As they say – you can take an Indian out of India, but you can never take India out of an Indian. A large number of Indian citizens every year leave their motherland for greener pastures, but continue to maintain the same bank accounts and insurance policies.
And rightly so!
According to the Foreign Exchange Management Act, NRIs (Non-Resident Indians) and persons of Indian origin are entitled to buy a life insurance plan irrespective of the country they are staying in.
It is imperative for the NRIs, at the outset, to consider the cost of premium and the cost of medical examination before they buy a term insurance policy.
Traditionally, NRIs are meant to undergo a medical examination abroad and send the report to the insurer in India before buying a term insurance plan. For this, they have to bear the cost of medical examination themselves.
With the introduction of telemedical check-ups by some insurers, this step has been done away with.
“Until now, NRIs had to follow the traditional methods of buying the term insurance policies, i.e., to get the physical medical tests done in India or their residing county and send a report to the insurer. The good news is that term insurance has become easily accessible to NRIs with telemedical check-ups. This makes it easier for NRIs to avail of term insurance in India at the earliest and not wait till they visit here,” said Sajja Praveen Chowdary, business head, term life insurance, Policybazaar.com.
Consequently, the total expense incurred by NRI customers has reduced substantially with the medical cost coming down to zero.
Benefits of taking insurance from Indian insurers
Apart from the seamless experience and a great deal of convenience, one key advantage of buying a term insurance plan from an insurer in India is cost saving.
According to a back-of-the-envelope calculation, the cost of term insurance is likely to be anywhere between 50 to 60 percent lower than what one would spend in one of the developed nations.
“If you are buying term insurance, say in Singapore, you would easily need to pay a 20-30 percent higher premium than in India. So, if you are planning to relocate abroad or have settled abroad already and are planning to buy life insurance, you should think about buying life insurance in India with one of the cheapest premiums in the world,” added Chowdary.
The premium which policy holder is supposed to pay is calculated based on the NRIs’ age, health, life expectancy and the country they live in. The size of the cover would depend on a family’s needs and lifestyle.
“With Video Medical Examination Report (VMER) process, an NRI can buy term insurance between ₹50 lakh to ₹5 crore sum assured at the click of a button. While customers can buy over ₹5 crore sum assured plan with the standard medical examination process. This facility is extended to 26 countries including the USA, UK, UAE, China, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Germany, France, and others,” he added.
