Revival of lapsed Life insurance policy
One of the most important steps to ensure that your policy remains active is to pay the premium continuously. However, if your policy has lapsed due to any unavoidable reason, you must make sure to revive it at the earliest to continue enjoying life cover uninterrupted. Here is how you can revive your lapsed insurance policy under following schemes-
Schemes to Revive Lapsed Insurance Policy-
The following are the schemes which you can use to revive your lapsed life insurance policy:
Ordinary/Simple Revival Scheme
Under this revival scheme, a policyholder is required to pay all the unpaid premiums along with the interests. They may also be asked to submit Form No. 680 or Declaration of good health, along with a medical report to their insurer to revive their policy.
Revival on Non-Medical Basis
To revive your policy on a non-medical ground, the revival amount should not be more than the prescribed limit for getting non-medical assurance by the life assured.
Revival on Medical Basis
If in the case, your policy is not eligible for revival under the ordinary or non-medical basis, it will be eligible for revival with medical requirements that are decided according to the revival amount.
Special Revival Scheme
This scheme can be availed if the insured person is unable to pay the premium in a lump sum. Such a scheme allows the policyholder to revive their policy by shifting the original date of commencement and pay a single premium according to the age at the time of revival. However, there are certain conditions that need to be fulfilled to revive your policy under the special revival scheme:
- This type of policy revival can only be availed once at the end of the policy term.
- This revival scheme can be availed within 3 years of the policy lapsing.
- The Special Revival scheme can only be used for policies in which there is no surrender value. This scheme must be availed within 3 years from the policy commencement date.
Installment Revival Scheme
If the policyholder cannot pay all the due premiums in a lump sum and is not eligible for the Special Revival scheme, then they can opt for the Installment Revival scheme. Payment of due premiums under this scheme can be made by paying-
- Half of the annual premium (for policies with yearly premium payment mode)
- One half-yearly premium amount (for policies with half-yearly premium payment mode)
- Amount of 2 quarterly premiums (For policies with quarterly premium payment mode)
- Amount of 6 monthly premiums (for policies with the monthly mode of premium payment)
The remainder of the unpaid premium must be paid in installments for 3 years, in addition to the regular premium payments.
Survival Benefit Cum Revival Scheme
This revival scheme has been introduced for money-back policies. If the date on which the survival benefit is due comes before the in-line policy renewal date, the policyholder has the option to use their policy survival benefit to revive their lapsed policy. The policyholder needs to make the extra payment if the revival amount exceeds the benefit amount.
Loan Cum Revival Scheme
The policyholder can also opt for a loan cum revival scheme to revive their policy. Under this scheme, the policy can be revived with the help of a policy loan, if the policy has acquired a surrender value by the revival date. The loan can be taken by the policyholder depending on the number of premiums paid till the revival date. If the revival amount falls short of the amount procured with the loan, the policyholder needs to bear the extra payment. If the loan amount exceeds the revival amount, then the extra amount will be returned to the policyholder.
Things to Remember Before Reviving Your Policy
You can easily revive your policy by keeping in mind the following factors-
Duration
The revival of the lapsed policy can only be done if it has not crossed a specific duration from the lapsation date of the policy. In general, insurers give two years to policyholders to revive their policy. This revival period may vary based on the plan and the insurer.
Health records
Depending on the age of the insured and the sum assured under the policy, a declaration of good health needs to be submitted. If the policyholder has a medical history and has been undergoing certain treatment for a long duration, then, in that case, your insurer may ask you to submit the medical reports or to undergo medical screening before reviving your policy.
Visit insurer branch
The policyholder needs to visit their insurer's branch to get a revival quote. The revival quote will be a sum of all premiums due on the policy. The whole amount needs to be paid to the insurance company by the insured along with the interest to get a policy revival.
Considerable fines
The insurer may also charge some fines/penalties for reviving your policy. It depends on the sum assured and the period after the policy gets lapsed.
Availability of concessions
The life insurance companies also offer various discounts/concessions on the penalty levied when you are reviving your policy based on certain terms and conditions set by the company from time to time.
Bottom line
It is advisable to revive your lapsed policy at the earliest possible if you want to avail of all the policy benefits. You can follow the above-mentioned approaches to revive your policy if it has lapsed.
