In the fast-paced living scenario of today, there is absolutely no certainty regarding what you may have to encounter in future. Given the unpredictability of most life situations and their impacts, it pays to be prepared for financial adversities way in advance. Fortunately, there are several financial tools in the marketplace that offer different saving and investment avenues to take care of these aspects. Term insurance and endowment plans are a small step in the same direction. They help in warding off financial challenges in different ways.

Here we aim to help you understand their nature and features as we compare term Insurance and endowment plans.

What are Term Insurance and Endowment Plans?

What is a term insurance?

Term insurance is a life insurance product that gives you pure life protection only. Term plans offers huge amount of sum assured for low premium giving the policy holder comprehensive life cover.

. In case the insured dies within the term of the policy, his or her beneficiaries are entitled to receive death benefits in the form of a pre-defined, lump-sum amount.

What is an endowment plan?

On the other hand, an endowment policy, refers to an investment cum life insurance instrument. This plan offers adequate growth of the money invested by you along with providing life coverage during the times of crisis. The life cover or maturity amount component of such plan is termed as the sum assured.

Comparison between Term Insurance and Endowment Plans

One of the major confusions faced by insurance seekers pertains to whether they should purchase an endowment plan or a term insurance. Both are sound tax-saving instruments, provide comprehensive life coverage, and are bracketed as traditional life insurance policies. Given below are some important metrics to compare term insurance and endowment plans.

1. Investment vs. insurance

A term policy is a pure life insurance plan with no-frills life cover. On the other hand, an endowment plan allows avenues for future savings.

2. The premium

When you compare term insurance plans online, you will find that most of them promise comprehensive life protection at low premium rates. In contrast, an endowment plan would ask for a higher premium for the same coverage amount.

In case you want to add-on more benefits to the available basic plans, you will find the premium going higher. The higher the risk for insurance companies, the higher is the premium. This makes term plans more affordable than endowment plans for many.

3. The sum assured

You may want to compare and choose the sum assured in line with your income in case of term plans. As a thumb rule you should take life cover 20 times the value of your annual income. This amount will be payable to your beneficiary only in the event of your death during the tenure of the policy.

On the other hand, in order to get a higher sum assured in case of endowment plans, you may choose to pay higher premiums as per your earning capacity. In case you manage to outlive the plan’s tenure, you will get maturity benefits on completion of the policy term while the sum assured will be paid after your death during the policy term to your family.

4. Additional features

Compare term insurance and endowment plans online to figure out the different riders that can be purchased along with the basic plan. You may have to pay extra to get different benefits as per your specific short and long-term needs. The common add-ons that are possible with both types of plans include critical illness rider, hospital cash rider, accidental death benefit, premium waiver rider, and so forth.

The premiums paid on both plans are exempted from income tax deductions u/s 80C. Also, the sum assured is non-taxable u/s 10(10D) of the Income Tax Act, 1961. This implies that the tax benefits are more in endowment plans when compared with term plans.

Way Forward

In a nutshell, if you choose to buy and compare term insurance plans and go ahead with the same, your family will attain guaranteed death benefits only in the event of your untimely demise. However, if an endowment plan is what you seek to purchase on reliable sites like Coverfox.com, you stand a chance to build up a corpus fund over time and enjoy the same after the expiry of the policy’s tenure.

Alongside, the lumpsum amount of sum assured by your insurance company will be payable to your beneficiaries once you are no more. Choose as per your needs and budget – you will not be disappointed with your buy.