Insurance FAQs

Life insurance is a concept that aims to provide financial protection to the family members of the insured individual in case of an unfortunate eventuality such as the demise of the insured individual

Insurance aims to provide financial protection to an individual, one’s family and assets from unfortunate eventualities such as death, accident, illness, etc. or loss of assets. A classic insurance policy, i.e. a term plan, provides financial assistance to your family in the unfortunate event of your death. In addition to that, modern day insurance policies have evolved to help you to build your corpus of wealth, plan for retirement, protect your house and personal belongings, reimburse medical expenses, hospitals bills, etc.

The value of the cover that you opt for should depend on your need for protection. If you are applying for asset insurance, the value should ideally cover the cost of replacing your asset. Similarly, the final payout of a term plan should compensate your family for the financial loss that they will face in case of your demise. Unit Linked Insurance Plans (ULIP), endowment or whole life policies should fall in line with your overall financial plan and enable you to receive funds when you expect to use them.

Insurance policies are broadly classified into Life and General insurance products. Life insurance policies provide financial protection against loss of life. General insurance products provide financial protection against non-life events such as medical exigencies, accidents, for homes, travel, automobiles, etc.

Nomination is a right conferred on the life insurance policyholder to appoint a person to receive the proceeds of the policy in the event of the policyholder’s demise.

Yes. You as the life insurance policy holder can change your nomination any time before the date of maturity of the policy.

Yes, a minor can be the nominee of a policy. However, he or she must have a legal guardian in the form of an appointee.

A claim refers to a formal request to an insurance company asking for a payment based on the terms of the insurance policy. Insurance claims are reviewed by the company for their validity and then paid out to the insured or requesting party (on behalf of the insured) once approved. The payment is made in return for the premiums paid by the insured, however different policies would have terms of payout and the specific details need to be read and understood from the policy related documents or the sales representative before purchasing the policy.

Yes. The premium paid on the insurance policy is mainly dependent on the age of the policy holder and the tenure of the policy. The younger the policy holder, the lower is the amount of insurance premium. 

Health insurance refers to protection against the costs of hospital and medical care or lost income arising from an illness or injury.

In an insurance application form, you are required to provide various details, including the details of any illnesses that you may have or may have suffered from until the time of completing the application. Such disclosures are very important, as if it is found that your responses in the form have been misleading, you and your nominee could lose the benefits of the policy. 

No. HSBC offers insurance products in the capacity of a corporate agent on behalf of the insurance company. The guarantee, if any, under your policy is provided by the insurance company. If your insurance policy offers any guarantees, they would be mentioned in the sales literature or benefit illustration issued by the insurance company.

The risk of an insurance product would depend on the type of product. Largely insurance products are of two types and the associated risks are stated broadly. You need to read the insurance documents to understand the related risks in depth:

ULIP: In these plans the investment risk is borne entirely by the policyholder, these product offers various fund options from low risk to high risk, one needs to understand the risk involved in the funds and one’s own risk appetite before deciding to invest in ULIPs.

Traditional: The investment risk in traditional life insurance policies is borne by the insurer. The investment guidelines are regulated by Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority (IRDA) with an objective to provide stable returns with low risk.

The bank also review the risks associated with all insurance products and assigns a risk rating^* to each product and its underlying investment funds. You may refer to HSBC’s Insurance Product Risk Ratings^* document for further details on these risk ratings: www.hsbc.co.in/insurance/

^*Insurance Product Risk Rating is an internal HSBC classification and does not represent the insurance company’s risk rating of their products or underlying funds

The different types of fees and charges levied under ULIPs are given below.

• Premium Allocation Charge is a percentage of the premium received and is charged at the time of receipt of the premium.
• Mortality Charge is levied on a monthly basis by way of cancellation of Units at the beginning of each month.
• Fund Management Fee is expressed as a percentage of Fund Value and is levied at the time of computation of the NAV by adjusting the Unit Price.
• Policy Administration Charge is expressed as a percentage of premiums and is charged on a monthly basis during the Policy Term by cancellation of Units.
• Partial Withdrawal Charge is deducted from the Fund Value by cancellation of Units at the time of partial withdrawals.
• Surrender/Discontinuance Charge is expressed as a percentage of the Fund Value/annual premium.
• Switching harge is levied on switching of Units from one Unit Linked Fund to another.
• Miscellaneous Charge: The actual medical expenses, if any incurred in case of increase in Sum Assured will be recovered by the Insurer by cancellation of units from the Policy

You can know the charges applicable on your ULIP via:

• Benefit illustration: A Benefit illustration demonstrates various charges, year by year, for the term of the plan so that you know exactly how much money is deducted as charges and what is invested.
• Sales Brochure: The sales literature informs you about the various charges and the rationale for these charges
• Key Features Document (KFD): This is the bank’s internal document that carries the product features and various charges applicable to the product.
  

You can pay your first and renewal premium through a host of options. Premiums can be paid by any of the below methods:

• Cheque
• Demand Draft
• Standing Instruction(SI)/Electronic Clearing Service(ECS) {Bank Account & Credit Card}
• Online payment
• Interactive Voice Response (IVR) facility offered by the insurance company Credit card at insurance company offices

You will receive an annual statement showing details of your policy and the progress of your investments. Daily unit prices of the investment funds are available at www.canarahsbclife.com. Moreover, you can manage your insurance policy by registering on the customer portal on the above mentioned website. 

As policyholder, you can evaluate the insurance policy and opt out if you are not satisfied with any conditions/features mentioned in the policy, within 15 days from the date of receipt of policy document. The Insurer will return the premium paid by you less the expenses incurred for paying stamp duty, cost of medical tests (if any) and pro-rated mortality charge during this period. 

The surrender value differs based on the nature and the terms of the policy. It is also dependent on the time within which you wish to surrender the policy. These details are mentioned in the insurance related documents, or you can also enquire the same with the sales representative before purchasing the policy. The Linked Insurance Products do not offer any liquidity during the first five years of the contract. The policyholder will not be able to withdraw the monies invested in Linked insurance Products completely or partially till the end of the fifth year. Even in case of surrender before five years, the policyholder will be able to withdraw the proceeds only at the end of fifth year. 

All account holders

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