherwise they have to normally rely on agents who provide details of the plans on which they receive higher commission.
• Saves time as all procedures are done online.
• Zero reliance on misleading information provided by the insurance agents.
• Ease of access as details can be accessed via both desktops and mobile phones.
• Since all the details of the policy are online there is no threat of getting duped.

Before buying term insurance

However there are few important points to consider before you buy term insurance policy online. This will make the claim procedure smooth and hassle free for the nominee. So let’s understand these points:

• Never provide incorrect information while buying the policy: All the insurance companies ask for higher premiums from the individuals who are smokers/drink alcohol/eat tobacco. This is because health problems are more likely to affect these individuals. So while buying a policy, if you provide incorrect or misleading details of yours, then nominee will face lot of problems while making a claim and in fact there are higher chances of the claim to get rejected. So always remember to furnish correct details while filling the form online. You must have come across many advertisements where it says “Buy a policy, no medical tests required”. This gives a good opportunity to hide any health problems. But remember that when it comes to claim disbursement, insurance companies will dig into a person’s each and every detail.
• Take medical tests: Never hesitate or deny going for a medical check-up asked by the company. Failure in doing so will act against you in the time of need. Although the company is under obligation to promptly act on the claims, such small mistakes can create numerous problems to the nominee and your family. This is requested by the company in order to judge a person’s health background and then take further decision on whether to give insurance or not, premium calculation etc.

How to claim for term insurance

• After the death of the policy holder during the term of the policy, nominee has to directly approach the insurance company. Every company will have pre-set procedure for the claim. So nominee must be aware of this.
• In order to initiate the claim process, insurance company should be intimated about the death over phone or E-mail. Always prefer E-mail since every communication can act as a proof in case of any issues during claim.

Documents required

Nominee must be always aware of the required claim related documents to avoid last minute troubles. Documents required while asking for the claim are mostly the same, although it may slightly vary for each company. Check out what every nominee must know.

Here are the most common documents asked by the insuring companies when filing a claim:

• Claim Form-A: This includes details of the claimant and deceased person
• Certified extract from the death register by the local authority
• While buying the policy if age proof is not produced then you have to provide that as well
• If nominee is not declared while buying the policy, then claimant has to provide a proof of legal heir
• All original documents of the policy
• ID and address proof (original+photocopy) of the claimant
• All hospital and medical records
• Copy of post mortem/FIR and others depending on the nature of the death
• Bank account details of the claimant

Here are a few of the online term insurance plan available in the market:

1. HDFC Click2Protect
2. ICICI Prudential
3. AEGON Religare
4. Aviva Life
5. SBI Smart Shield