If a company has a pension plan, can they void or stop paying once you are locked in?
My company has a pension plan as well as 401K…..i have just started and one of the drawing factores to the job is the pension, but I am worried I will put in my time only to have them take away the pension before I get a chance to collect…..can they do that? Or will I recieve a cash settlement or do they have to pay out a pension once im locked in no matter what?
The $$ in the pension is owned by the company – yes they decide what happens in the future and you can wind up getting nothing if they ever run into financial troubles. (this is like social security – not guaranteed) 401K is money in YOUR account under name – no one can “take” the money from you. You can purchase shares of various different companies through mutual funds. Typically a good growth fund will do about 12% per year on average (there will be ups and downs).

The portal will provide the services of collection of premium amounts in relation to the life insurance policies issued by Tata AIG Life Insurance to its customers in the state of Madhya Pradesh.

The objective of MP Online is to deliver government service and information to the public using electronic delivery channels and thereby develop and maintain a citizen service information network, which provides open access to online information for Madhya Pradesh State.

Speaking on the occasion, M Suresh, Managing Director, Tata AIG Life Insurance Company Limited said, “It is our constant effort to provide unique value added services to our customers. We believe that the tie-up will prove to be fruitful for both the parties as well as our customers and will give us the opportunity to serve our customers in Madhya Pradesh better by providing them easy access to pay TALIC insurance premium.

Under the arrangement, SBI Life will provide insurance cover to Syndicate Bank’s home loan customers, who have availed loan under the special scheme announced by Indian Bankers Association (IBA) and Government of India.

Under the special scheme, effective up to 30th June 2009, home loan customers, between age group 18 to 55 years, availing a loan up to Rs. 20 lakh will be eligible for home loan cover at no extra cost.

It should be noted that the housing loan cover, premium of which will be borne by the bank, does not involve any documentation.

Syndicate Bank has registered a global business of more than Rs 1.93 trillion as on 31st March 2009.

The plan would be made available for sale only between February 16 and March 31.

Jeevan varsha plan is available with two policy terms of nine and 12 years. The policy will offer Rs 65 per Rs 1,000 sum assured and Rs 70 for a 12 year term.

“After the success of Jeevan Astha which closed recently, the corporation has launched another guaranteed product. This is a regular premium policy and money back plan,” LIC zonal manager (east) R R Dash said here today.

“For the first time survival benefit are payable every three years,” a LIC statement said.

LIC officials said though guaranteed addition in Jeevan Varsha is lower than Jeevan Astha, the internal rate of return will be similar to it taking into consideration all factors.

Speaking to mediapersons here, Mr M Jagannath, Senior Divisional Manager, Ernakulam Division, said the division has collected Rs 341 crore as first premium by selling 2,81,977 new policies. In the pension and Group Schemes portfolio, the division has sur passed the budget in new business premium by doing Rs 198.46 crore, he said.

The division had also achieved first by declaring the first ‘Madhur Gram’-where atleast 300 households in one village is covered by ‘Jeevan Madhur’ a micro insurance product. The division has sold 13415 policies for the first premium of Rs 30,25,138, he said.

LIC had on December 8 launched its close-ended single premium product, ‘Jeevan Aastha’, which offers guaranteed benefits to customers. The plan has a maximum shelf life of 45 days and offers five and ten year maturities to customers, he said.

Persons aged 13 to 60 years can take the policy, which also offers loan facility, he said, adding the Division has set a target of Rs 1000 crore first premium collection through this new product. The policy holder can also avail the benefits of tax exem ption, he said.

About three lakh SHGs are expected to benefit by this scheme in Tamil Nadu, company Deputy Chief Executive Pier Paola Dipaola said at the launch of a function here last evening. The scheme has received tremendous response in Orissa and a few other states in the country, with two lakh SHGs covered in Orissa alone, Dipaola said.

The five-year scheme involved a life cover for Rs 50,000 and the annual premium was Rs 601, including refund of 50 per cent as survival benefit. There are 14 lakh SHG members in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and a sum of Rs 655 crore has been advanced to the groups, with almost 97 per cent repayment, SBI, Chief General Manager J Chandrasekharan said.

