Though nothing may have changed to substantially improve the returns from traditional insurance-cum-investment policies—you know them as endowment and money-back plans—you may get a slightly better exit route in case you wish to surrender your policy early.
The exposure draft that was put out by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) last week proposes that all traditional plans will now acquire a surrender value after you pay two premium instalments. So if you surrender after the second premium, you will get some money back. Surrender before that and you go empty-handed, as rules allow insurers to levy a 100% surrender charge.
