How to pick the right insurance for yourself?

4.6

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Life can throw you a curveball anytime — the question is will you have appropriate insurance when it does?

There are three friends -- Shreeja, Mohit and Kevin. These guys lead different lives. Shreeja just started working as an analyst in a big MNC; she smokes around five cigarettes every day. Mohit inherited his family business and is a married man with two children; he is fit and doesn’t smoke or drink. Kevin is a 40-year-old writer who has asthma. 

All of them need insurance, but, indeed, these guys all cannot have the same insurance because of their different ways of living.

Can you find who needs which insurance?

Let’s try to resolve this!

Finding the right insurance needs you to answer a few questions related to your job, health, age, behaviour, activities, family, future, timeline etc.

While choosing the perfect insurance for yourself or your loved ones, you need to trust an insurance company. 

How much will it cost?

Do you know how much your life costs? Maybe no, but who can tell?

Well, there are many web aggregators and agents that will evaluate this for you. You can compare available options by evaluating prices, policies and its types, any other miscellaneous charges and much more. It is essential to undertake the plan which suits your pocket; it shouldn’t be cheap which will result in covering all you want it to take, or it shouldn’t also be costly to burn your pocket.

How has their track been?

You might find a lot of fancy insurance companies, but you have to look beyond that while looking out for the best insurance for yourself. An established smooth track record is must for that insurance companies. 

What should you look at? 

Check claim settlement ratio; it is available on the IRDA website. 

You should also take a look at insurer ratings it is available on the websites of the respective companies. 

Keep in mind to check the effectiveness of the online platform while buying your policy online, reach and network of the company.

While planning to buy ULIP, keep in mind to check the performance of the fund online. Always, try to invest with companies having steady performance and not having inconsistent returns. 

Understand the insurance company’s financial strength 

In case of any difficulty, you do not want to hear that your insurance company cannot pay your claim due to its poor financial planning.

It all comes down to the old school checks when it comes to choosing an insurance company. 

Check out the critical numbers such as:

  •  total assets
  • market share 
  • growth ratio in new business premiums 

These are imperative to evaluate whether it has the financial capability to fulfil your claims if and when you make one.

 

How approachable is your insurance company?

This is also an essential factor while choosing an insurance company. You must take a call based on the kind of attitude the insurers have towards potential customers like yourself. Are they available to answer your queries whether on the phone or in-person? Are they patient in their approach, or do they seem too busy to make a sales pitch without understanding your financial needs? These are some of the questions you must ask yourself before you make a final choice.

Do they include following:

  • Online bill pay;
  • Policy changes; 
  • Online claim reporting;
  • Social media platforms;
  • 24/7 customer service;
  • Billing questions.

Complaints and Reviews

One does not pay much importance to this factor, but it does make reason to watch out for the quantity of complaints or unsatisfactory reviews a company has. Although quite some of it may be fraudulent and created by rival(s), a volley of accusations of a similar kind against the same company should not be overlooked. This should give you a decent opinion about which companies to consider and which not to touch with a lighter shaft.

WRAPPING UP

In the upcoming chapter, we will discuss different factors to compare different insurance products!

A Quick Recap

Costs, Size & History of the insurance company, including service quality, complaints and reviews are the essential things to consider while picking up the right insurance for you.

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