Best Term Insurance Plans for 1 Crore Coverage in 2024

Do you need Rs. 1 Crore term insurance coverage?

If your family members depend on you for their financial needs, you require a term insurance cover. But how much cover do you exactly need? Well, it is not you who needs that money from your term insurance plan. It is your loved ones who would need it in case of your sudden and unfortunate demise. So a good approach to calculate your term cover requirement would be to assess your family’s current and future financial needs and then arrive at an amount. If this seems very complicated, don’t worry! We have tried to do this for you. All you have to do is go to our term insurance calculator page and provide a few details to us. And there you have it! Your recommended term insurance cover amount.

How to Choose the Best Term Insurance Plan?

Now, if you want a term insurance cover of Rs. 1 Crore, you would be wondering which term insurance cover you should buy. There are a host of life insurance companies in India and each offer their own term insurance plan. Choosing a good term insurance plan is important as this is a financial cushion your family can rely on in the most testing times. So here are the metrics which we feel must be looked into when buying a term insurance plan. Brand Equity Insurer’s Operational Metrics Product Features Premiums

Top 3 Term Insurance Plans

We always recommend you to buy term insurance from the top life insurance companies in India and here are our top 3 picks for 2024.

1. Max Life Smart Secure Plus
2. ICICI Pru iProtect Smart
3. HDFC Life Click 2 Protect Super

Max Life Smart Secure Plus

Smart Secure Plus plan is offered by Max Life Insurance Co. Ltd. and is one of the most comprehensive term plans available in the market. Max Life Insurance is one of the best brand names in the market. The company boasts of settling 99.51% of all the Individual Death Claims which were raised in the last financial year. This is quite an unbeatable number in the industry. On top of this, the plan comes with a host of features which offer great customisation according to the needs of the policyholder.

• Comprehensive Death Benefit – Smart Secure Plus plan comes with a death benefit starting from just Rs. 20 Lakh which in itself is a good option for those looking for lower coverage.
• Increasing Life Cover – This option acts as an inflation shield as your term insurance cover grows year on year.
• Flexible Claim Payouts – Your family will have several payout options to choose from at the claim depending on the need; lump sum, monthly income or part lump sum and part monthly income.
• Critical Illness and Disability Rider – This is by far the most extensive critical illness rider offered by any life insurance company in India. It covers up to 64 critical illnesses and total permanent disability as well.
• Accidental Death Benefit – This rider provides additional protection against the risk of accidental death. Waiver of Premiums – In case of death, disability or critical illness, you do not need to pay the future premiums to keep the policy active.
• Terminal Illness Benefit – If you are diagnosed with a terminal illness, you can get a part of the base sum insured while you are still alive. The remaining portion, if any, is paid to the family upon death.
• Joint Life Option – Both husband and wife can be covered under the same policy at very competitive prices using joint life option.
• Special Exit Option – At a specified term in the policy, you can get all your premium paid back if you do not wish to continue your term cover. This option comes at no extra cost making this policy a zero cost term insurance.
• Premium Break Option – If you choose this option, you can skip to pay your premium for a year in case of any financial trouble and still enjoy the cover. You can do this twice in the entire policy term.
• Voluntary Top-up Sum Assured – You can double your cover under the same policy in future in case your financial commitments grow. This is subject to underwriting.
• Premiums – The premiums charged by the company are very competitive and lowest among the top 3 plans in the market.

Drawbacks – There are no drawbacks at the moment. But Max Life Insurance is charging low premiums in the market while aggressively underwriting term plans. This could cause problems in the future if adverse claim experience emerges.

ICICI Pru iProtect Smart

iProtect Smart is a good term insurance plan offered by ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Limited. It comes from the house of ICICI which is a very trusted and respected brand name in the Indian financial services sector. The company boasts a claim settlement ratio of 98.7% in the FY ending March 2023 for both individual and group death claims. It also claims that its average claim settlement time for retail death claims from the receipt of last requirement is just 1.2 days. These are pretty impressive numbers to look at from the claim settlement perspective. This plan comes with a lot of features making it a great option as term insurance. Also the plan does not mandatorily require medical tests to be conducted for cover less than or equal to Rs. 1 Crore.

