The most important plan of all: Child insurance

Your earliest memory of your child is of you holding him moments after he was born. Even as the years pass and your child becomes an adolescent, you will always imagine your child to be the sweet little infant you first saw.

But of course, your child is growing up fast and his every wish is your command. It seems like you could bring him the moon and the stars if he asked for them. Every time your child asks for something: a new toy, new colouring books or even tickets to see a new movie, you go ahead and make his wish come true. As a parent, you believe that your primary responsibility lies in providing everything your child needs to become a well-rounded individual.

Very soon your child will enter his teens and wonder what to study next. He will be excited at the thought of going to the most prestigious college and making new friends. He might wish to become an engineer or a pilot or even a businessperson. And as always, he will look to you for help.

The question is: Are you financially prepared to back your child's dreams?

Why take child plans?

There is one disadvantage to the confidence that your precious child has in you. You are under constant pressure to provide in the face of rising costs and inflation. Your income is not sufficient to pay for his tuition fees, project work, travel and other expenses. And the costs of his education will rise tenfold if he decides to pursue higher education abroad.

Education costs are very high in India, and your income might prove inadequate to finance your child's ambitions. But you need not tell your child that you cannot pay for his further education, not if you invest in a child insurance plan.
Child plans offer an essential safety net that you can cast around your child's future educational ambitions. They offer necessary financial support to make your child's dreams come true – so he can study to become an astronaut, a painter or an architect and the child plan will ensure that his dreams come true. More importantly, the child insurance plan does this whether you are present in his life or not – this reduces the pressure on you to accumulate as much wealth as possible in the present time. You and your spouse also do not need to empty out your savings to finance your child's education if you have taken a child plan.

How to plan for your child's education

• Assess your child's current yearly educational expenses. Multiply this number by 2 or 3.
  
• Factor in future inflation and add it to the above number.
  
• Have a frank discussion with your child about what he wishes to study. If he wants to go abroad for education, you must find out the costs of admission, the living costs in the country of university, current level of savings, etc.
  
• Buy a child plan while your child is still young. This gives you time to accumulate a large corpus for his future use. The best child plan today offers regular bonuses each financial year, apart from terminal bonuses and a death benefit as well.