Postal Life Insurance (PLI) – Customer Guide

Welcome to the PLI family. This guide has been designed for your comfort. A Postal life insurance policy is a long term relationship. During this long period you will have number of interactions with PLI. A life insurance contract has several features which need explanation. While the Policy bond given to you covers the contractual issues, you need a guide, written in simple language, that highlights some important facts about your PLI Policy. (i). Policy Bond and its safety: The policy bond is the most important document during the life of a policy. This is a document which will be called for in connection with various servicing events including the settlement of claims. The first thing you should do after receiving the bond is to keep the same in a safe place and please do not forget to inform your near and dear ones about where this bond has been kept. (ii). Policy Number: Please look at the Policy Bond again. There is a 6 digit number called Policy number. This is a unique number that identifies the policy. In any correspondence related to servicing of the policy you have to quote this number. So we would advise you to note down this number in your diary. While paying premium through cheque, Policy number must be quoted on the back of the cheque. (iii). Payment of premium: The premium payment is the most important and most frequent event in the life time of a Policy and you must not forget to pay premium in time. Failure to pay premium in time results into lapsation of policy which means the life cover will not be available to you. * There are concessions on this under certain conditions. However, generally, the life risk is not covered during lapsation period. Also, delay in payment of premium invites late fee. The premium must be paid in advance on the first day of the each month. However, grace period is allowed upto the last working day of the month. Please note from the Policy Bond, the date of commencement of the policy, due date and mode of payment of premium. Mode of payment means the frequency i.e. yearly, half-yearly, quarterly, monthly etc. Based on these information, you can draw a chart of due dates for premium payment in your diary. For example, if the date of commencement is 20 June, 2008 and mode is Qly, the due dates will be 1st June, 1st September, 1st December, 1st March. Please note these dates and the premium amount against the Policy number in your diary. You are a responsible person and surely you will not forget to pay your premia in time. However, just to help you remember this most important information, we shall be sending a premium notice. Please note that you need not wait for the notice as it is not mandatory to produce the premium notice in the counter. Primarily, it will be your responsibility to remember to pay premium in time. (iv)A. For Payment of Premium through deduction from pay: Please check from time to time that your employer is regularly remitting the premium deducted from your salary to PLI. Any lapse or delay in remittance will be against your interest, as this may result in loss of Insurance cover. One should not miss the Insurance cover even for a brief period. Please check your salary slip regularly to ensure that the PLI premium has been deducted. If your services are transferred, please find out from your new office, the location of the PLI office where your PLI Premium will be sent. Please inform the old PLI office that now onwards your premium will be remitted to xxx office of PLI. [ xxx is the new PLI office]. This is important. Your permanent address/e-mail id / mobile no helps us to contact you, even when your services are frequently transferred. (v) How and where to pay the premium: We all know that different individuals have different choices. Some love to come to PLI/ nearest post office and some others would not like to stand in a queue. Keeping this in mind, we have tried to provide facilities for all types of customers. If you are one of those who would feel comfortable to pay across the counter, let us inform you that you can do so in any post office. (vi)A. Transfer of Policy Your policy can be transferred to any where in India on account of your job transfer. The premium payment can be made in cash, local cheque or Demand Draft. One can send Demand Draft/Cheque/Money Order also. (vii) Your address: Next important thing to remember is that your address and telephone no. is the most important information about you. Our policy is to send the claim cheque on or before the due date of maturity. Often, despite our best efforts we fail to send a claim cheque before the maturity date just because the policyholder has forgotten to inform the change of address. Would you please remember to inform the post office about the change of address whenever that happens? Please check up whether your address has been correctly printed in the policy schedule. (viii) Nomination: We all know the ultimate purpose of buying a life insurance policy and it is extremely important that your policy should have a nominee. We are sad to see at times unfortunate delay in death claim settlement just because the nomination was not made. As a responsible person you will surely nominate someone, preferably a near and dear one from your family, if not already done. Please check up whether your nominee’s name is appearing correctly in the policy schedule. Nomination can be done/changed at any point of time. However, if you assign your Policy [say, to a bank, to get loan], the nomination gets automatically cancelled. On reassignment, ownership of the Policy comes back to