The Financial Impact of Combining Term Insurance with Investment Saving Plans

Having adequate financial security is crucial for every individual and family. While we earn to fulfil our current needs and responsibilities, saving and investing for the future is equally important. Building a corpus through investment savings plans ensures your family is financially stable even in your absence. On the other hand, buying term insurance guarantees that your valued ones receive a lump sum if something unfortunate happens to you. 

When used strategically, term insurance and savings plans can work together to secure your family’s financial future. This article explains how you can leverage both to ensure maximum benefits.

The Need for Term Insurance

Term insurance is a reasonable form of life insurance that provides high coverage at reasonable premiums. It assures that if you were to pass away prematurely, your family would receive a substantial amount as a claim. This death benefit can help them maintain their standard of living without financial difficulties.  

Term insurance is beneficial for primary earners or co-breadwinners of a family. It ensures that their spouse and children are protected if the earning member is no longer around. The payout from a term insurance plan can be used to cover primary financial responsibilities like:

Repaying Loans and Liabilities: The claim amount can be used to repay any outstanding loans so that dependents do not inherit the burden.
Funding Children’s Education: It can be used to pay tuition fees for higher studies.
Managing Daily Living Expenses: The corpus can help the family tackle monthly household expenses.
Achieving Other Goals: It gives them capital to fund other personal or family goals.

Thus, term insurance gives you the peace of mind that your financial duties will not become a source of pressure for your loved ones. 

The Advantages of Savings Plans

Investment savings plans help you accumulate wealth over time and build a retirement corpus. They provide market-linked returns while helping you save a specific sum periodically. Some key benefits include:

Forced Savings: They enforce financial discipline as you must regularly save.
Power of Compounding: You earn returns on the principal and the accumulated interest.
Multiple Investment Options: Depending on your risk appetite, you can choose between equity funds, debt funds, and more.
Flexible Contributions: Plans allow you to increase/decrease premium payments at your convenience. 
Tax Benefits: Under Section 80C and 10 (10D), you can save tax by investing in ELSS, NPS, PPF, ULIPs, etc.

Clubbing Both for Complete Protection

Used strategically together, term insurance and savings plans can create a robust financial fallback for your family’s future. Here is how you can leverage both:

1. Get Adequate Term Insurance Cover: Calculate the coverage you need based on income replacement, human life value, etc. and buy suitable term insurance. This will be the primary layer of protection for dependents.
2. Start Savings Plan: Based on risk appetite and investment horizon, invest in instruments like PPF, NPS, Mutual Funds, etc. through SIP mode. This will create wealth over the long term.
3. Channelise Term Insurance Payouts: In case of an untimely death, the claim received from term insurance can be invested in suitable savings plans on behalf of dependents, ensuring their financial security.  
4. Use Maturity Proceeds for Income Generation: On survival till maturity, the accumulated savings can be used to buy annuities. This assists in maintaining monthly income in old age.

How Much Coverage You Need?

The term insurance amount and ideal monthly savings contribution will vary for every individual based on the following:  

Current household expenses, including liabilities
Scale of lifestyle and number of dependents  
Earning capacity and existing assets/investments
Average lifespan and retirement age 
Standard of living expected in later years
Existing health conditions and family medical history

You can use online calculators to determine ideal term insurance and monthly SIP figures tailored to your situation. Higher responsibilities require excellent coverage to replace income, while higher income groups can afford larger SIPs for better retirement planning. Those with medical issues might need more extensive term insurance due to higher risk.

Both term insurance and investment corpus should be sufficient to sustain your current lifestyle. To balance both aspects adequately, regularly review coverage and SIP amounts, adjusting for life stage goals.

Tax Savings on Premiums and Payouts

Clubbing term insurance and savings also helps save tax, improving overall returns.

For term insurance, premiums qualify for tax deductions under Section 80C up to ₹1.5 lakhs a year. 
For saving plans like PPF, ELSS, ULIPs, etc., contributions are deductible under Section 80C. 

Term insurance payouts are tax-free for recipients under Section 10(10D), further enhancing the corpus’s value.

For some savings plans, such as ULIPs, PPFs, etc., maturity proceeds are tax-exempt upon fulfilling certain conditions around premium payments and holding periods. 

Choosing the Right Provider

With growing awareness around financial planning, quality insurance providers now allow you to buy term insurance and start investing for retirement on a common platform:

Single Window for Protection and Growth: You can access term insurance, savings plans, etc., from one account for unified management.
Digital Onboarding and Servicing: Signing up for plans and managing investments is quick through the website and app.
Claim and Surrender-related Assistance: You can intimate and track claims or surrender processes via dedicated channels.  

Before choosing a platform, analyse term insurance, claim settlement records, experience across savings products, service ratings, the convenience of the online system, etc. This ensures both insurance coverage and investment proceeds are managed reliably.

Summing Up

Securing your family’s financial well-being requires careful planning, with term insurance as the foundation. Combining it with disciplined retirement-focused savings creates a comprehensive strategy. Properly sizing both based on responsibilities and aligning payouts ensures financial protection. Choosing a provider that manages both term insurance and savings simplifies the process.

Contact PNB MetLife to learn more about term insurance.

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