5 Things to do after buying term insurance- to ensure a smooth claim settlement

Say you want a plant that will give you tomatoes in a few weeks. You buy a sapling and keep it outside your window. Now, will the plant grow tomatoes all by itself? No, right? You’ll have to water it every day, make sure that it gets the right amount of sunlight, cut the dead ends to keep it from dying, etc. Only if you take care of all these things, will the plant give you tomatoes. 

Similarly, only purchasing a term insurance policy isn’t enough. There are certain things you need to take care of, after buying the policy. 

Let’s quickly find out what these are. 

5 Simple Things to do after buying term insurance

1️⃣ Ensure your premiums reach the insurer on time

Ensure the plants are watered :) Pay all premiums on time, so your policy remains active until the end of the term. To streamline this, you can choose an e-SI (electronic standing instruction) option at the time of policy purchase itself. In case an e-SI isn’t available with your insurer, or you missed opting for it, you must activate a Standing Instruction at your end after the policy is issued. 

You have taken pains to buy the policy, take equal effort to build a system that ensures it remains activated always. Depending on the payment gateway of the insurance company, you will have options to choose from credit cards, debit cards, or net banking options. You can do this either by connecting with your insurance company or with your bank.  As far as possible, always opt for standing instruction on your bank account, and not your credit card. Remember credit cards expire, and you may need to resubmit the instructions again - else the payment might not go through. 

2️⃣ Create an Electronic Insurance Account (EIA)

You can create an Electronic Insurance Account that stores all your relevant policy documents - at the time of completing the proposal. Additionally, IRDAI has recently mandated that your policy documents get stored in Digilocker (the Indian government’s own document vault app, that stores your Aadhar, driving license, etc.) of your insurance company. 

Ensure you download this Digilocker app on your mobile and provide access details to your family members. This ensures that your important documents never get misplaced - especially considering the long-term. 

In case you do not have an EIA account or don’t prefer a Digilocker, you should ensure you save all hard copies of your policy documents in a safe place, and share access with your family. 

3️⃣ Take your family through the policy document in detail.

This can get awkward with many, but sit down with your family, particularly your nominee, and take them through the policy details so they are aware of the policy you’ve taken, the riders, the benefits, etc. For instance, if you’ve taken a comprehensive accidental benefit rider along with your policy, your family should be aware - that in case your death happens due to an accident - they should get an additional sum of money over and above the base sum assured.

4️⃣ Take your nominee through the claims process.

Given the nature of term insurance, you will be completely out of the picture at the time of claim settlement. So, you must help your nominee become familiar with the claims process including all the fields in the claims form and the documents they will need to submit. While we understand that this is a difficult conversation to have, it is crucial so you don’t leave any loose ends that might trouble them later on. 

5️⃣ Connect your family to the insurance representative or branch office

If you bought the policy through an agent, connect them to your family and share contact details. In case you bought the policy from an online aggregator or the insurer directly - ensure your family knows exactly how to contact them. Details like the name of the insurance company, the phone numbers, and email IDs to contact them, the nearest branch office address, etc. so they are not lost on the basic details when the time to claim comes. 

All the things mentioned above might seem of little significance now - but, remember that you won’t be around to make things right, during the claim settlement. So, just make this extra effort now - and be confident that you’ve left no stone unturned in protecting your family’s financial future. 

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