Most life insurance shopping starts and ends with one number: the premium. That’s backwards. The premium is just the cost of admission; what decides whether the policy actually does its job is coverage adequacy, policy type, and claim reliability, in that order.

Coverage adequacy means sizing the sum assured against real obligations, not a round number that felt reasonable. Outstanding loans, dependents’ future expenses, and years until retirement income kicks in should all factor into the calculation. A policy that covers ten times the annual income sounds generous until it’s checked against an actual mortgage and two children’s education costs, at which point it often falls short.

Policy type is the second decision, and it splits mainly into term insurance and traditional endowment or investment-linked plans. Term insurance offers pure protection at a much lower premium, with no maturity payout if the policyholder outlives the term. Endowment and ULIP-type plans combine insurance with an investment component, which usually means lower coverage per rupee spent and returns that rarely beat what a term plan plus separate investing would achieve. Advisors at Ashutosh Financial Services generally recommend keeping insurance and investment decisions separate rather than bundling them into one product for convenience.

Claim settlement track record is the part people check last, if at all, and it’s the one that matters most when it’s actually needed. Insurers publish claim settlement ratios, and the gap between insurers on this metric is often wider than the gap in premiums. A slightly cheaper policy from an insurer with a weaker claims history isn’t actually the better deal.

None of this requires exotic analysis. It requires working backwards from what the policy is supposed to achieve, rather than forwards from what premium feels affordable. Ashutosh Financial Services continues to help families run this exercise properly as part of its ongoing insurance awareness initiatives.