How good is the guarantee?

With equity markets in the doldrums, insurance buyers are not enamoured of plain-vanilla unit-linked insurance plans (Ulips) anymore. To prop up sales, insurance companies are now coming out with a host of guaranteed-return products - the latest ones being guaranteed maturity unit price products. These offer returns based on the highest NAV (net asset value) recorded over a period of time. While Birla Sun Life Insurance was the first to launch such a plan last year (Platinum Plus I), Tata AIG and SBI Life have recently launched two new products. These plans promise to pay a fund value based on ...

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