Top Term Insurance Plans in India for 2025: A Comparison

The product is the purest form of insurance that guarantees protection against financial loss due to unforeseen exigencies, including death.  

It is not adulterated with any promises of high returns but only a promise of the financial safety of your family in your absence. Its only return is the management of probable risks you may face. The top-term insurance plans do that with even more convenience and assurance.  

After careful study, we have elucidated the recent top 2 term insurance plans in the Indian insurance market: Axis Smart term plan and ICICI iProtect plan. 

Axis Max Life Smart Term Plan Plus: 

While choosing the top term insurance plan in India, we cannot forget to mention Axis Max STPP. This is a non-linked, non-participating individual risk life insurance plan providing several flexible options, giving you the scope for easy protection of your family members even under challenging circumstances.  
 
Features of Axis Max STPP: 
Considering that each customer’s needs are different. Axis Max STPP offers a wide array of features to prepare your personal customised plan. Some of the highlighting characteristics include: 

1. Flexibility:

Based on your requirements, you can choose among 7 plan variants: 

• Regular cover 
• Rebalancing cover 
• Early ROP Plus 
• Smart Cover 
• Return of Premium 
• Whole Life Cover 
• Income Protection Cover 

2. Continuance:  

You can enjoy a cover continuance benefit where the policyholders is permitted to defer the outstanding premium dues up to 12 months from the designated due date without hampering full risk coverage offered under the base plan along with applicable riders. However, this benefit is only applied after the plan has been flawlessly continued for 3 years from the date of issuance.  

3. Insta payment on claim intimation:

They offer you the base sum assured amount within 1 day from the designated date of claim registration, provided you follow an error-free claim application procedure. Once the claim gets approved, they offer the subsequent payouts as per the plan terms.  

4. Auto rebalancing of life cover:

You enjoy the benefit of automatic rebalancing of the entire life cover based on your altered requirements, considering your income, expenses, financial targets, etc., without any manual intervention, offering you optimum coverage at all times. 

• ADB coverage for the sum assured is also offered under the Rebalancing Cover variant. 

5. Premium return:

You can get back up to 200% of the total premium payable amount as Special Exit Value if it is exercised between “Policy term minus 13 years” and “Policy term minus 7 years”. The total SEV percentage ranges between 125% and 200,% while the additional SEV percentage revolves around 25% - 100%.  

6. Income protection:

The Income Protection variant can act as your monthly income substitute despite your absence.  

7. Whole life cover:

You can avail of whole life protection till 100 years of age with the exclusive Whole Life coverage variant. 

8. In-built terminal illness:

Terminal illness coverage comes free here without any additional premium, offering an accelerated payout of INR 1 crore.  

9. Special female life insured features:

This includes: 

• Maternity cover: This includes coverage for certain typical pregnancy-related complications and certain congenital anomalies of the newborn. 
• Lifeline Plus: This allows top-up if the spouse of the concerned female insured passes away, considering the age, inception rates, and the revised band of the sum assured amount.  
• Female Life Discount: A female life insured straight away enjoys a flat 15 % discount on the premium payable amount when compared to males throughout the term.  

This is one of the top term insurance plans available in India and can surely be considered. 

ICICI Pru iProtect Smart Plan 

This smart term insurance plan has been carefully crafted to offer financial security to your family members, irrespective of the challenges. Apart from offering security to your beloved family members during unforeseen exigencies, this plan even offers return of premium benefit if you outlive the designated plan tenure.  
 
Features of ICICI Pru iProtect Smart Plan: 
 
ICICI Pru iProtect Smart Plan has been exclusively designed to cater to your financial requirements both in your presence and absence. It is a dual-way term plan, offering benefits under every circumstance. Some of its exclusive features include: 

1. Life insurance cover protection with a 100% premium back guarantee:

If the life insured passes away during the plan term, then the policy will pay out the benefit to the nominee or the beneficiary. However, if the insured survives till policy maturity, then he/she will receive maturity benefits equivalent to the amount of the total premiums paid.  

