Ch. 3: How To Redeem Whole Life Insurance Plan?

After you’ve purchased a whole life insurance policy for the financial security of your family, what’s the next step?

Besides ensuring that you pay the premiums on time to avoid the policy lapsing, here are the three most important things you must do:

1. Learn how the claim process with your insurance company works
2. Take your nominee and family members through the records and the entire process too.
3. Make sure you provide an active email address and mobile number to the insurer. Most insurers will send text reminders/notifications on mobile and email.

This is as important as buying the policy. This will ensure all the effort and money you spent on investment has actually benefited your family.

Here’s an article specifically designed to help you understand how to redeem a whole life insurance policy.

Let’s have a look!

The redemption of a Whole Life Insurance can happen on two counts - either when the policyholder passes away or when the policyholder survives the policy term.

We explain both the processes here, one by one.

IN CASE OF DEATH:

Step 1: Notification:
In case of death, your nominee will have to first notify the insurance company about the event.

Depending on the insurance company, the intimation of claim can be done in multiple ways -

• Intimation on insurer’s website online
• Intimation via toll-free number
• Intimation via SMS
• Intimation via email
• Intimation by visiting the insurer’s branch office

Step 2: Submission of documents:
Next, all the required claim documents will have to be sent together at the branch or head office of your insurance company.

• Ensure you always take a system generated acknowledgement from the insurer when you submit documents.
• Also, keep a scanned copy of the entire document set with you always

As soon as all the mandatory claim documents are submitted, the insurance company will proceed with the claim intimation request.

Step 3: Request for additional documents:
There might be times when the insurance company will require additional information or documents related to the claim depending on the circumstances of the death. In such a scenario, you or your nominee will have to ensure that the requested information or documents are submitted to the insurance company within 60 to 90 days from the date of request

Documents required for processing a death claim

Now, let us quickly take a look at the various documents you or your nominee will have to submit to the insurance company in order to receive the claim amount.

Mandatory Requirements

• Claimant Statement Form
• Death Certificate (Self Attested Copy)
• KYC document of the beneficiary (Self Attested Copy)
• Bank details of the beneficiary

Additional Requirements For Claims Within 3 Years

• Original Policy Document
• Medical Attendant’s Certificate (if any)
• Self-attested copies of Hospital or Treatment Records (if any)
• Employer’s Certificate (if applicable)

Additional Requirements For Accidental Or Unnatural Death Claims

• FIR and Final Police Closure Report
• Driving License (in case of death while driving)
• Post Mortem Report
• Valid insurance document of the vehicle (in case of death due to a road traffic accident)
• Police Inquest Report / Inquest Panchnama
• News Paper Cutting (if any)

IN CASE YOU SURVIVE THE POLICY TERM:

In case you survive the policy term, you can simply visit the insurance company’s branch office and redeem your policy with the required documents.

Submission of documents: Next, you need to send all the required claim documents to the branch or head office of your insurance company.

• Ensure you always take a system generated acknowledgement from the insurer when you submit documents.
• Also, keep a scanned copy of the entire document set with you always.

As soon as all the mandatory claim documents are submitted, the insurance company will proceed with the claim intimation request.

Documents required for processing a maturity claim

• Original Policy Document
• Claimant’s Statement Form
• Profile updating form duly attested by the policyholder which captures bank details for direct transfer to the policyholder's account.
• Personalised cheque or ‘New Accounts’ mentioned on the cheque, plus a self-attested copy of bank passbook or bank statement
• PAN Card Copy / Number if TDS is applicable

Please note: The process of claim intimation, as well as the documents required to be submitted, will vary across insurance companies. So, at the time of purchasing the whole life insurance policy, ensure you ask the insurance company about the steps involved in the claims process as well as the list of documents you or your nominee will need to submit to get the claim amount.

Once you get this list, you can bring together all the policy-related and other documents and store them in a safe, secure place to avoid misplacement.

As an additional measure, you can also create an account on the Digilocker app or open an e-insurance account, store the documents in digital format and share the account details with your nominee and family members.

Summing up!

• There are two major steps involved in redeeming a whole life insurance policy
• informing the insurer about the claim and
• submitting the documents
• Ensure you get a list of these documents from your insurer beforehand so that there are fewer hassles during claim settlement.
• To avoid misplacement, you can store these documents digitally in an e-insurance account or on the Digilocker app, and inform your nominee about the same.
• This will ensure you or your nominee have ready access to all the documents at the time of claim.