SBI Life eShield Plan

SBI Life eShield Plan is a term insurance plan offered by the insurance company SBI Life.

If you’re looking for an insurance company that will offer great service during both the purchase phase and the claims phase - SBI Life is a good choice for you. It provides a smooth and seamless process when your family receives the claim settlement amount. While this product might fit perfectly for your family’s needs, you must keep in mind that it is comparatively more expensive than other products and it does not allow you to choose customizations such as increasing cover, claim payout, and critical illness rider. 

Let’s look into some benefits and features that this plan offers. 

What are the benefits of SBI Life eShield Plan? 

• Life cover Benefit: This term insurance plan pays an assured sum of money to your family if your death happens during the term of the policy. There is no maturity benefit in this policy - meaning, you don’t get anything back in case you survive the term of the policy. You can claim tax benefits under Sec. 80C of the Income Tax Act with this term insurance policy. 
• Entry age for the policy: This plan allows you to apply for the policy, when your age is at least 18 years and until you’re 65 years old. 
• Increasing Cover: Once you choose an appropriate sum assured that fits your family’s current financial needs, the SBI Life eShield Plan offers you an increasing cover using which you can increase the sum assured by 10% for every five years, till the end of the policy term. This can be a minor drawback as there are other plans that offer a 5% increase every year. 
• Cover Duration: The plan gives you the option to choose the policy duration up to the age of 80 years. This means that you can take a cover well beyond your planned retirement age which is usually around 60-65 years. 
• Limited Pay Options: If you’re someone who wants to finish paying off all premiums early in life - SBI Life eShield Plan might not be a good option for you. This plan doesn’t offer any limited pay options. Therefore, you will have to continue paying your premiums either on a monthly/ yearly basis until the end of your term. 
• Claim Payout Options: In the claim payout options, there’s a limitation you should know. This plan doesn’t allow you to customize how your family receives the claim amount. It only offers the option of a one-time payout. So, if your nominee is someone who might not be able to manage a large sum of money (say 2 crores that suddenly hits their bank account) - taking this policy might get risky for you. It is possible that they either take bad investment advice, or simply spend it all early in life, and end up with no money for the major expenses in life. So, pick this plan only if you’re sure that your family or nominee will manage the claim amount efficiently, or at least have someone to help them invest wisely. 

What are the Riders available with the SBI Life eShield Plan? 

The SBI Life eShield Plan provides just one additional benefit, which you can consider buying, based on your needs. 

The plan only offers an Accidental Death Benefit Rider, which will provide your family with an additional sum of money in case you die due to an accident. You can also use this rider to improve your overall cover. There’s usually an income-related limit on the amount of term insurance cover you can buy. So if you’re not able to buy the desirable term insurance cover, you can consider buying the accidental death benefit rider along with your term insurance cover. 

On the flip side, this plan does not offer a Critical Illness Rider or Waiver of Premium rider like other term insurance products in the market. 

Why should you choose the insurer SBI Life? 

Here’s a review of the claim experience of SBI Life, based on our in-house research and analysis. 

• Speed of Claim Settlement: SBI Life holds an excellent track record in its claim settlement process. It has settled 93.24% of claims in less than 30 days. So, your family might not have to wait too long for the claim amount to reach their bank account, once they have submitted all the necessary documents.
• Claim Complaints: Based on the research conducted by our team, we discovered that SBI Life has received relatively fewer complaints compared to other insurers. This suggests that your family is likely to experience a seamless claim settlement process. 
• Claim Settlement Ratio: The claim settlement ratio of SBI Life is 94.52%, and their claim amount settlement ratio is 89.74%. 

What are the disadvantages of buying this policy from SBI Life? 

When we make important decisions for our family to secure them and their future, we should always consider both the positive and negative aspects. Here are some cons you should be wary of while choosing this term insurance plan from SBI Life:

• Personal Relationship Manager: SBI Life does not provide the service of a personal relationship manager, unlike some other insurers. So, if you’re planning to buy this plan, it is better that you buy it through a financial advisor who will handhold you through the purchase and claims process.
• Online Tracking of Claims: The insurer does not have the option to track claims online, your family will have to contact the insurance company via the provided toll-free number for details about the claim  
• Home Pickup of Claims: Your family/ nominee will have to visit the branch to submit the documents personally as the insurer does not provide the option to pick up the documents from home

While we also analyze the length of the claim form to understand if the claims process is smooth or not - this insurer has not made their claim form available online - so we couldn’t analyze it. This also means that you might need to visit their branch office or go through your financial advisor to even get the claims form. 

How is SBI Life’s Customer Services? 

• Toll-free: Our research team rated SBI Life as being ‘average’ based on their toll-free services. 
• Twitter Response: SBI Life has a track record of responding slowly to queries and complaints on the social media platform. 

About the Insurer- SBI Life 

SBI Life is a Life Insurance company in India. It offers Term Life Insurance, Traditional Savings, and Unit Linked Insurance Plans. Founded in 2001, it is a joint venture between SBI Bank and BNP Paribas Cardif. The company is headquartered in Mumbai and has 947 branches across the country. The CEO of SBI Life is Mahesh Kumar Sharma. 

What is the overall Rating of the SBI Life eShield Plan? 

On the basis of the 100+ parameters analyzed by our in-house research team and after considering the product benefits, customer service, and claims experience, SBI Life eShield Plan gets a Beshak⭐Rating of 3.4/5.