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It is difficult to pinpoint to a specific life insurance plan or perhaps a particular type of insurance investment that offers the highest returns. The concept is completely subjective and will vary depending on the policyholders’ needs and expectations of what he or she intends to achieve from it.To put it simply, what may work for you may not work in the same way for someone else. Therefore, prior to jumping on the bandwagon of purchasing life insurance, just because everyone you know is doing it, you should be smart to examine each type of life insurance policy that is available in the market. Once you have had the opportunity to go through their individual details, make a list of the plans you like, get quotes from insurance companies and then proceed to the buying phase.Take a look at the types of life insurance plans.1. Term Life Insurance: A term life insurance is a pure risk cover that is easy to understand. It is also the most affordable form of life insurance product available in the market today. When you purchase a term life insurance you basically buy in a death risk cover for a specific period of time.If the policyholder passes away before the maturity of the policy, then the beneficiary can claim the death benefit. The death benefit can be paid as a lump sum. Alternatively, some insurance companies also make monthly payouts. Many times, it can combine both these options. However, if the policyholder outlives the policy term, then the insurance company will not make any payout with a return.Some specific plans allow the policyholder to add riders to widen up the coverage. Additionally, if you purchase a term life insurance with a Return of Premiums option, then the insurance company will pay back the entire premium amount paid back to the policyholder in case he or she outlives the duration of the policy.2. Unit Linked Plans: ULIPs or unit linked plans are a blended policy that offers insurance and investment together. Hence, the premium that you pay partially goes towards the insurance and the remaining amount is invested in the market.If you are looking to invest in life insurance for the long term that offers flexibility with high returns, then ULIPs should definitely be up your alley. Depending on your risk appetite, you can choose to invest in equity, debt or in hybrid funds. You can switch between these funds in order to ensure that you get the highest returns from your investment possible.3. Endowment Plans: If you looking to save as well as insure yourself and loved ones, then an Endowment Plan will be more suitable for your needs. With this plan, a part of the premium is put towards your risk cover and the remaining funds are invested by the life insurance company.The insurance provider pays the maturity benefit if the policyholder or life assured outlives the duration of the policy term. Additionally, bonuses are offered periodically in Endowment Plans which are paid on maturity or to the beneficiary under the death benefit. The payout for the death benefit is also made to the nominee.In comparison to ULIPs, Endowment plans have a lower risk factor. Therefore, the returns too may be less than unit linked plans. For those looking for long-term insurance in combination with an investment component with a lower risk factor, Endowment plans will fit in best with your financial needs.4. Money Back Life Insurance: This is unique, short-term life insurance plan where the policyholder receives percentages of the sum assured in periodic intervals. This is called a survival benefit. For Money Back Life Insurance plans, the policyholder may also be eligible to receive bonuses as declared by the insurance company from time to time.This policy is best suited to meet financial goals in the short term that also gives you an opportunity to earn a return on maturity.5. Whole Life Insurance: Whole life insurance plans are bought for the duration of the whole life of the policyholder. Some plans even allow coverage for up to 100 years. This is the complete opposite of term life insurance plans that can be purchased in specific year-wise blocks starting from 5 and going up to 30 years.At the time of purchasing the policy, the policyholder decides on the sum assured which will be payable to his or her beneficiaries post death. Any applicable bonuses will also be paid out by the insurance company to the nominees when the death claim is raised by them.In the rarest of circumstances that the policyholder outlives the 100 year period, the insurance company then makes a payout of the matured endowment coverage to the life insured.These life insurance plans are more expensive as opposed to simple term life insurance policies. Policyholders can also make partial withdrawals from their whole life insurance plans post completion of the premium payment term.These plans are not really geared to earn a return but leave a legacy for the life insured’s beneficiaries post his or her demise.6. Child Plan: If you have a growing child, you will plan to build a sizeable corpus to ensure that there are no roadblocks in their education or marriage if you are not around. The majority of Child Plans offer payout through yearly instalments or a one time payment post the child attains adulthood.If the policyholder meets with an untimely death before the maturity of the policy, an immediate payout is made to their family by the insurance company. Some specific Child Plans have a future waiver of premiums option on the death of the life insured. The policy itself remains valid until the original maturity date.7. Retirement Plans: If you are planning to build a corpus to help you live comfortably during your sunset years, minus worries, then Retirement Plans are certainly an investment that you should seriously consider. Similar to Child Plans, Retirement Plans too allow for annual payouts in instalments of a one-time payout post the policyholder reaching 60 years of age.If the life assured passes away before the completion of the policy term, the insurance company makes an immediate payout to their beneficiaries. Here, the death benefit is significantly higher. Usually, it hovers around 105% of the premiums paid.In case the policyholder survives until the maturity of the plan, a Vesting Benefit will be paid. Here, the payout will be fund value which in turn has to used to purchase an annuity.These are types of life insurance plans that can cater to different needs of prospective policyholders. Remember to read the terms and conditions of the policy document carefully before you sign on the dotted line.Liked this answer? Here are a few more questions which we have answered:Can you please any one suggest best health insurance plan in India for my parents (age 55+)?What is the intent behind the "Sabse Pehle Life Insurance" campaign?