The bank had received about 77,000 proposal forms for the scheme at the launch, Chandrasekaran said.

“The demand for vintage car insurance is high and we expect it to add 10 per cent to the fine arts insurance business in the first year of launch and musical instruments to contribute 5 per cent,” said Vikas Singh, head of finance and liability, Iffco Tokio.

These products will be launched in the next one year. Currently, Iffco Tokio has two products in this segment, namely fine art insurance for private collectors and fine art insurance for art dealers and gallery owners.
The insurer has received a premium income as high as Rs 15,00,000 from a gallery as well as a private collector. ITGI has sold 100 policies in the last two years, including eight to 10 large clients, which contributed over 60 per cent in the premium income of fine arts insurance. It has settled four claims so far. With more awareness and people turning more vigilant about their possessions, the company aims at selling 500 policies in the next five years.

An executive from another insurance company said premiums vary from 0.25 per cent to 0.4 per cent of the art work. A higher premium is charged if the security provisions are not up to date.
However, the fine arts insurance contributes only a fraction of the gross premium income. But the insurer is confident of growing at 10 per cent per annum.

“There is opportunity for fine arts insurance business in India, China and Eastern Europe. These countries are culturally rich and have created a large amount of wealth” said Robert Read of Hiscox Global Markets. ITGI has a treaty arrangement with underwriter Hiscox of the United Kingdom for providing risk cover in different segments. The underwriter has clients worldwide, including the National Gallery of London and museums in the United States.

Today, the Indian art market is valued at Rs 20,000 crore and is expected to grow at 20-25 per cent annually. The valuations of the arts have come down by 10-15 per cent from the last year’s, the official added.

Recently, Bajaj Capital’s insurance broking has forayed into fine arts insurance. ICICI Lombard and Oriental Insurance are the other players in this segment.

Should I buy LIC market plus? The agent told me money will double in three years.

Kartik Varma replied to this question as

LIC Market plus is a unit linked deferred pension plan from life insurance corporation available with or without risk cover. You can choose from single premium or regular premium. Being a unit linked plan your premium will be applied to purchase units as per the fund type you choose from bond fund, secured fund, balanced fund, and growth fund.

For full details visit iTrust forum section at Should I buy LIC market plus?

“We deprecate the practise of appointing surveyor after surveyor. This tendency has to be curbed,” the Commission said.

Complainant Ashok Jain, Managing Director of the Select Flavours India Limited, New Delhi, had approached the Commission with a claim of Rs16 lakh when the insurance company scaled down the insurance claim for its damages to Rs5.8 lakh on the basis of the report prepared by the second surveyor.

The Court suggested that recommendations of the first surveyor’s report should ordinarily be honoured.

“Until the report suffers from an element of bias, malafide or extraneous consideration or non-appreciation of the documents produced by the complaint, the insurance company should not appoint second surveyor,” Commission’s President Justice J D Kapoor said.
Objecting to the insurance company’s dilly-dallying in settling the claims of the insured, the Commission said such acts amount to deficiency in service.

“This gave us an idea to design a programme which can keep people well informed and help them take appropriate steps to prevent diseases,” he said.

Preventive care is something Indians should now work upon so as to create a healthy workforce, he said.

“Health Active is a platform where policy-holders can assess their current health status, take corrective measures and get rewarded for staying healthy,” he said.

Policy holders after registering and filling required details on the company’s website can get an update on their health by answering some questions online.

The programme also offers diet and fitness plans to policy-holders from leading health consultants who would personally communicate with them, he said.

The health consultant would help policy-holders to follow their diet plan, Agarwala said.

Health Active programme would reward policy-holders with points for registering, following diet and fitness plans and losing weight, amongst others, Agarwala said.

The person with the maximum points would be rewarded with gift items, he said.

Health Active is available free of cost and every ICICI Prudential customer is eligible to enroll for this programme, Agarwala said.

Initially, ICICI started this programme for its employees. Till date, 22 per cent of its employees have been benefitted through this programme, he said.