HDFC Life ProGrowth Plus

Overview

A unit linked insurance plan offering life insurance coverage and options to invest in different funds based on the risk appetite of the policyholder. In addition to the life cover that the plan provides, it offers a choice of funds that can steadily add to the growth of investment. This is a regular premium paying plan meant for people wishing to build a corpus through investing their annual savings in mutual funds.

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Eligibility Conditions for HDFC Life ProGrowth Plus Plan

The plan comes with two options and as per those, the eligibility conditions for availing this policy can be depicted in the table mentioned below -

Parameter	Minimum	Maximum
Policy Term (Years)	10	30
Entry Age Life Option	14 years	65 years
Entry Age Extra Life Option	18 years	55 years
Maturity Age Life Option	N/A	75 years
Maturity Age Extra Life Option	N/A	70 years

Key Features of HDFC ProGrowth Plus Plan

This plan meant for wealth creation has the following salient features -

Parameters	Details
Plan Type	Unit-linked insurance plan
Basis	Individual policy
Policy Term	10 years to 30 years
Policy Validity	Will be for the chosen policy term in case all premiums have been paid
Basic Sum Assured		Minimum	Maximum
	Age < 45 years	Greater of 10x annualised premium or half the product of annualised premium times policy term	40 times the annualised premium subject to a maximum of Rs. 40,00,000
	Age >= 45 years	Greater of 7x annualised premium or a quarter of the product of annualised premium times policy term
Coverage	Maturity Benefit = Fund value of all balance units at the end of the policy term.
	Death Benefit	Before insured life reaches 60 years	On or after insured life reaching 60 years
		Greater of Sum Assured (minus withdrawals made for 2 years preceding death, Total Fund Value, 105% of the premiums paid	Greater of Sum Assured (minus withdrawals after the age of 58), Total Fund Value, 105% of the premiums paid
	Accidental Death Benefit = Death Benefit + Additional Sum Assured
	Surrender Benefit	Before completion of 5 years	After completion of 5 years
		Fund value minus discontinuation charges moved to Discontinued Policy Fund and paid out with accrued interest after 5 years’ completion	Fund value paid out immediately
Free look Period	30 days in case of online purchase. 15 days otherwise
Grace Period	15 days for monthly payment, 30 days for all other premium payment frequencies
Partial Withdrawals	Allowed after a period of 5 policy years, provided the following terms are met - Life assured is 18 years old or more The withdrawal amount is Rs. 10,000 or more Less the withdrawal value and associated charges, the fund value is not less than 150% of the annualized premium Maximum withdrawal throughout the policy term is subject to 300% of the original regular annualized premium
Fund Choice Selection	Is allowed through - Switching - Moving accumulated funds from one fund to another Premium Redirection - Changing the premium allocation into a different set of funds
Settlement Option	Allows the Maturity Benefit to be availed in installments over a period of five years
Nomination and Assignment	Nomination and assignment facility available but only one can be chosen at a time
Reinstatement or revival	Policy, if not surrendered, can be revived within two years from the date of last unpaid premium

Benefits and Advantages of ProGrowth Plus Plan

This plan from HDFC Life utilizes different investment funds in order to aid in the growth of wealth and can be opted for by anyone aiming to garner greater returns on planned savings. Life insurance provided by this policy throughout the policy term is an added benefit. The key advantages in opting for this plan can be mentioned in the following points -

Life cover is present throughout the policy term
Flexible long term policy tenures for an investment portfolio with variable risk and returns
Applicable tax benefits can be availed as per Section 80C and 10(10D) of the Income Tax Act
Multiple fund options and unlimited switches to and from different fund options

The key benefits under this policy can be explained as below -

Maturity Benefit - Paid once the policy reaches the maturity age, after the completion of the policy term, this amount can be paid to the policyholder or nominee. This amount includes the fund value of all the balance units in the account
Death Benefit - In case of the death of the insured life, Death Benefit will be payable to the nominee. This will be less the withdrawals made by the policyholder made 2 years prior to the date of death or post 58 years of age as the case may be
Accidental Death Benefit - In case of an accidental death, the nominee would receive an additional sum assured along with the death benefit that is applicable
Surrender Benefit - Policy has a lock-in period of 5 years. If surrendered within the lock-in period, funds move to Discontinuance Policy Fund and get paid after 5 years are complete. In case surrender is done after 5 years, fund value is paid out immediately
Tax Benefit - The contributions made towards the premiums of this policy can be tax deductible as per Section 80C and the received benefits can fall under Section 10(10D). Though these benefits are dependent on the prevailing tax laws

