What is the best term policy in India? Will it be wise to opt for critical illness cover and cancer cover since, both of these covers include a lot of conditions?

It depends on your requirements. Insurance policy are not your over the counter products where everone purchases and uses it. Instead of looking for best policy try avoid policies with high premium, hidden clauses, see how good the company is in settling claims and lastly go for a company which is surely going to be in the market for years and who provides good service.

For eg: LIC is good becoz of their claim settlement, hassle free policies, huge network and is arguably biggest company in India. But premium is high, term insurance plan does not have many features.

Similarly a private firm like HDFC ERGO is from one of largest banks in India, service is good, you have good features in the term plan. Compared to other private companies it is good but the premium is slightly higher.

Usually (this is just my observation) i have seen established companies or their agents do not take that ExtrA step in addressing customer needs.

New companies like Aegon have low premiums, great service (again just my observation), lot of features or addons like critcal cover, cancer cover, accident cover, etc at slightly extra premium.

But yes in long run, you cant assure if these companies will be there in the market for years to come. But not to worry IRDA is very strict in India. Insurance company cant just be opened and closed like that. IRDA takes huge deposit and has strict laws to keep a check on companies.

So if an insurance company closes IRDA will surely use the huge deposit amount to settle claims of customers and they will also ensure company is either acquired or merged.

So yes, small risk is the new company which takes over might alter your policy benefits. But again any insurance company can alter the policy whenever they want.

So know the game fully and choose whoever suits you. Dont compromise, instead let the insurance company serve you and choose who has given you clear details and good service. Trust me this will help in long run, as insurance is a life long commitment. You have to know in and out about your policy.

One mistake i see people do is they hide, lie, have other intentions and look at short term gains like saving for Income Tax while buying a policy.

Only reason you should buy a policy is to ensure your family runs the same way even after an eventuality. So when you buy policy be CRYSTAL CLEAR, you are buying not to make your family rich but to give them same quality of life if you were alive.

In short, when you buy a life insurance policy you must be 100 percent sure your policy claim should not be rejected and your family should not SUFFER becoz of your smartness. Be honest. The other side of the story is there are insurance claims which are rejected every day. It is just Foolishness, we pay premium, policy is in force but claim is rejected. This is also happening, so be honest when you buy policy.

If you have any doubts just call customer care, goto insurance company and clear your doubts, dont trust agent even if its is your spouse who is selling the policy.

You can also choose policies from insurance aggregator portals and compare. See what is current market trend, prices, features, which company is good.

Choosing critical and cancer cover, yes they help you because you will get money in case you are detected with illness like cancer etc and you can use for treatment and family expenses. Health insurance will not give you money for livelihood, they only give for hospital expense. Also you would need a Health insurance with high coverage and you will be paying a high premium for treatment in these cases. So this is where critical and cancer care cover helps. They give claim even if you are just detected with disease and its usually a lump sump amount and premium is cheaper. Eg: 50 lac critical cover is cheaper. So take a health insurance for 10lacs to cover your health expenses while remaining 40 lacs go for critical or cancer cover.

So when choosing a critical and cancer cover see how much you want to get covered for.

Then see if your insurance plan offering the coverage like how much claim amount, what is premium and how good is the service.

Now Compare with individual critical and cancer plans and see where the coverage is better, premium is cheap.

If you feel in the long run having separate critical plan is good, go for it, else add with your existing term plan.

Remember covering all risk is important and premium is only next deciding factor.