Kolkata: The country’s largest life insurance company PSU Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has launched a pension plan that requires only one premium and offers a variety of annuity options. The plan was launched on Tuesday, February 18, 2025. The LIC’s much-hyped plan was launched by financial services secretary M Nagaraju and Siddhartha Mohanty, the chief executive officer and managing director of LIC.
The plan, named LIC’s Smart Pension Plan has been marketed as a non-par, non-linked, individual/group, savings, and immediate annuity plan. It has been crafted with the objective of meeting the growing retirement needs of a vast number of Indians. The annuity plans it offers cover a broad ground of options for both single life and joint life annuities. Thereby LIC’s Smart Pension Plan can offer flexible and secure policies for its customers.
Minimum purchase price
According to LIC officials, the non-par and non-linked plan offers several liquidity options. They enable partial/ full withdrawal. It must be noted that the minimum purchase price is Rs 1,00,000. There are incentives for higher purchase price and different modes of annuity payments, which can be yearly, once in six months, once in three months and even once a month. LIC also said that there is an option to take immediate annuity by NPS subscriber. LIC also highlighted that the amount of money that will be payable after the death of an annuitant will be determined according to the option selected by the policyholder/annuitant at the time of buying the policy. These options for payment of death benefit could include the following: a lump sum one-time payment or even annuitisation of death benefits or instalments. Other options include advanced annuity options or even annuity accumulation option.
In simple words, an annuity represents a contract between the policyholder (annuitant in insurance parlance) and an insurance company. It requires the insurance company to make payments to the policyholder — either immediately or as a stream of payments in future — which can enable the policyholder to receive a fixed amount for the rest of his/her life. When buying the policy, the annuitant can wither pay a the insurance company a lump sum or in a series of instalments.
Retirement planning is becoming more and more important as average life expectancies and financial uncertainties rise. In tandem annuity payments are becoming more and more important because they help one to have a reliable income during retirement as well as other stages of life. Personal Finance Business News – Personal Finance News, Share Market News, BSE/NSE News, Stock Exchange News Today
