Why Endowment Policies are Wealth Destroyers?

I was financially naive that I thought endowment policies were wealth creators, but I realized my mistake.

Several years ago, my aunt asked me to buy an endowment policy from LIC (Life Insurance Corporation of India) through her. I politely declined her offer with a conscious effort not to strain our relationships. I respected her a lot for what she was, except that I could not tolerate the forceful selling of LIC endowment policies. At some point, to sustain and respect the relationship, I succumbed and bought a couple of endowment policies (Jeevan Anand & Jeevan Saral). Keep paying premiums for several years for a very meager life cover and a payback of corpus that does not even beat inflation. When I realized that I was spending a hefty premium for an insignificant life cover, I immediately surrendered both the policies; luckily, they had some surrender value. There were so many questions from various LIC agents asking to re-invest in another endowment policy. Somehow, I escaped all these gimmicks and got the surrender value of the policies.

Policy commencement: Sep-2011

Life Cover: 5 Lacs

Premium Paid: INR 30,000 per year

Policy surrendered: 2019

Surrender Value: 1 Lac