Why opt for a longer life cover when buying a term plan?

“50 years! Have you gone crazy? my wife exclaimed, jumping out of the soft reclining chair. She had just bought it for a princely sum of Rs.50000/-. “You are going to pay 15000/- every year for a period of 50 years! I nodded looking once at the chair and once at her. “Couldn’t you have opted for a policy that would have involved paying the premium for a lesser number of years? After all, in a Term plan, you also don’t get any return on your investment?” I held her hand in mine looked into her eyes and said, “Sweetheart, this policy is not for me to earn a return, it is for you to have something when I go to a place from where I don’t return.” She looked at me and asked, “What is going to happen to you? Of course, nothing is going to happen to you”. I had no answer.

Destiny is not in your control

Obviously, you can never know when or what destiny has in store for you. Also, it is very true that whatever happens will happen as it is outside your control. But what is in your control is that when fate blows out the light of your life, at least your family is not left in darkness. Most people make the mistake of buying a term plan with a shorter cover to save on money as they feel that there is no point in paying premiums for such a long term. But this philosophy actually defeats the very purpose of buying term life insurance. Term life insurance is a pure form of insurance which only provides death benefit. In other words, in the event of the life assured meeting with an untimely death any time during the term of the policy, the nominee will be paid the sum assured. If the Life assured survives till the end of policy term, there is no maturity benefit that he can avail of. Hence, it becomes imperative that you see to it that the policy term is longer.

Let’s understand this with an example

If you are 30 and take a term plan for 20 years of age, it’ll end when you reach 50 years of age. If you survive till then, buying a new plan will be very costly. But if you, instead of 20 years, buy a policy that may cover you till age maximum age, you can have the advantage of a longer cover by paying a premium based on your present parameters.

Hence, a long life with longer insurance cover is always better than a long life with shorter insurance cover. Get free insurance quotes online of various insurers like Edelweiss Tokio Life, HDFC life, ICICI Prudential etc and buy an online term plan with a longer cover.