PFW Bureau / Dec 25

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance has launched LifeStage Pension Plan, a unique unit linked retirement plan, on Monday. The new plan has no premium allocation charge for regular premiums, which means 100% of the investors' money is invested in the market.

The company in a statement said that the plan also combines the benefits of automatic asset allocation and quarterly rebalancing along with capital preservation at maturity. This is to ensure investors that their savings towards creating a retirement kitty are managed appropriately, taking into account their risk appetite.

Other unique features of LifeStage Pension Plan include flexibility of choosing retirement age along with 5 annuity options, tax-free commutation to upto one-third of the accumulated value on retirement date and tax benefits on the premium paid u/s 80 CCC.  

Bhargav Dasgupta, executive director, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, said, "It is critical that individuals have a long-term vision, while they create their retirement kitty. They must ensure that their investments have a proper mix of equity and debt elements based on their risk appetite, which will help create a healthy retirement kitty for them.

LifeStage Pension Plan with its unique features of automatic asset allocation, quarterly rebalancing and capital preservation at maturity ensures that investors can save towards their retirement, while taking advantage of India's successful market scenario."

Key benefits of LifeStage Pension:

-  No premium allocation charges
-  100 % allocation
-   Automatic asset allocation under lifecycle strategy
-   Quarterly re-balancing under lifecycle strategy
-    Capital preservation on vesting under lifecycle strategy
-    Switch option between funds under fixed strategy
-     Change in portfolio strategy
-     Top-ups
-     Flexible retirement date
-     Death benefit
-     Cover continuation option
-      Receive annuity through Annuity Card
-      Five different options of receiving annuity

LifeStage Pension Plan works in two phases:

• Accumulation Phase: Investors pay regular premiums towards the policy and accumulate savings towards their retirement
• Annuity Phase: Investors receive their pension from the accumulated amount as per the chosen pension option

LifeStage Pension Plan follows two unique portfolio strategies:

• Lifecycle-based Portfolio: Here the company ensures the benefits of automatic asset allocation, quarterly rebalancing and capital preservation are provided to the investor.
• Fixed Portfolio: This enables the investor to be in-charge of his investments in the plan and allocate the investments in different classes of funds, based on his/her personal judgment. Other benefits of the strategy include switching between funds, change portfolio strategy and top-ups among others.

Investors can chose to receive their annuity (pension) either monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly, either in their bank account or also through ICICI Prudential Life's Annuity Card.