After private sector employees of listed firms and graduates of professional courses; normal graduates as well as diploma holders of recognised universities have also become eligible for postal life insurance (PLI) scheme recently.
As the new rules come into force, alumni from all recognised universities stand to become eligible for post office life insurance. The Union government has amended its rules to make this happen.
Last year the insurance scheme threw open its doors to all professional graduates such as doctors, engineers, scientists, hotel managers, dentists, agriculturists, among others.
What is postal life insurance?
Postal Life Insurance (PLI) is the oldest life insurer in this country which was introduced in February, 1884. It started as a welfare scheme for the benefit of postal employees and was later extended to other sections – from the employees of the Telegraph Department in 1888 to female employees of the erstwhile P & T Department in 1894.
It now covers employees of Central and State Governments, PSUs, banks, educational institutions, local bodies, professionals such as doctors, engineers, chartered accountants, MBAs, lawyers and employees of companies listed with NSE & BSE as well as defence and para-military services.
It offers six kinds of policies:
Whole life assurance: This is a scheme where the assured amount with accrued bonus is payable to the insured either on attaining the age of 80 years, or to his/her legal representatives or assignees on death of the insured, whichever occurs earlier, provided the policy is in force on the date of claim.
Minimum and maximum age at entry are 19 years and 55 years, respectively. Minimum sum assured is ₹20,000 while the maximum is ₹50 lakh.
Convertible whole life assurance: This is whole life assurance policy with the added feature of an option to convert to endowment assurance policy at the end of five years of taking policy. There is an assurance to the extent of sum assured with accrued bonus till attainment of maturity age. In case of death, assignee, nominee or legal heir are paid full amount of sum assured with accrued bonus
Endowment assurance: Under this scheme the policy holder is given an assurance to the extent of the sum assured and accrued bonus till he/she attains the pre- determined age of maturity i.e., 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 58 and 60 years of age.
Joint life assurance: It is a Joint Life Endowment Assurance in which one of the spouses should be eligible for PLI policies. Life cover is given to both spouses to the extent of sum assured with accrued bonus with a single premium. The minimum age of entry of spouses is 21 and 45 years, respectively.
Anticipated endowment assurance:It is a Money Back Policy with maximum sum assured of ₹ 50 lakh, best suited to those who need periodical returns. Survival benefits are paid to the insurant periodically. Such payments will not be taken into consideration in the event of unexpected death of the insurant. In such cases, full sum assured with accrued bonus is payable to the assignee, nominee of legal heir.
The minimum age of entry is 19 years and maximum age at entry is 40 years for 20 years’ term policy and 45 years for 15 years’ term policy
Children policy (Baal Jeevan Bima): The scheme provides life insurance cover to children of policy holders. Maximum two children of policy holder (parent) are eligible. Children between 5 and 20 years of age are eligible. Maximum sum assured is ₹3 lakh or equal to the sum assured of the parent, whichever is less. Policy holder (parent) should not be over 45 years of age.
