I retired in June 2010. On the recommendation of a colleague, I invested around Rs 4 lakh in the LIC Market Plus policy. What is the lock-in period of this policy? Should I stay invested in it?
-KK Madan
Unfortunately for you, the period between June 2010 and now hasn’t seen the markets giving any kind of substantial returns. LIC Market Plus is a market-linked scheme, which will generate returns when the markets do well. However, we don’t recommend ULIPs of this kind to investors because we believe that insurance and investment shouldn’t be mixed. Post-retirement, if you don’t have dependants, your need for life insurance comes down drastically. Hence, you should evaluate your insurance needs first and invest separately for your income requirements.
Since you bought this policy in 2010, it is an older ULIP, which means that you should keep investing for the first 3 years or your money will stand to get forfeited. The surrender charges will come down after 5 years, which is when you can redeem your investments from the policy.
This article was originally published on February 22, 2013.
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