• Comprehensive coverage – iProtect Smart is a good offering from the stable of ICICI. It comes with some add-ons which, when added, can make the cover quite comprehensive.
• Critical Illness Rider – This rider, if added, provides you cover against 34 listed critical illnesses. It is an accelerated benefit which means that once you avail this benefit, your base cover reduces by that amount.
• Accidental Death Benefit – You can also add accidental death benefit to get added protection against risk of accidental death. This is an additional benefit and is paid over and above your basic sum insured.
• Waiver of Premium – This plan offers an in-built waiver of premium option. If you are diagnosed with a permanent disability due to an accident, you don’t have to pay your future premiums to keep the cover active.
• Terminal Illness Benefit – The plan comes with an in-built terminal illness benefit. The entire base cover is paid to you by your insurer while you are still alive in case you are diagnosed with a terminal illness. The base policy comes to an end once this benefit is paid to you.
• Flexible Claim Payouts – This is a good feature where you have the option to choose from 4 different death benefit payout options; lumpsum, monthly income, combination of lumpsum and monthly income, increasing monthly income. But you have to choose one option at the time of buying the policy and this option cannot be changed later.
• Top Up Sum Assured – Your responsibilities and liabilities can change with time. This plan gives you the option to increase your cover under your existing policy on the occurrence of key life events such as marriage or child birth.
• Smart Exit Option – You have the option to cancel your policy at a specified time in your policy and you will get all the premiums paid till date back. This option comes with no extra cost which makes it a zero or no cost term insurance plan.
• Premiums – Premiums charged under ICICI Pru iProtect Smart are on the higher side vis-a-vis other such plans available in the market.

Drawbacks – This plan is expensive for lower sum assured where the basis cover is less than Rs. 2 Crore. Company’s underwriting process is also lengthy and cumbersome which can leave you frustrated.

HDFC Life Click2Protect Super

HDFC Life Click2Protect Super comes from the stable of HDFC which is arguably the most trusted brand in the market. HDFC Life is one of the largest private life insurers in India and the company follows good management practices. The company claimed to settle 99.39% of all the individual claims in the last financial year which is a great number. 

This plan offers extensive features and add-ons.

• Death Benefit – The plan offers death a benefit starting from Rs. 50 Lakh and there is no upper limit.
• Critical Illness Rider – This critical illness rider covers only 19 illnesses which are less when compared to the peers in the market. But the critical illness cover under this plan is an additional benefit and payment of critical illness benefit does not reduce the base cover.
• Accidental Disability Rider – If you opt for this rider, you can get a monthly income equal to 1% of basic cover in case of an accidental total permanent disability.
• Protect Plus Rider with Cancer Cover – This is a great rider which offers 3 benefits. A portion of rider benefit is paid in case of accidental death, partial or total disability due to an accident or on the diagnosis of cancer. The good part is that this is also an additional benefit and does not reduce your basis cover.
• Waiver of Premium – There are 2 waiver of premium options. You will not have to pay your future premiums to keep your cover running in case of diagnosis of a critical illness or in case of occurrence of total and permanent disability. You can choose any one or both of these options at the start of your policy by paying an extra premium.
• Terminal Illness Benefit – Your policy will pay you your base cover amount up to a maximum of Rs. 2 Crore while you are still alive and diagnosed with a terminal illness. This is an accelerated benefit and will reduce your basic cover to the extent of benefit paid on being terminally ill. If the entire cover amount is paid at this point, your policy will end.
• Flexible Claim Payouts – The policy offers flexible claim payout options; lumpsum, part lumpsum and part income or regular income. You can choose any of these options and the time of buying your policy. Even your family later can make a choice on any of these options based on the need.
• Spouse Cover – You have the option to cover your spouse under the same policy by paying an extra premium.
• Top Up Sum Assured – This plan gives you the option to increase your cover under your existing policy on the occurrence of key life events such as marriage or child birth. But you have to choose this option at the start of the policy to activate the top up sum assured at a given event.
• Smart Exit Option – You have the option to cancel your policy at a specified time in your policy and you will get all the premiums paid till date back. This option comes with no extra cost which makes it a zero or no cost term insurance plan.
• Premiums – Premiums charged under HDFC Life Click2Protect Super are on the higher side vis-a-vis other such plans available in the market.

Drawbacks – This plan is one of the most expensive plans in the market. The riders or add-ons available with this plan are not as good as its peers in the market.

Summary