HDFC Life’s Click2Protect Plus – Features, Benefits & Review

HDFC Life’s Click2Protect Plus is an Online Term Insurance Product. The main feature of this plan is to provide financial protection for you and your family. It has unique features which are not available in most of the online term insurance plans. Let us understand its features and benefits.

Eligibility conditions of Click 2 Protect Plus are:

• Minimum entry Age – 18 years
• Maximum entry Age – 65 years
• Minimum Sum Assured – Rs 25 Lakhs
• Maximum Sum Assured – No limit
• Maximum maturity Age – 75 years
• Minimum policy term – 10 years
• Maximum policy term – 40 years (subject to Maximum maturity age)
• Premium payment options – Regular pay (monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and yearly), Limited pay (Premium payment Term = Policy Term – 5 years) and Single pay.
  

Features of HDFC Life’s Click2Protect Plus :

This term policy provides you with four cover options:

1) Life Option (Death Benefit under this plan)

In the unfortunate event of death of the life assured during the policy term, the nominee will receive the death benefit as below. (Death benefit is called as ‘Life Option’ under this plan).

• For Single Premium pay policy : Death benefit is higher of 125% of Single premium (OR) Sum Assured.
• Other than Single Premium Policies : Death benefit is higher of 10 times of the premium (OR) 105% of all the premiums paid as on death (OR) Sum Assured

Let us now understand the very unique features of Click2Protect Plus plan.

 2) Extra Life Option

If the policyholder chooses this option then the Death Benefit as specified above shall be payable in the form of a lump sum and an additional benefit equal to the Sum Assured shall be payable in case of accidental death.

3) Income Option

If the policyholder chooses this option then the Death Benefit as specified above is paid to the nominee in the following manner:

• 10% of the Death Benefit paid as a lump sum upon death
• Remaining 90% of the Death Benefit shall be paid as monthly income over next 15 years (0.5% of Death Benefit every month for 15 years)

4) Income Plus Option

If the policyholder chooses this option then the Death Benefit as specified above is paid to the nominee in the following manner:

• 100% of the Death Benefit specified above shall be paid as a lump sum upon death
• In addition, a monthly income equal to 0.5% of the Sum Assured shall be payable for a period of 10 years.The monthly income can be level or increasing at 10% p.a. as chosen by the policyholder.

Different Scenarios with examples:

Let us understand these options with examples.

Case 1 – Mr Rahul (30 years of age) buys this plan with a Sum Assured of Rs 1 crore. He has opted for Life option only. Unfortunately he dies in an accident. What is the death benefit ?

In this case, his nominee will get Rs 1 crore as the death benefit.

Case 2 – Mr Rahul (30 years of age) buys this plan with a Sum Assured of Rs 1 crore. He has opted for Life option and Extra Life Option. Unfortunately he dies in an accident. What is the death benefit ?

In this case, his nominee will get death benefit of Rs 2 crore. If death happens due to any other reason then his nominee would get Rs 1 crore only.

Case 3 – Mr Raj (28 years of age) buys this plan with a Sum Assured of Rs 1 crore. He has opted for Income option of the plan. Unfortunately he dies due to heart attack . What is the death benefit in this case?

In this case, his nominee will immediately get Rs 10 Lakh as lump sum payment. And the remaining Rs 90 Lakh is paid as monthly income for the next 15 years. The equal monthly payment is Rs 50,000.

Case 4 – Mr Raj (28 years of age) buys this plan with a Sum Assured of Rs 1 crore. He has opted for Income Plus option of the plan. He has also opted for ‘equal monthly income’ option under Income Plus. Unfortunately he dies due to heart attack . What is the death benefit in this case?

In this case, his nominee will immediately get Rs 1 crore lump sum payment. In addition to this, the equal monthly payment of Rs 50,000 pm is also paid for next 10 years.

Case 5 – Mr Ram (28 years of age) buys this plan with a Sum Assured of Rs 1 crore. He has opted for Income Plus option of the plan. He has also opted for ‘increasing monthly income’ option under Income Plus. Unfortunately he dies due to illness . What is the death benefit in this case?

In this case, his nominee will immediately get Rs 1 crore as lump sum. Also, the monthly payment of Rs 50,000 pm is paid in the first year. The monthly income increases at the rate of 10% pa for the next 10 years.

‘Life Stage Protection’ Feature:

This plan has another unique feature.

The proposer can choose the Life stage Protection option under Life option upon payment of an additional premium. The sum assured amount will be increased on the occurrence of key events in your life. The premiums will be recalculated based on your increased sum assured and outstanding policy term.No additional Medical tests are required.

This feature will be available only for a six month period from the date of the event and provided the insured person is less than 45 years of age at the time of opting for this feature.This feature is available only for regular premium paying policies and not for limited premium paying or single premium policies.

There is also an option to ‘Reduce the Additional Sum Assured” which the policyholder had opted under life stage protection. With age as your income is on a rise and as your children become independent, you may realize that you don’t need additional Insurance cover anymore. This plans offers the flexibility to reduce the additional insurance cover after attaining the age of 45 years. Your Sum Assured will be reset to the original Sum Assured at inception. Your premium will be recalculated based on revised sum assured for the remainder of the premium paying term.

Illustration of HDFC Life’s Click2Protect Plus

Mr Praful (26 years old) buys HDFC Life Click 2 Protect Plus with Sum Assured of Rs.1 Cr. The policy term is 35 years.He gets married in his 28^th year. He opts for the Life Stage Protection Option. He becomes a father after 2 years of marriage and opts to increase his cover. In his 55^th year, he decides to reduce the additional sum assured.

Indicative Premium quotations with different combinations

(Click on the image to enlarge it)

Important points to ponder upon

• The applicable premiums under Life Option are very competitively priced.
• Even though the premium amounts under Income Option are low, the company keeps 90% of the death benefit with itself. It does not pay any interest on this amount. Only equated monthly income is paid every month.
• It is more advantageous if this 90% amount is invested in a Bank Deposit than to keep it with the company. Assuming interest rate @ 9% and 7% as the average inflation rate. But, Nominee should be competent enough to manage the funds.
• As with the case of many online term insurance plans, in this plan also Critical Illness (or) Total Permanent Disability riders are not available.  Only Accident Death benefit rider is available. If someone is looking for a comprehensive Term insurance with all these riders then it is better to buy offline products. SBI Life’s – Smart shield is one the best plans.
• “Income Option plus” is surely worth considering. Especially the increasing monthly income option.
• Life Stage Protection feature is available under Life Option only. Life option with this feature is a good combination. But only thing is that the premium amount will not remain constant.
  

Overall HDFC Life’s Click2Protect Plus is a good product. You may consider buying the plan with Life option (or) Income plus options.

Latest Update :

• You can now customize Click2Protect Plus plan by opting additional rider ‘HDFC Life Income Benefit on Accidental Disability Rider‘ that offers monthly Income of 1% of rider Sum Assured in the event of Total Permanent Disability due to accident for a fixed period of 10 years.
• You can also add Critical Illness rider by opting for ‘HDFC Life Critical Illness Plus Rider‘ that provides Rider Sum Assured in case diagnosed with any of the 19 Critical Illnesses.

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