TWO WORDS - Financial PlanningInterestingly enough, financial planning appears to be a hard task for most of us, even for the ones with a strong finance background. After all, if you are savvy enough to be interested in modern portfolio theory and its applications, you would expect yourself to be a personal finance guru as well right? I’m afraid the answer is no! It is mind blowing the number of finance professionals who can easily keep a three-hour conversation about the latest findings on the asset management space, on the right way to calculate the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) for a beautiful 387 lines excel-sheet DCF or on how smart betas are the new popular kid on the block, but… as soon as you shift the conversation to Money Management 101, they block, they don’t have a single clue on where to start.Sadly, this is true…so now imagine the pain the average Joe goes through with all those credit/debit cards, loan payments, retirement plans and everything else the financial industry pushes us to allegedly “improve our lives”. Now you are starting to see the bigger picture and where we are going with this.Don’t worry, we have been there before and throughout this series we will walk you through the main steps on how to become your own personal finance wizard.Here are some numbers regarding financial planning…Before we jump into the statistics, it is important to stress why you must have a detailed financial plan and the benefits you can get from it. For this purpose, Forbes’ contributor Laura Shin wrote an amazing article on the “10 Reasons Why Financial Plans Aren’t Just for the 1%”.You can check the 10 reasons on the infographic below but we strongly advise you to read the article as Laura really touches the key points when describing each one of the reasons.So, how many of us really follow a rigorous written-down financial plan to help us control our expenses and increase our quality of life? As expected, exact numbers are extremely hard to estimate but taking the typical U.S. household as a benchmark, the 2013 Household Financial Planning survey conducted by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards (CFP Board) revealed that only 19% are categorized under “Comprehensive Planners”. But what exactly is a comprehensive planner? According to the CFP, comprehensive planners are all households that “have made a comprehensive financial plan that goes beyond a simple household budget to cover things like retirement savings and insurance”. That doesn’t seem a lot of trouble right? Right, but the number is still quite daunting nevertheless. Moreover, the report revealed that only 16% of U.S. households were “likely to get a comprehensive financial plan in the next 12 months!”to keep on reading Page on opseeker.com

My path to retirement savings was fraught with bad decisions, however I am on the right track now.My first retirement account was opened when I was 25. It was at the insistence of my coworkers, who as I see it now, had some very good advice for then-clueless me.The other suggestion that they had was to max out the savings to the allowable limit of 40% - but of course, I did not listen to them, since I "knew" better to spend that money on "essentials" such as trips around US and clothing.Yep, brilliance of youth.Then, when I got married, and without thinking twice, I drained my retirement account to have money for a down payment on a house.Yes, it was a bad decision, however it was not all that bad - soon thereafter, markets tanked (crisis of 2008) and I would have lost my account almost entirely, so by sheer luck of ignorance, I managed to obtain a full value out of the account, even with that 10% early penalty and applicable taxes.From that point, as purchase of the house coincided with having a child (oh, the stories I can tell you about that time!), I became a diligent retirement saver, advising younger coworkers on benefits of retirement planning.However, unlike my former coworkers, I did not take "No" for an answer. Yes, it's tough love. They can thank me later.As of now, I am on track with savings - based on the below chart.Source: Suggested Retirement Savings Goals, by Age