• It is not possible to negotiate the basic premium rates offered by insurance companies. However, keeping the following points in mind, you can surely reduce the costs incurred on premiums.

• Mode of Premium payment as annual: Choosing the annual mode of payment reduces the premium cost. Insurance companies add extra charges to cover additional costs incurred by them if you pay multiple premium rather of single yearly premium. These additional charges increase insurance cost thus ultimately increasing your premium amount.

• Start at a young age: The premium of the insurance plans increases with age. At a young age, you are medically fit and physically sound. This helps in reducing the insurance cost and in turn reduces your premium amount.

• Tenure of the policy: The longer the term of the policy, lower will be the premium. Longer duration polices allow you to build the required corpus with smaller premiums.

• Do not take riders that you do not need: Additional benefits on policies come with additional charges and increase your cost of premium. You can lower premium costs by opting only for those riders that you actually need.

• Keep yourself Fit: Health related issues, Disability problems, Smoking and drinking habits, risky lifestyle all add to the insurance cost thus increasing insurance premium. Keep yourself healthy and fit to get the benefit of lower insurance premiums.

Insurance Myths

• Insurance is for saving tax: Saving tax is just an added advantage of insurance policy; the main objective of insurance is to provide protection to you and your family and to build an assured corpus for your future needs.

• Insurance will benefit only after my death: Insurance polices provide protection to you and your family. One of the main objectives of taking insurance is to provide financial cushion to your family in case you are not around but it's not the only objective. Insurance helps you to build a corpus for yourself; provides you with comfortable retired life and even takes care of your lengthy medical bills.

• My group insurance is adequate: Your group insurance might be adequate but what if you change the job? Once you change the job your group insurance will cancel off and you will not get any insurance benefit. So it is always advisable to take insurance other than the insurance offered by your employer.

• Only the Breadwinner of the family needs insurance: Every family member needs insurance. Your work profile changes the insurance needs but certainly does not eliminate them.

• I'm single and don't have any dependents, therefore I don't need any coverage: You might not need a life insurance policy where your nominee is taken care of but you certainly need a policy to take care of your health and retirement worries.

• Life insurance is far more important than health coverage: As the health costs are increasing by the day, taking a health insurance plan has become as important as a life coverage plan. Health plans, disability plans and critical illness plans provide you with financial cushion and compensate for the financial loss you suffer in case you are not able to work because of illness. If life insurance plan secures the future of your loved ones then health coverage plan secure your own future.