Welcome to the LIC family. If you have taken a new policy from LIC or you are an existing LIC policyholder, this help-guide has been blogged for your comfort.Please spare 10 minutes for this .
A life insurance policy is a long term relationship. During this long period you will have number of interactions with LIC. A life insurance contract has several features which need explanation. While the Policy bond given to you covers the contractual issues, you need a guide, written in simple language that highlights some important facts about your LIC policy. This guide is meant for that and I would request you to read it carefully and social bookmark it so that this guide can be shared with others.
1. Policy Bond and its safety:
The policy bond is the most important document during the life of a policy. This is a document which will be called for in connection with various servicing events including the settlement of claims. The first thing you should do after receiving the policy bond is to keep the same in a safe place and please do not forget to inform your near and dear ones about where this bond has been kept.
2. Policy Schedule:
The Policy Schedule contains specific information about your policy. Please read this once just to check up whether there is any mistake anywhere and in case there are mistakes please inform the branch office immediately. The contact address/telephone number of the branch office is printed in the Policy bond. I would advise you to note down the address and the telephone number in your diary.
3. Policy Number:
Please look at the schedule again. There is a 9 digit number called Policy number. This is a unique number that identifies the policy. In any correspondence related to servicing of the policy you have to quote this number. So I would advise you to note down this number in your diary or/and mobile phone. While paying premium through cheque, Policy number must be quoted on the back of cheque.
4. Payment of premium:
If this is a single premium policy, please ignore this item.
If this is a Salary Savings Scheme Policy skip this item and read item 4A.
The premium payment is the most important and most frequent event in the life time of a Policy and you must not forget to pay premium in time. Failure to pay premium in time results into lapsation of policy which means, the life cover will not be available to you. Also, delay in payment of premium invites late fee.
Please note from the schedule, the date of commencement of the policy, due date and mode of payment of premium. Mode of payment means the frequency i.e. yearly, half-yearly, quarterly, monthly etc. Based on these you can draw a chart of due dates of premium payment in your diary. For example, if the date of commencement is 20 June 2008 and mode is Qly, the due dates will be
20 June, 20 September, 20 December, 20 March
Please not these dates and the premium amount against the Policy number in your diary.
You are a responsible person and surely you will not forget to pay your premiums in time. However, just to help you remember this most important information LIC shall be sending a premium notice.
Please note that you need not wait for the notice as it is not mandatory to produce the premium notice in the counter. This is just a reminder. Also, there may be, at times, postal delay because of which you may not get the notice in time. You need not be worried about that. Please remember that the notice will be sent just as an additional help to you. Primarily, it will be your responsibility to remember to pay premium in time. There are concessions on this under certain conditions. However, generally, the life risk is not covered during lapsation period.
4A. For Salary Savings Scheme Policyholders:
Please check from time to time that your employer is regularly remitting the premium deducted from your salary to LIC. Any lapse or delay in remittance will be against your interest, as this may result in loss of insurance cover. One should not miss the Insurance cover for a brief period. Please check your salary slip regularly to ensure that the LIC premium has been deducted.
If your services are transferred, please find out from your new office, the location of the LIC office where your LIC premium will be sent. Please inform the old LIC office that now onwards your premium will be remitted to XXX office of LIC. [XXX is the new LIC office]. This is important.
Your permanent address/e-mail id helps us a lot to contact you, even if your services are frequently transferred.
5. How and where to pay the premium:
We all know that different individuals have different choices. Some love to come to LIC Branch Office and some others would not like to stand in a queue. Keeping this in mind, LIC tried to provide facilities for all types of customers.
If you are one of those who would feel comfortable to pay across the counter, let us inform you that you can do so in any branch office or a satellite branch office of LIC.
The premium payment can be made in Cash, local cheque or Demand draft. One can send Demand draft/Cheque/Money Order also.
As on date, LIC have an arrangement with some organizations to collect the premium. The list is given at the end. If any one of the counters is nearer to you compared to an LIC branch, you may pay your LIC premium there. You will get an instant receipt.
If you are one of those who would not like to stand in a queue, the best way to pay premium is through ECS. You have to get one ECS mandate form from an LIC Branch Office, fill it up and get the same countersigned by your banker before submitting it back to the LIC office. The advantage with ECS is that you do not have to remember the due date as premium will be automatically debited from your bank account. However, at present ECS facility is provided in certain cities of the country and if you do not happen to be in one of the cities, Internet appears to be the best option for you.
Click here to register yourself with your policy number and start paying premium online. You will get an instant electronic receipt which is safe and secure and valid as a receipt for all purposes. However, this is possible only if you have a net banking account in one of the banks which are shown in LIC website.
6. Your address:
Next important thing to remember is that your address is the most important information about you. Our policy is to send the claim cheque on or before the due date of maturity. Often, despite our best efforts we fail to send a claim cheque before the maturity date just because the policy holder has forgetten to inform the change of address. Would you please remember to inform LIC Branch Office about the change of address whenever that happens? Please check up whether your address has been correctly printed in the policy schedule.
7.Nomination:
We all know the ultimate purpose of buying a life insurance policy and it is extremely important that your policy should have a nominee. We are sad to see at times unfortunate delay in death claim settkement just because the nomination was not made. As a responsible person you will surely nominate someone, Preferably a near and dear one from your family, if not already done. Please check up whether your nominee’s name is appearing correctly in the policy schedule. Nomination can be done/ changed at any point of time. However, if you assign your policy {say, to a bank, to get loan}, the nomination gets automatically cancelled. On reassignment, ownership of the Policy comes back to you, but the old nomination does not automatically get revived. You have to, in such cases, nominate afresh.