2. Accidental death and disability coverage:

This plan allows additional protection towards accidental disability (total & permanent) and accidental death benefits with the non-linked accidental death and disability rider.  

3. Flexible plan term and premium payment option:

You can divide your premium payment into various durations:  

• For limited pay: This spans for 5/7/10/12/15 years and up to 60 years of age. 
• For regular pay: This is equivalent to the total plan tenure.  

4. Policy term:

The policy tenure varies: 

• The minimum plan term is 20 years 
• The maximum plan term is 40 years 

5. Entry age:  

• The minimum entry age is 18 years 
• The maximum entry age is 55 years 

6. Maturity age: 

• The minimum maturity age is 38 years 
• The maximum maturity age is 85 years. 

This is also one of the top term insurance plans available in India which you can opt for if it suits your needs. 

Comparative study between Axis Max Smart Term Plan Plus and ICICI Pru iProtect Smart Plan: 

If you need to choose between the two plans, understand which of these two top term insurance plans of India that you should opt for, then here is the comparison between the two. 

POINTS OF DIFFERENCE	AXIS MAX SMART TERM PLAN PLUS	ICICI PRU iPROTECT SMART PLAN
COVERAGE	Regular cover the base sum assured stays unaltered throughout the plan term  Rebalancing cover divides the sum assured amount among life cover and ADB  Early ROP offers 50% of the total amount of premiums paid, continuing the 50% of the base sum assured till the end.  Smart Cover offers 150% of the base sum assured amount on the insured’s demise within the initial 15 years of plan issuance, after which 100% is paid.  Whole life covers 50% of the total premium paid amount is paid while the remaining cover continues till the insured reaches 100 years.   ROP keeps the base sum assured unaltered throughout the plan tenure. On the insured’s demise, the nominee receives the death benefit. On survival, 100% of the total premiums paid get returned.   Income Protection cover allows guaranteed death benefits as “monthly income”   Allows women special discounts on the premium payable amount.	Life variant allows death and terminal illness benefits along with premium waiver benefits on disability  Life Plus variant allows terminal illness benefits (including AIDS) and death benefits along with accidental death benefits up to INR 2 cr.   Life & Health variant offers death and terminal illness benefits, including AIDS, waiver of premium on disability and Critical Illness benefits up to INR 1 cr.   ALL-IN-ONE variant offers death and terminal illness benefits, including AIDS, waiver of premium on disability, and Critical Illness benefits up to INR 1 cr. and Accidental Death Benefit up to INR 2 cr.   Women-special benefits like comparatively lower premium rates and coverage for critical ailments like cervical cancer and breast cancer are offered.
PREMIUM	Subject to the minimum sum assured amount, which is INR 5 lakhs for all variants (except Maternity, which is INR 2 lakhs  and Rebalancing variants, which is INR 50 lakhs) and the applicable premium rates	INR 13207 for 1 year for 1 year for a maximum policy term of 69 years and life cover of INR 50 lakhs at 30 years of age  INR 28175 for a maximum policy term of 69 years and life cover of INR 1 cr. at 30 years of age  INR 15379 annually for a maximum policy term of 64 years and life cover of INR 50 lakhs at 35 years of age  INR 31888 annually for a maximum policy term of 64 years and life cover of INR 1 cr. at 35 years of age
CLAIM SETTLEMENT RATIO	99.65% (for FY 2023-’24)	99.3% (for 9M - FY 2025)
ADD-ONS	Maternity cover	Accidental death benefit  Critical illness benefit  Monthly income payout
RIDERS	Waiver of Premium  Critical Illness and disability rider  Accidental death and dismemberment rider  Maternity cover	Accidental death benefit  Critical illness benefit  Permanent disability  Terminal illness
PAYOUT OPTIONS	Lumpsum  Monthly income  Lump sum/part monthly income	Lumpsum  Monthly income  Increasing income  Lump Sum plus income