Getting Money Back From Insurers Made Easy—Key Points To Remember

There are thousands of crores of rupees of policyholders lying with insurance companies as these have not been claimed on maturity or at the completion of the policies. It is important to ensure that such a situation does not occur with you, and that any amount due to you on maturity of the policy is claimed. There are several reasons for the money getting stuck, but here are a few steps to ensure the chances of this are reduced. 

Insurance companies send an intimation to the policyholder before the maturity of their policy, and this is often done multiple times. Any intimation that comes from the insurance company should not be ignored as not being important. This will have the key to claim the amount due because the process and other details that need to be completed will be mentioned in the intimation. Going through any such intimations can be the first step that sets the policyholder on the way to claiming the amount and, hence, this should be given due attention. 

One of the main reasons why several policies and their amounts are stuck or not returned to the policyholder is the fact that bank details are not available with insurance companies. The amount at maturity of the policy is paid directly into the bank account of the policyholder or their nominees in case of death. The absence of bank details means the insurance company cannot proceed with any return of the amount till the time necessary details have been updated. Therefore, its imperative to update bank details and, more importantly, to do so correctly.

Every policy holder needs to ensure they have details of their policy with them. This includes the premium payment schedule as well as the maturity period in case of a traditional policy or unit-linked insurance policy. This will help the policy-holder to take the necessary action at the appropriate time. In many cases, the individual themselves do not know the details of their own policies and, hence, they are unable to claim them. Having the details handy might seem to be a tough task at the initial stage, but this is the starting point of the entire process of claiming the money back.  

A step that can also help an individual in their efforts to keep their details updated as well as claim any amount that is due to them is through the use of an intermediary or an agent through whom they took the policy. The agent or the bank that facilitated purchase of the policy will have details of the policy and, hence, getting in touch with them for the purpose of getting their money is a vital part. This will make the individual's task easier because the intermediary can be a big help as they can also guide the policy-holder on steps to be taken, and how they can overcome any obstacles along the way.  

Arnav Pandya is founder Moneyeduschool.