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Why More Women Are Choosing ULIPs Over Traditional Plans

Sunaina Sahi, a 33-year-old marketing expert living in Agra, wants to build her financial independence. At the same time, she's also looking to secure the financial future of her child. She's overwhelmed with choices: are traditional savings plans enough for her? Or should I choose something growth-oriented?

The recent data offers some direction:

- 18% of total investments in ULIPs are held by women as of February 2025.

- Women between 31 to 45 years of age are leading investments in ULIPs.

The data and the recent choices highlight a clear trend: women are moving beyond conventional choices. They are actively looking for investment plans that offer them protection plus wealth creation opportunities.

ULIPs, with their dual benefit of insurance and investment, can help meet these demands better. Read on to understand why more and more women are inclining towards ULIP investments, their features, benefits, and much more.

Reasons Why ULIP is a Top Choice for Women Investors

Earlier, insurance was mainly seen as a safety net with assurance of some predictable returns. However, today, women are more financially independent, career-oriented, and even starting their own businesses.

This is where ULIPs step in. A modern, flexible solution that adjusts according to your evolving needs.

Here are some compelling benefits of ULIPs, showing how they benefit women investors.

Market-Linked Growth

Traditional savings plans come with the benefits of assured, predictable returns, generally ranging between 4% to 7%.² However, these lack the potential of earning from market-linked growth, which is offered by ULIPs. With ULIPs, you get insurance plus investment benefits. With these investment plans, part of the investment is invested into market securities like equity, debt, or hybrid funds. Thus, allowing women to grow their corpus at market pace and isn't bound by conservative regulations.

For women like Sumity, juggling multiple responsibilities, such as planning for their children's future and achieving financial independence, is already a lot. Given that, ULIPs help with planned premiums that turn into a robust corpus over the long term.

Flexibility to Match Your Life Stages

For a woman, their financial journey involves a lot of ups and downs. It involves career breaks, changing family needs, maternity breaks, shifting priorities, and much more. For all of this, you need a plan that adjusts to your changing life stages. This is where ULIPs fit in.

It comes with flexibility, allowing you to switch funds from equity to debt and back. Meaning that with a stable career, women may invest aggressively. Plus, you have the option of partial withdrawals in case of emergency.

Tax-Efficiency for Better Benefits

For women managing their salaries, the household budget, and other financial chores, taxes matter. With ULIPs, you may enjoy attractive tax benefits. For instance, premiums paid on the policy are eligible for tax deductions under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act. Further, maturity or death benefits are eligible for tax exemptions under section 10(10D) of the IT Act.

Transparency for Confident Investing

For someone new to the finance world, tracking performance, clarity, and much more can be a bit overwhelming. However, ULIPs make it easy by disclosing their fund structures via fact sheets and NAV reports.² Thus, allowing you to switch funds based on your assessment and the fund's performance.

For women balancing family and work, this clarity and transparency empower them to make informed financial choices.

Empowerment & Financial Independence

Be it primary earners or equal contributors, ULIPs may help women in several ways.

  • Can help build a long-term corpus that can be used after retirement or for other long-term goals like a child's education, marriage, etc.
  • Can be combined with a premium waiver rider that ensures that in case of the death of the insured, the premiums are borne by the insurer, while the beneficiary gets adequate support without any hindrance.
  • The lock-in period of 5 years allows you to invest systematically, encouraging disciplined savings.

How to Choose the Right ULIP?

Planning to invest in ULIPs. Here are things to keep in mind:⁴

Check the Sum Assured

The sum assured is the promised amount to be offered to the nominee or beneficiary in case of untimely demise of the policyholder during the ULIP tenure. Consider choosing an optimum sum assured to ensure your family is better protected financially in case of an unfortunate event.

Look for the Charges Involved

Consider looking into the common charges associated with ULIP funds. This includes administration charges, top-up charges, mortality charges, etc.

Tip: These charges differ from insurer to insurer. Consider consulting your insurer about the same to make an informed decision.

Carefully Review Your Asset Allocation

Your ULIP asset allocation is done based on your risk appetite. For instance, investors with an aggressive approach may opt for equities. Alternatively, investors with a low to moderate risk profile can consider going for debt funds.

Compare and Choose

Before buying any investment plan, make sure you compare its features. And ULIP is no different. You may consider comparing factors like the fund’s performance, objectives, the credibility of the insurance provider, etc.

Tip: With Jio Insurance Broking, you get access to several insurance providers. Make sure you compare their performances, credibility, features, and benefits to choose the right plan for yourself.

Final Word

For women like Sunaina, ULIPs are more than just financial products. They offer protection plus opportunities for wealth creation for financial independence. With attractive features like growth linked to market potential, flexibility in switching funds, partial withdrawals for emergencies, etc, they match the needs of the real world.

Further, ULIPs offer other benefits like tax advantages, transparency, and long-term savings. Therefore, more and more people continue investing in ULIPs for long-term growth and potential returns.

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