Buying insurance product for family? Know these 3 things before purchasing

Insurance is not just a document or a formality but a must have investment in one's portfolio. Insurance cover protects you against uncertain situations, be it an accident, medical emergency, death or disability. There are number of insurance products in the market according to the customers' needs. Anik Jain, Co-Founder & CEO, Symbo Insurance told Zee Business Online, "Insurance products needed by an earning member of family depends significantly on their family structure, life stage, earning potential and present situation of assets and liabilities. An individual should carefully examine all these factors before buying one.''

Explained by Jain, here are 3 key things that let you decide the insurance products for your family:

1. Detailed discussion with their trusted partners: The earning member should have a detailed discussion with their trusted partners in understanding gaps in their risk coverage and avoid the tendency to buy solution because someone else purchased it. As family members are the most trusted partners, who can guide you to opt for the best. 

2. No two individuals have exact same needs: Every individual has a different need, someone could need an insurance for children's education, while someone would need a cover for mother and father's medical emergency. This is why it becomes very important to have a word with family and decide accordingly as per the financial appetite and needs. 

3. Evaluate the first need: As a basic risk identification criteria, one should evaluate the need of pure term, health and major asset insurance needs first. There are certain needs which should be marked priorities like Life Insurance Cover, Medical policy, Term Insurance, Business insurance policies etc. The policy should serve you or your family within the optimum financial needs in case of urgency.

Recently, IRDAI has also increased the revival period of non-linked policies- for life insurance policies this has been raised to two to three years by IRDAI. The surrender period of the policy has been raised as per new rules. Also, the Non-Linked policy holders will get a fixed amount on surrendering the policy after 2 years. The customers who seek more flexibility and ones who could not afford to pay premiums in last two years can get their policy revived.