⁰Whether its Life Insurance or Health Insurance, both need periodic review and adjustments. It became even more clear during last one year of pandemic, where most of us were always concerned about our own health and health of our loved ones; and about protecting income for the benefit of surviving family members to having a risk-cover to meet hospital bills, and the protection came in from Insurances that one had.
There are two aspects that are important for all of us, irrespective of age and income level, first – are we covered for life & health through an insurance plan and second – is the insurance cover adequate for ourselves and our dependents.
The purpose of insurance is to protect against unforeseen risks. While life insurance is meant to provide financial aid in case of the untimely death of the bread earner in a family, the health insurance helps to meet the medical cost in the case of hospitalization. So, it is always better not to leave anything to chance and review the insurance needs periodically. Now, since we understand that there is need to review the coverage, the next come, why and what? And the answer is –
Adequacy of coverage:
It’s important to ensure that all dependents, including any dependent parents are also adequately covered including any addition to the family and any new medical condition that is now known.
Similarly, we need to ensure that our life cover is also adequate to take care of ever-increasing future needs of our family, children education, house loans, and any other liabilities that are likely to come our way.
Health cover for post-retirement:
If you are covered under corporate health plan and reaching close to retirement or planning to take voluntary retirement its necessary to plan for family health coverage in advance. To ensure that waiting period for preexisting conditions does not hamper our post retirement we should take additional cover at least three years in advance of the retirement.
Changes in lifestyle and goals:
One also needs to ensure that with rising income, the changes in lifestyle that family is enjoying, are maintained even in case of any eventuality and not just that any life goals planned for the family, education, house, travel also are factored into the plan and are supported.
The bottom line is people usually consider buying insurance as the ultimate goal. However, reviewing the plan on a timely basis is necessary as it helps to understand if the purchased plan works for them or not.