Life Insurance Standard Products (Saral Jeevan Bima)
This is IRDAI's standard, uniform individual term product that every life insurer must offer - a pure risk, non-linked, non-participating plan. Any distributor, including a POSP, can sell it with confidence because the core terms are identical across companies. The exam asks for the eligibility grid and exclusions, not marketing language.
The specification
- Type: individual, pure risk premium, non-linked, non-participating term assurance; no maturity or survival benefit.
- Entry age: 18 to 65 years; policy term: 5 to 40 years; maximum age at maturity: 70 years.
- Sum assured: minimum ₹5,00,000; maximum ₹25,00,000.
- Riders: none permitted.
- Surrender value, policy loan, paid-up value: none, because the plan has no savings element.
- Premium modes: single and regular premium.
- Grace period: 30 days (15 days for monthly mode); free look: 30 days.
- Suicide exclusion: if death by suicide occurs within 12 months of commencement or revival, only 80% of premiums paid is refunded, since this is a non-linked plan.
Worked example
A 32-year-old asks for ₹1 crore of cover under Saral Jeevan Bima. He cannot get it: the maximum sum assured under this standard product is ₹25 lakh. The honest answer is to place ₹25 lakh in Saral Jeevan Bima and write additional term cover with the same or another insurer, which will be medically underwritten, or to choose a regular term plan filed by the insurer for the larger amount. Overstating the limit, or splitting the proposal to hide it, is a mis-sale and an underwriting risk.
Traps
Assuming the plan pays on maturity or builds cash value; adding riders; quoting a surrender value; suggesting the ₹25 lakh cap can be crossed with income proof; and promising revival on your own authority when it is subject to the product's revival terms and underwriting.