How Does Age Affect Life Insurance?
Life insurance offers a financial cover for the risks to your life. In exchange for a premium amount, it provides monetary benefits to your family in case of an unfortunate event. Thus, it acts as a replacement for your income and provides financial support to your loved ones in your absence.
Moreover, life insurance payouts can also help repay your outstanding debts, if any. Thus, the payout can help your loved ones, to clear any monthly payments for outstanding debt like home loans.
Therefore, the primary aim of life insurance is to safeguard family members financially. Hence, you would think of waiting until your liabilities increase before buying a policy. But this decision might backfire. While there is no wrong age for purchasing the coverage, the earlier you invest, the better it is financially.
Read on to find out how age affects life insurance.
Why does age matter?
Lower premiums
Insurers expect young people to be less susceptible to life-threatening diseases. But with increasing age, medical complications can develop. It raises the risk covered by life insurance.
Hence, the more you age, the higher your premium becomes.
Moreover, the premium amount usually remains the same throughout your policy period, regardless of your health condition. Thus, buying early can help you save a considerable sum in the long run.
Higher chances of securing coverage
Most life insurance companies ask for medical tests before approving the life cover. However, some insurance providers skip medical tests for young applicants. Your medical history details might be sufficient.
But the higher your age, the higher are the odds of having to undergo health checkups to get a life insurance plan. Age, unfortunately, can also affect your health. If some critical health issue gets detected, your premium amount shoots up. The insurer can also reject your life insurance buying proposal.
Moreover, every insurance plan features a maximum age of entry. Hence, the longer you wait, the lower your chances of qualifying for life insurance.
Tax-savings
Life insurance premiums are eligible for deduction up to ₹ 1.5 lakh from your taxable income under Section 80C* of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Hence, buying life insurance as soon as you start earning helps you lower your income tax.
Rider benefits
Unfortunately, lifestyle diseases among the youth are on the rise in India1. Such conditions often need long-term, expensive treatments, eroding your savings.
However, many life insurance plans allow you to increase your coverage through Accelerated Critical Illness# (ACI) riders. This benefit covers you against life-threatening medical conditions. It offers an upfront, lump sum payment on the diagnosis of the diseases covered under the plan. It can fund your treatment, and protect your family from any shortfall of funds arising due to medical costs.
Hence, such riders can prove useful even at a young age.
Term plans – the ideal life insurance plan for every age
Our ICICI Pru iProtect Smart term insurance offers a life cover` of up to ₹ 1 crore at affordable premiums. You can check the premium you need to pay using our online term insurance premium calculator. Other benefits include:
- Premium waiver, with the continuation of coverage, in case of permanent disability^ due to accident
- Option to include critical illness benefit covering 34 critical illnesses#, requiring no medical bills for payouts
- Provision to increase life cover` with changing life needs
- Claim deduction under Section 80D* with the critical illness benefit# (optional), along with the deduction under Section 80C*
- Discounted price online$
When you delay your life insurance purchase, your policy becomes expensive. Buy ICICI Pru iProtect Smart term plan soon and secure the best rates on your coverage.
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