IRDAI moots 5 changes to life insurance policies

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) on October 26, 2018, proposed significant changes in life insurance policies that will provide considerable benefits to the policyholders. The changes are as follows:

1) Minimum death benefit to be made 7 times for regular premium products and 1.25 times for single premium products for all ages.

2) Non-linked policies to acquire guaranteed surrender value after two years.

3) For pension plans, customers to be allowed to commutate up to 60 per cent of the policy sum assured, while those with market-linked pension products can partially withdraw their corpus.

4) Revival period to be extended to 5 years from the current 2 years in respect of non-linked products.

5) Settlement option to be extended to 10 years from the current 5 years in respect of unit-linked products.