Two generations of the same promise.

The amount the insurer pays your nominee if the claim is made. Premium out, sum assured in — that is the whole equation on a term plan.

On a plan that also invests, keep the two numbers apart in your head: the sum assured is the protection, the fund value is the savings. They are not the same money and a good plan tells you both.

A rider is a small add-on bolted to the main policy — critical illness, accidental death, or a waiver that keeps the policy alive if you can no longer pay the premium.

They cost a fraction of the base premium and are easiest to attach when you first buy. Riders are cheap; regret is not.

Yes. NRIs and OCI holders buy Indian term and unit-linked plans routinely, without flying down — tele-medicals, video verification and digital documents are standard, subject to the insurer's country rules.

What you will need: passport and visa or OCI card, proof of overseas address, an income document, and an NRE or NRO account to pay from. Tax treatment depends on where you are resident, so ask us before you commit.

It is claims paid divided by claims received, over a year. Useful, but one ratio never tells the whole story.

It counts every policy the insurer wrote, not just the kind you are buying, and counting by number of claims flatters an insurer whose claims are mostly small. Look at the amount settled too, and at more than one year.

A window after the policy document reaches you in which you can read it properly and return it for a refund, less a small charge, if it is not what you were told it was.

Fifteen days is the floor, and thirty is now usual on life policies. Your policy schedule states the exact window — that is the number that counts, so read the document the week it arrives rather than filing it.

You get a grace period — usually thirty days on yearly, half-yearly and quarterly premiums, and fifteen on monthly. Cover continues through it.

Miss the grace period and the policy lapses, and reviving it can mean fresh paperwork or fresh medicals. A grace period is not a holiday: set a standing instruction and stop relying on memory.

Almost every rejected-claim story starts with something that was not written on the form — a health condition, a habit, an existing policy, real income.

The law is on your side once time has passed: under Section 45 of the Insurance Act, a life policy cannot be questioned after three years from when it started or was last revived, on any ground at all. Before three years it can be, if something was misstated. Disclosing everything is what turns that clock into your protection instead of the insurer's.

Health insurance pays hospitals while you are alive. Life insurance pays your family when you are not. Two different risks, two different products, and one does not stand in for the other.

A term plan will not pay a hospital bill, and the largest family floater will not replace a salary.

Divide 72 by an annual return and you get the years it takes to double your money. At 12 per cent: 72 ÷ 12 = six years. At 8 per cent, nine.

It works in reverse on costs, which is the half nobody mentions. And if someone quotes you a return without saying over how long, they have told you nothing — ask for the CAGR.