you, but the old nomination does not automatically get revived. You have to, in such cases, nominate afresh. The insurant is advised to nominate the person to whom the claim amount shall be payable in the event of his/her death. In the case of minor nominee, name and consert of the appointee (guardian) who may receive the said amount of behalf the minor must be given. In the event of the death of the nominee before the death of the insurant, change in nomination must be registered with the office of Chief Postmaster General (PLI). (ix) Lapsing of Policy:  The policy shall be treated as lapsed in case you fail to pay the premium/premia that has/have become due. Incase of policies of less than three years duration, if more than six premia are not paid, the policy lapses. In case of policies of more than three years duration, if more than twelve premia are not paid, the policy lapses. (x) Reinstatement of Policy: We would like that in the unfortunate event of your policy lapsing, you should immediately get the same reinstated. For automatic reinstatement of your policy within a period not later than six months or a period not later than 12 months from the date the first unpaid premium had become due in respect of such policies that have not completed 3 years, or in respect of such policies that have already completed 3 years from the date of acceptance respectively, he/she may deposit all the arrears of premium/premia till that date of such payment along with interest thereon at the rates prescribed by Director General of Posts in the specified Post Office. You should inform the Chief Postmaster General to this effect through the said Post Office along with certificate of continued good health in the prescribed proforma to be signed by you and a certificate from your employer certifying that you had not taken any leave on medical grounds during said period. (xi) Revival of discontinued Policy: In the case of such policies which have lapsed and are time barred for automatic reinstatement, you may apply for revival of policy to the Chief Postmaster General before the policy has matured subject to payment of all the arrears of premia with interest thereon and further subject to production of a certificate from an authorised Medical Examiner certifying that the life assured is insurable having regard to your health and habits and of evidence to show that there has been no change in your personal or family history or your occupation as also a certificate from your employer, if employed; certifying that you had not taken any leave on medical grounds during the last one year, or during the entire period of service or from the date the first unpaid premium had become due whichever is the least. The policy shall not be treated as revived unless the Chief Postmaster General has satisfied himself and has permitted such revival in writing. (xii) Loan: Loan will be granted on the security of Endowment Assurance Policy if the Policy has been in force for at least 3 years, and is otherwise unencumbered and has acquired a minimum surrender value of Rs. 1000/- Subsequent loans are also permissible subject to fulfilling conditions prescribed. (xiii) Insurance on minor lives: If the life assured is a minor, important thing to remember is that nomination should be effected on attaining majority (18 years). (xiv) Enquiries: Enquiries can be specific to your policy or of a general nature. Information of the general nature is available in any Post Office. They are also available on our websitewww.indiapost.gov.in. We have Info centres in many cities [list given] which operate from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Friday and from 09.30 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. on Monday to Friday. (xv). Grievances: We shall be trying our best to keep you satisfied but if unfortunately at any point of time you are unhappy about our services you must let us know. The best place again is the post office which services the policy. You can contact them through telephone or write to them or even visit them. However, you can also use the internet by visiting www.indiapost.gov.in. / e-mail pli.dte@gmail.comwhere we have a facility to register your complaints. Wherever you are, if the complaint is registered through internet, the same will be reaching the PLI office immediately. (xvi) Contact: We shall be happy to note your telephone number and email id as they supplement your postal address, if you have no reservation about sharing the same with us. We would request you to inform the same to the servicing post office so that they can take a note of it. This will help in serving you better. (xvii) Survival Benfits: Please check your Policy schedule [1st page] to see whether periodic Claim payments are due to you. If so, please note down the due dates. In case you have not received the payment by the due date, get in touch with the Post Office. Sl. No. My PLI checklist Tick here 1 I have kept the Policy bond in a safe place 2 I have informed someone as to where the bond is kept 3 I have checked the Policy schedule in the 1st page 4 I have noted the policy number in my diary along with due dates and Premium amount 5 I have noted the Post office Phone number in my diary 6 I have noted details of PLI INFO Center 7 I have understood that in my own interest I should keep PLI informed about my Change in address, phone number, e-mail-id. 8 I have noted that I should pay premium even if I have not received the notice 9 I have a nominee under this Policy Thank you. We look forward to a long and pleasant relationship. Source : http://www.postallifeinsurance.gov.in/