8.Insurance on minor lives:
If the life assured is a minor, important thing to remember is that nomination should be effected on attaining majority (18 years). Secondly, we offer a benefit called accident benefit at the nominal cost of 1 Rupee per 1000 sum assured upto certain limits. This benefit is not available during minority. On attaining majority this can be opted for.
9. Enquiries:
Enquiries can be specific to your policy or of a general nature. The branch office which issued the policy is the best place to make enquiry. However,information of the general nature is available in any LIC Office.
LIC have Info centres in many cities {list given} which operate from 8.a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Friday and from 10 am to 6 pm on Saturday. These info centers are accessible simply by dialing the number 1251. {for STD: std code followed by 1251 } The info center executives will listen to you queries/grievances and take care of your requirements.
10. Grievances :
LIC shall be trying it's best to keep you satisfied, unfortunately at any point of time if you are unhappy about our sevices you must let it know. The best place again is the branch office which services the policy. You can contact them through telephone or write to them or even visit them. However, you can also use the internet by visiting http://www.licindia.in/grievances.htm where we have a facility to register your complaints. Wherever you are, if the complaint is registered through internet, the same will be reaching the branch office immediately.
11. Easy self-help:Customers’ portal
If you are net-savvy, you can avail the facility of self-service on a number of things , for example:
- You can pay premium
You can change your address on-line
You can get status report of policy including Bonus accrual
You can get Revival quotation if the policy is lapsed.
You can get loan quotation
You can get surrender quotation
You can use the on-line insurance advisor and premium
All you have to do is:
12. Contact
We shall be happy to note your telephone number and email id as they supplement your postal address, if you have no reservation about sharing the same with us. We would request you to inform the same to the servicing branch office so that they can take a note of it.
This will helps in serving you better. If you have no objection, we shall send your premium due alert as well as premium default alert by SMS.
13. Loan:
Most of the LIC plans provide for loan facility. The process is simple. No surety or bond is involved.
14. Survival benefits:
Please check your Policy schedule {1st page} to see whether periodic claim payments are due to you. If so, please note down the due dates. In case you have not received the payments by the due date get in touch with the Branch office.
15. Annuity policies;
Read this section only if this is an annuity Policy
How to ensure that the first Annuity cheque reaches you in time; {if this is an immediate annuity policy, skip this item }
9 months before the vesting {maturity } date LIC shall send you a letter asking for your option on the type of Annuity {explained below } and mode of payments {i.e. frequency; YLY,HLY,QLY,MLY}. You should choose your options and send back the letter Promptly. Annuity will not start if LIC do not receive this letter of option back.
Option A :
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Annuity stopes on death
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Option B/C/D/E :
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Annuity continues till the end of guaranteed period {5/10/15/20 years respectively } or till death, whichever is later. If death takes place during the guaranteed period, nominee gets annuity till the end of this period.
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Option F:
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Annuity for life with return of Purchase Price on
Death. Here , because of the return option, annuity instalment will be relatively less.
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Option G :
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Annuity for Life increasing 3 % every year.
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Option H:
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Annuity for Life where, on death, spouse gets 50% Annuity for life.
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Option I:
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Annuity for Life where, on death, spouse gets 100% Annuity for life.
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If you do not receive the option letter in time [ LIC shall send by registered post ] you may please contact the concerned LIC branch office.
You may avail of the ECS option, if the same is available in your place. A mandate form will be sent to you along with the option letter. If you fill up and send back the same , annuity will be automatically deposited in your account.
EXISTENCE CERTIFICATE:
Please note that once a year you have to fill this up, duly certified , and send the same to the LIC office [address will be intimated to you]. This is a common practice worldwide. The form is available at any LIC branch office.
Who can certify this? Shall be mentioned in the form.
Annuity stops, if existence certificate is not received.
Where to contact:
If the first Annuity cheque is delayed: Branch that serviced your policy.
For any query related to your annuity, once annuity starts: To the LIC office that prints annuity cheque.
For change of address, nominee, transfer: Branch office which serviced your policy.
Death claim request by nominee: at the above branch office.
Queries related to Annuity payment can also be made in this blog, as well as LIC website and the Info centers.
16. APPENDIX
List of organizations where you can where you can LIC premium
1. AXIS BANK
2. APONLINE[in ANDHRAPRADESH]
3. MPONLINE[in MADHYAPRADESH]
4. Suvidhaa Infoserve
5. TIC Business Solutions
List of cities having Info centers
1.Mumbai 2.Kolkata 3. Delhi 4.Chennai 5.Ahmedabad 6.Hyderabad 7.Bangalore 8.Pune 9.Chandigarh 10.Jaipur 11.Indore 12.Guwahati 13.Ernakulam
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My LIC checklist
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Tick here
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1
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I have kept the Policy bond in a safe place
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2
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I have informed someone as to where the bond is kept
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3
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I have checked the Policy schedule in the 1st page
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4
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I have noted the Policy number in my diary with due dates and premium amount
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5
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I have noted the Branch phone number in my diary
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6
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I have noted that LIC IVR/INFO Center number is 1251
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7
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I have understood that in my own interest I should keep LIC informed about my change in address, phone number , E-mail id
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8
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I have noted that I should pay premium even if I have not received the notice.
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9
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I have a nominee under the Policy
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