News notes
News notes
India Post sells gold coins at 6% discount
With Akshay Tritya—a day traditionally considered auspicious to buy gold—round the corner, India Post has launched a special one-month discount scheme on gold coins. The festival is on 16 May.
The gold coins will have a certification from Switzerland-based gold company Valcambi and will come with certification, product standardization, numbering and assayer certification.
India Post had joined hands with the World Gold Council and Reliance Money to sell 24-carat gold coins through its post office network across the country around two years back. Till now, it has sold gold coins to more than 40,000 customers. These gold coins which have the India Post logo, currently sold from 466 post offices, will soon be available in 700 post offices across the country.
--Bindisha Sarang
Birla Sun Life launches new traditional plan
Birla Sun Life Insurance Co. Ltd has launched a traditional insurance plan, called BSLI Bachat Endowment Plan. But this plan is slightly different than other endowment plans.
A typical endowment plan is an insurance plan that needs you to invest periodically or in a lump sum during the term of the policy. On maturity, the sum assured is paid along with any bonus declared by the company. However, if you die during the term of the policy, your nominee gets the sum assured along with the accumulated bonus.
In BSLI Bachat, on maturity you will get all the premiums along with annual additions and loyalty additions at the time of maturity. On death, the nominee will get the higher of all the premiums paid till then and the sum assured along with guaranteed additions.
The minimum monthly premium you can pay is Rs400 and maximum Rs5,000. The sum assured is up to 180 times the monthly premium. The policy comes with a single term of 20 years.
The plan pays guaranteed additions at two levels.
Annual addition: An additional rate called the Bachat rate, which will get added to your premium, will be declared every year. The addition will be the Bachat rate multiplied by the premiums paid so far. For instance, for this year, the rate for a monthly premium of, say, Rs800 is 5.25%, so, Rs500 (annual premium of Rs9,600x5.25%) will get added to your premium for this year. But, this addition will be paid only if the policy is continued for at least 10 years.
Loyalty addition: The policy will also pay loyalty additions, varying every year. They would be payable only on death or on maturity. To get this, you have to be in the policy for at least 15 years.
--Deepti Bhaskaran
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