Life insurance, in simple terms, is an agreement or contract between a life insurance company and you, a policyholder. When you buy a policy from your insurer, you will need to pay a certain amount of premiums to keep the policy active. Depending on the type of policy you have purchased, either your family will receive a death benefit in the event of your demise, or you can claim the savings or returns on maturity.
For example, a pure term plan will only pay the death benefit to your beneficiaries in case of your death during the policy term. Otherwise, the policy will terminate at the end of the tenure, and no benefit can be paid out. Likewise, in a savings plan or a Unit-Linked Insurance Plan, the death benefit will be paid out as per the above condition. But if you survive the term, you can claim the maturity benefit as determined under the policy.
The premium payments can be made monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or annually. You can also choose the mode for the premium payments – the Single Pay mode allows a single lump sum premium payment, while Limited Pay means that you pay premiums for a duration shorter than the policy term. If you choose Regular Pay, the premium payment term and the policy term will be the same.