The best money can buy. Review on AEGON Life

I was looking for a life insurance for quite some time. As is the case with most people, I had not much clue about the different types of products. Most of my friends were going and suggesting for ULIPs which somehow never made sense to me....

On doing my own research, I got to know the difference between Term Plan, Endowment Plan and Money Back Plan...

Further research cleared my doubts and I understood, that "NEVER CLUB INSURANCE AND INVESTMENT"...  These are two different things and meant to be kept that way...

On zeroing on "Term Plan", I started looking for different players.... My search inculded plans from HDFC, Kotak Mahindra, Bharti AXA, Aegon Religare, LIC, Aviva, ICICI Prudential, Bajaj Allianz among others...

During this phase, I learnt one more important lesson... Never take INSURANCE from BANKS.. and NEVER make INVESTMENTS with INSURANCE companies...  Let BANKS take care of your Banking needs... Keep insurance for INSURANCE companies... This conclusion was based on the premiums and features (Compare Kotak's plan and Aegon's yourself to know the difference)..

One more important thing to keep in mind while researching should be the claim settlement patterns of these companies... (Check IRDA website and their annual reports to get an idea..) For simple reason, post your demise, the money should reach your loved ones without any hassles...

I zeroed in on Bharti AXA and Aegon Religare (based on their premiums, claims settlement numbers, their performance reports from the IRDA annual report and responses I got from their call centres and websites) and decided to go ahead with Aegon...

Their website is pretty exhaustive in terms of explaining the product, features and limitations... Nothing is in fine print... The riders were good.. The medical conditions which are covered and not covered in those riders were mentioned clearly...

I selected a cover, filled the form and made the payment online... In less than an hour, I had my payment acknowledgement, policy document, plan brochure and a FAQ doc in my inbox...

I was asked to upload certain documents (salary proof, ID proof, a photo and an address proof).. Post uploading, almost immediately an acknowledgement mail came (not system generated) for documents received...

In less than 24 hours, I received a call from a medical practitioner for scheduling appointment for medicals.. (although I mentioned it for a Saturday owing for a holiday, they accepted to come on a weekday before my office timing). I was also told to stay away from coffee and food 12 hours before the tests...

To my surprise, the people were at my door steps sharp at 8 (the appointment fixed was for 8).. The tests went on pretty quickly (height, weight, respiratory, blood, ecg, bp)..

Post the tests, I got an acknowledgement mail (again, not system generated) from aegon that test have been conducted and results are pending...

After 3 days there was again a mail in my inbox saying the policy along with medical results are with the underwriting team and a decision would be made within 3-4 days...

After 3 more days, I got a welcome mailer along with policy documents, receipt for premium... And a courier with similar documents and medical tests report...

In all, it took precisely 6 days after making premium payment to get my policy in force... It took precisely 9 days for me to get my hands on the physical copy...

I never had to call repeatedly to enquire about status... (they call before u) I never had to call to medical people to schedule appointments...

I got the cover at the price I wanted to.. (no alternate offers were made)...  (this could have been for the fact the test's result were all good..    )

My experience so far has been very good with aegon... The calls I received were polite and cleared doubts what so ever... I would recommend Aegon to everyone for economical premiums, ease of obtaining policy and a very good customer service...

In the event of my demise, I do not know how easy/tough it would be for my nominee to claim the amount, so I can not comment on that... Nor have I come across anyone who has actually made a claim request...

But from Aegon's improving records at IRDA reports, I believe it should be easy....