Investment of Funds under HDFC Life ProGrowth Plus

This unit-linked plan from HDFC Life come with four fund options that offer a variable mix of risk and return. The premiums paid could be used over all of the fund options, a specific few as chosen by the policyholder or even in a single one. The details about such funds have been mentioned in the table below -

Fund Name	Details	Asset Categories				Risk and Return Rating
		Money Market Instruments, Cash & Deposits	Liquid Mutual Funds	Govt. Securities, Fixed Income instruments & Bonds	Equity
		Fund Ratios
Income Fund	Potentially higher returns	0-20%		80-100%	N/A	Moderate
Balanced Fund	Dynamically higher returns	0-20%		0-60%	40-80%	Moderate to High
Blue Chip Fund	Large-cap equities	0-20%		N/A	80-100%	Very High
Opportunities Fund	Mid-cap equities	0-20%		N/A	80-100%	Very High

Charges in HDFC ProGrowth Plus Policy

Being an insurance plan that relies on various funds to generate wealth on the investment made, the policy entails charges on quite a few aspects of itself. The applicable charges on this policy are as follows -

Charge	Particulars
Premium Allocation Charge	On Premium paid - 2.5% for Year 1, 2% for Year 2, 0% for Year 3 onwards
Fund Management Charge	1.35% per annum of fund value, chargeable daily
Policy Administration Charge	On annualised premium per month - 0.42% for Years 1-5, 0.83% for Years 6-10, 0% for Years 11-15 and 0.83% for Year 16 onwards
Mortality Charge	Dependent on policyholder’s age and level of cover
Miscellaneous Charges	Rs. 250 for policy alteration
Partial Withdrawal Charges	Rs. 250 per request, Rs. 25 per request if made online
Switching Charges	Rs. 250 per request, Rs. 25 per request if made online
Premium Redirection	Rs. 250 per request, Rs. 25 per request if made online
Policy Discontinuance Charge (calculated on Annual Premium or Fund Value (APFV) and for the first four years only, zero from fifth year onwards)	Annual Premium <= Rs. 25,000	Annual Premium > Rs. 25,000
	Lower of 20% of APFV <= Rs. 3000	Lower of 6% of APFV <= Rs. 6000
	Lower of 15% of APFV <= Rs. 2000	Lower of 4% of APFV <= Rs. 5000
	Lower of 10% of APFV <= Rs. 1500	Lower of 3% of APFV <= Rs. 4000
	Lower of 5% of APFV <= Rs. 1000	Lower of 2% of APFV <= Rs. 2000

Premium Payment for HDFC Life ProGrowth Plus Policy

The details of premium payment for this plan can be summarised in the table below -

Premium Parameter	Details
Premiums	Rs. 24,000, Rs. 10,000 and Rs. 2500 are the minimum limits and Rs. 1,00,000, Rs. 50,000 and Rs. 8333 are the maximum limits on the yearly, half-yearly and monthly modes of payment respectively
Premium Paying Term (PPT)	Regular premium payment term and is equal to the policy term
Premium Paying Frequency	Premiums can be paid in monthly, half-yearly and annual frequencies
Premium Paying Modes	ECS, debit cards, credit cards, cheques and other acceptable modes

Premium Discontinuation Scenario for ProGrowth Plus

Post the mentioned grace period, if in case premiums for the policy are not paid and the policy lapses, the risk cover will cease to exist after the policy discontinuation and the fund value (as on the date of policy discontinuance) minus the discontinuance charge will be shifted into a Discontinued Policy Fund and the interest rate applicable on this fund is 4% per annum as of September 2015. This fund shall attract an FMC of 0.50% per annum. If this scenario happens within the first five policy years, the funds shall be paid out at the end of the lock-in period of five years. If the discontinuance happens after 5 policy years, one can convert the policy into a paid-up policy or ask for a time extension of up to 2 years to revive the policy, else one can withdraw from the policy without any risk cover and the fund value will be paid out immediately.

GST of 18% is applicable on life insurance effective from the 1st of July, 2017

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