HDFC Life ends pension plan drought

Mumbai: The two-year drought in pension plans among private companies has ended with HDFC Standard Life being the first to launch pension plans under the latest guidelines on the unit-linked platform.      Unit-linked pension plans, which until 2010 accounted for almost a third of sales for several insurers, had all but disappeared from the market after theInsurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) said that pension products should guarantee a return of 4.5%. These guidelines resulted in insurers withdrawing from the pension space as it was difficult to assure returns over the long term. The re-revised guidelines allow insurers to sell policies without the 4.5% return subject to the condition that they guarantee a positive return.      The two products are HDFC Life Single Premium Pension Super and HDFC Life Pension Super Plus. Both the plans offer assured benefit on death and vesting. HDFC Life Pension Super Plus offers assured death benefit of total premiums paid to date accumulated at a guaranteed rate of 6% per annum and an assured vesting benefit of 101% of total premiums paid.