Insurance is a contract which provides protection against a possible eventuality or risk. So, insurance in its purest form is an expense rather than an investment.
Fortunately or unfortunately, many of us mix life insurance and investment. We expect Returns from our investment in Life Insurance. Traditional Life Insurance Plan is one of the most popular saving options in India.
Why are they so popular? – They are aggressively marketed with so-called ‘guaranteed or fixed return’ tag by the Insurers/Intermediaries and policy holders want not only insurance cover but also some returns on their investments/savings.
So, what are Traditional or Conventional Life Insurance Plans? – Traditional plans or conventional plans are the oldest types of insurance plans available. Term Insurance plans, Money-back plans, Whole-life Plans, Endowment plans etc., are considered as Conventional plans. Traditional policies are considered as risk-free, as they provide fixed returns in case of death (or) on policy maturity.
In this post, let’s understand – the procedure of Life Insurance Endowment Plan Return Calculation using MS Excel. How to calculate rate of return on life insurance policies? What are the different types of bonuses that are generally declared on endowment life insurance policies?..
Life Insurance Endowment Plan Return Calculation Calculation using MS Excel
What is an Endowment Life Insurance plan? – It is a combination of insurance and investment. The insured will get a lump sum along with bonuses (if any) on policy maturity (or) on death event.
So, it is very clear that the rate of return from an endowment life insurance policy is purely dependent on the quantum of bonuses declared by the Insurer.
For example : All insurance plans of LIC with the suffix ‘With Profits‘ are eligible for allocation of annual reversionary bonuses. When the bonuses are allocated they become vested with the policy and are payable on maturity or on death of the assured during the term of the policy.
Types of Bonuses
- Simple Reversionary Bonus (SRB) : This type of bonus is calculated on the sum assured only. This bonus is declared annually and is accrued to be paid out at the time of a claim or maturity. The bonuses are just accrued and compounding does not come into the picture.
- Final Additional Bonus (FAB) : It’s paid to those policies which are of a longer duration and has run for say more than 15 years. This is a one-time payment.
- Loyalty Additions : These are similar to FAB.
- Guaranteed Additions : The Guaranteed Additions are similar to SRB, payable along with the Basic Sum Assured at the time of claim.
You can get to know the different types of bonuses that are payable on your Policy by checking your Policy Bond or Policy Certificate.
The rate of bonus allocated on your policy generally depends upon:
- The Plan and Term of the policy
- Insurer’s Investment experience and the surpluses generated during the year.
- Bonus declared is always based on Sum assured and not on the premium amount.
Popular Endowment Plans
Below are some of the popular Endowment Life Insurance Plans :
- LIC Jeevan Anand (Endowment cum Whole life plan)
- LIC Jeevan Rakshak
- HDFC Life Sanchay Plus
- LIC Limited Payment Endowment Plan
- LIC Nav Jeevan Plan
- ICICI Prudential Assured Savings Insurance Plan
- LIC Jeevan Pragati
- LIC Jeevan Shikhar Single Premium Endowment Plan etc.,
How to calculate Rate of Return on maturity from an Endowment Life Insurance Policy?
Let’s now understand the procedure to calculate return on life insurance endowment plan with an example – ‘LIC Jeevan Pragati‘, using MS Excel’s IRR Function (Internal Rate of Return).
Step – 1 : Kindly note the basic details of your endowment policy.
- Policy Commencement Date & Policy Maturity Year
- Policy Term (tenure)
- Premium Amount (it can be – yearly, quarterly, monthly)
- Sum Assured
Step – 2 : Check your policy bond and note the type of bonuses that are payable on your endowment policy. And then, visit the respective insurer’s portal or contact your Insurance agent and get the previous years’ bonuses data. For example : LIC portal has bonus information.
In our example – LIC Jeevan Pragati offers Simple Reversionary Bonuses (payable yearly) + Final Additional bonus (FAB : one time) on maturity claim.
Step – 3 : Key-in your Policy tenure i.e., Commencement Year to Maturity Year and respective Premium payment amounts.
- In the first column (policy year), key in the number of years i.e, policy term.
- The second column can be termed as ‘Cash flows’. Key-in premium amount in ‘negative sign’ as it is a cash outflow from your pocket. In this example, we are considering a 20 year endowment plan regular premium plan.
- In case your endowment plan is a single premium plan, you can key-in the single premium amount in the 1st policy year alone and leave all other cells under ‘cash flow’ as blanks/zero’.
- If your endowment policy is a limited premium premium payment one, for example – a 20 year policy can have say 10 year LPP option. In that case, you can enter the premium amounts in the first ten cells (10 policy years).
Step – 4 : This is an important step. We calculate the maturity amount by considering sum assured and bonuses. Note that this is a ‘positive cash flow’ and is payable in the next policy year, after the policy matures.
- Maturity Benefit = Sum Assured + Simple Reversionary Bonus (SRB) + Final Additional Bonus.
- Sum Assured in our example is Rs 1.5 lakh
- Calculation of total SRB :
- Based on the available bonus information, I have assumed Rs 42 per Rs 1000 Sum Assured as yearly SRB for this endowment plan.
- For Rs 1000 SA, bonus is Rs 42, so for Rs 1.5 lakh, the year bonus comes to Rs 6,300.
- In this example, the policy tenure is 20 years, so total SRB is = 6300 * 20 = Rs 1,26,000.
- Calculation of FAB :
- Based on the available bonus information, I have assumed Rs 400 per Rs 1000 Sum Assured as one-time FAB.
- For Rs 1000 SA, FAB is Rs 400, so for Rs 1.5 lakh, the FAB comes to Rs 60,000.
- In case, your endowment policy pays Loyalty additions or Guaranteed additions (similar to SRB), you can calculate the amount accordingly and include it in total maturity benefit. Under LIC Jeevan Pragati plan, LA is not payable.
- So, the expected maturity amount is = Rs 150000 + Rs 126000 + Rs 60000 = Rs 3,36,000. This is shown against 21st policy year under ‘Cash flows’ column.
Step – 5 : Go to cash flows column -> after maturity benefit amount -> click on cell and select Function (IRR). Select the data range i.e, the policy tenure including maturity benefit payment year. Press enter and you get the IRR on your endowment policy. The IRR for this example comes or 7%.
You may download the excel sheet which has the above calculations.
Limited Premium Payment Endowment Plan – Returns Calculation
Below image has the rate of return calculation from a Single Premium and Limited Premium Payment Endowment Insurance policy. I have taken LIC Nav Jeevan plan as an example. Nav Jeevan plan has both single and LPP options. Loyalty Additions are payable under this endowment plan.
You may download the excel sheet which has the above calculations.
Now, its time for you to do these calculations for yourself! Take out your life insurance policy bond, collect all the required information and calculate the returns on your investment in Endowment plan.