Review of Birla Sun Life Insurance - Saral Jeevan

By Vipin Agnihotri

Birla Sun Life Insurance has come up with a unit-linked life insurance product, Saral Jeevan. In my opinion, the main emphasis of Saral Jeevan is on first-time insurance buyers. The best part about Saral Jeevan is that it’s an over the counter plan that is straightforward to buy and the life cover there on comes into immediate effect.

Another intriguing thing about Saral Jeevan is that it is among the first to give an option to invest in mid-cap stocks. It is worthwhile pointing that Saral Jeevan offers investors eight investment options to choose from. Another thing that struck me was the fact that Saral Jeevan allows you an exposure of around 100 per cent in equities.

However, point to be noted here is that the 100 per cent equity plan allows a maximum exposure of 70 per cent to mid-cap stocks, while the remaining 30 per cent will go into the big cap stocks.

In theory, Saral Jeevan will invest only in those kinds of stocks that have a minimum market capitalization of Rs 1,000 crore or more. Apart from that, Saral Jeevan allows multiple switches between different investment plans on a yearly basis. In other words, you have an option to switch between funds to suit market conditions and also risk profile.

After a time period of three years, Saral Jeevan allows free unlimited partial withdrawals. The target audience of Saral Jeevan is the young generation as well as mutual fund investors that have a high-risk appetite for equities.

Saral Jeevan is quite easy to buy, as there is no need of any medical tests. What’s more, documentation is also pretty straightforward in Saral Jeevan. .

The India Street Rating:

8/10

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• Review of Birla Sun Life’s New Dream Plan – Not Dreamy

Review of Birla Sun Life’s New Dream Plan – Not Dreamy

By Vipin Agnihotri

The main advantage associated with Birla Sun Life’s new Dream Plan is it gives you a guaranteed maturity benefit that you set yourself. Birla Sun Life’s new Dream Plan is basically a top-down plan meaning that you set a target at the completion of the term and pay the premium on the basis of your target.

In an ideal scenario, a small sum is directed towards your insurance needs, which you can enhance depending on your needs. The policyholder is always guaranteed the maturity amount chosen and because of this he or she can plan his requirements.

In general, the policy period can vary from five to twenty five years but only for individuals between 18-60 years of age. It has come into the notice of The India Street that there are three choices under the guaranteed maturity benefit scheme, namely, 100 percent, 200 percent and 300 percent.

Fund values and guaranteed values will be minimized every month by reducing the units. It is worth mentioning in this regard that there is a fund management charge of 1 percent per annum. Talking about the limitation of Birla Sun Life’s new Dream Plan, for a basic sum assured, the charges are quite steep.

It is 8.45 percent for the first three years in a term of five years for a basic sum assured of Rs 1,133 and 12.26 percent for the remaining under the 100 percent maturity option. Remember that these charges vary as per different bands set under the policy. In my opinion, the overheads are very steep and the guarantee of 3 percent is not too exciting. Although, the plan does allow you to choose a mix of targets and options on offer- but that by itself does not really make it a dream plan.

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