Preparing or planning for retirement is a multi-pronged affair, as you will agree. It involves several steps, including investing in accumulating a retirement corpus, settling all debts, and, of course, ensuring adequate financial security for your family. For the latter objective, nothing works better than term plans. Here’s learning a little more about how they can be used to plan for your golden years.
How Term Plans Help During Your Golden Years
Before coming to how they help with your retirement plan, let us first look at what term plans are. To put it simply, term insurance is the purest form of life coverage, where the insurance company pays out a pre-fixed lump sum to your nominees in case of your unfortunate demise within the policy period. This amount helps your family members repay debts, meet the costs of goals like higher education or weddings, and also helps them maintain their living standards in terms of monthly expenses.
When you think of retirement, the biggest worry will naturally be a sudden mishap that may leave your family emotionally and financially crippled. While the first effect is hard to overcome, the second one can be combated with careful retirement planning. You should choose term plans after careful comparison. Make sure that they extend after your retirement by choosing longer durations. You can also opt for a whole life insurance plan in such cases.
At the same time, there is another side to this equation- term plans with the return of premium feature. In this case, the premiums that you have paid over the tenure of the policy will be returned to you after statutory deductions in case you survive the duration. This can also be a form of retirement planning since you can use this guaranteed lump sum corpus to fulfil various life goals or invest it for your sunset years.
Another benefit that makes term plans helpful is the presence of add-on covers like terminal illness, critical illness, and accidental death and disability. Considering soaring medical costs these days, it will do you good to opt for these riders as a part of your term plan. These ensure the payout of a lump sum amount upon the diagnosis of any such illness, which helps you get prompt treatment without dipping into your savings or investments.
Tips on Acing Retirement with Term Plans
Here are some other tips that will help you use term plans smartly after retirement.
- Look for plans with multiple payout options for death/terminal illness benefits to nominees (lump sum, installments, etc.)
- The earlier you start, the higher the coverage you can obtain for a relatively lower premium amount.
- Make sure you maximize your tax deductions under Section 80C on life insurance premiums (up to Rs. 1.5 lahks) and also under Section 80D (for the health components or add-ons of the plan) up to Rs. 25,000 or Rs. 50,000, depending on your age.
- You can also consider choosing plans where the sum assured paid to nominees upon your demise increases after periodic life stages/milestones or after a certain number of years.
Conclusion
As can be seen, term insurance is a good way to beef up your portfolio before retirement. It will keep you free from worries on account of what will happen to your dependents in case of your demise. At the same time, strategically using the add-ons will give you substantial financial protection against illnesses and mishaps. The tax benefits also make it a smart addition to your financial portfolio.
Leave a Reply