Free Assessment
6 quick questions to assess your insurance readiness — plus a personalised action plan to close any gaps.
Question 1 of 6
An Insurance Readiness Assessment is a structured questionnaire that evaluates how prepared you are to manage major financial risks — particularly the risk of premature death, critical illness, or permanent disability. Unlike a coverage calculator that deals with rupee amounts, a readiness assessment deals with behaviours, decisions, and current status: do you have life insurance? Is your nominee up to date? Do you have health insurance independent of your employer? Do you have an emergency fund?
The result is not a coverage amount but a qualitative assessment of where you stand — and more importantly, a specific, prioritised action plan for what to do next. If the Coverage Calculator and Premium Calculator tell you the “what” and the “how much,” this quiz tells you the “what's missing.”
This tool is particularly useful for two groups. First, young earners who have never bought insurance and do not know where to begin — the quiz gives them a clear starting point. Second, people who bought insurance years ago and have not reviewed it since — who may believe they are covered but have policies that are completely inadequate for their current income, liabilities, and family situation.
India's life insurance penetration — measured as life insurance premiums as a percentage of GDP — has been around 3% in recent years, broadly in line with the global average but well below the OECD standard of adequate coverage per life. This is not because Indians do not buy insurance. It is because the insurance most Indians buy is insufficient.
The dominant form of life insurance in India for decades has been traditional plans — endowment policies, money-back plans, and ULIPs — that combine insurance with savings. These plans typically provide a sum assured of only 5–10 times the annual premium, resulting in coverage of ₹5–50 lakh for most policyholders. For a family that needs ₹2–3 crore to be financially secure, this falls dramatically short. Yet many policyholders believe they are “insured” because they pay premiums to an insurer every year.
The second problem is employer dependency. Many salaried Indians rely on employer-provided group health and life insurance, which typically provides 3–5 times annual salary and covers health up to ₹3–5 lakh. This cover disappears the moment they change jobs, are laid off, or retire — leaving them completely unprotected at precisely the time their health risks are increasing.
The third problem is inertia. Buying insurance requires engaging with a financial product that is explicitly about dying — a prospect most people prefer not to think about. This psychological barrier, combined with the complexity of comparing products, leads to procrastination that costs years of low-premium, young-and-healthy coverage.
The six questions in this quiz assess the six most important dimensions of insurance readiness for an Indian family:
Do you have a life insurance policy? If yes, is it a term plan (pure protection with a high sum assured) or a traditional or investment-linked plan (low coverage, high premium)? This establishes your baseline — the most critical single dimension.
Is your current life insurance sum assured at least 10 times your annual income? This is a conservative starting threshold — most financial planners recommend 15–20 times income for adequate income replacement. Being below 10x is a clear gap regardless of other circumstances.
Do you have a personal health insurance policy independent of your employer? This assesses whether your health coverage is portable and adequate, or whether you are one job change away from having no health cover at all.
Is your nominee up to date on all policies? Does your family know what insurance you have, where the documents are stored, and how to file a claim? This often-overlooked dimension is the difference between a claim being settled quickly and being delayed for years — or going entirely unclaimed.
Are all your financial dependents covered? This includes your spouse — even if they do not earn a salary — and any adult children or parents who depend on you financially.
Do you have at least 3 months of expenses in liquid savings? This assesses whether you have the basic financial foundation that makes insurance planning meaningful — insurance handles catastrophic risks, but an emergency fund handles the everyday disruptions that insurance does not cover.
You have significant gaps across multiple dimensions. The most urgent action is usually buying a term insurance plan — it takes under an hour online and can be done today. After that, focus on setting up personal health insurance, starting an emergency fund, and then refining from there. Do not let perfect be the enemy of good: some coverage today is better than ideal coverage eventually.
You have some foundational coverage but there are important gaps. Common gaps at this stage: health cover that is too low, an outdated nominee, or a sum assured that was set when you were earning less and has not been updated since a salary increase, home loan, or new child. Your quiz output will identify specifically which dimensions need attention.
You have made most of the right moves. The remaining gaps are refinements: perhaps increasing your sum assured to reflect income growth, adding a critical illness cover, or getting health coverage for dependent parents. You are in good shape — just close the remaining gaps.
Excellent — you have addressed all six dimensions of insurance readiness. The main task now is maintenance: review annually, update coverage when your financial situation changes significantly, and ensure your family continues to know how to access the protection you have put in place.
Even if you have some insurance, you may not be truly insurance ready. These are the most common warning signs:
The readiness quiz gives you a prioritised list of next steps. Here is how to approach each one:
A pure term insurance plan is the most important and most cost-effective protection you can buy. Online term plans take under an hour to research, compare, and apply for. Use the Coverage Calculator to determine your target sum assured and the Premium Calculator to estimate the annual cost. Then compare quotes from multiple IRDAI-registered insurers directly to find the most competitive rate.
Buy a family floater health plan with a minimum cover of ₹10 lakh — more if you live in a metro city or have older family members. Look for plans with a strong claim settlement track record, no sub-limits on room rent, a wide hospital network, and ideally a no-claim bonus feature that increases your cover each claim-free year.
Log into your insurer's online portal and verify the nominee on every policy you hold. While you are there, share the policy details with your spouse or adult children — policy numbers, insurer names, sum assured, and how to reach the insurer to file a claim. Consider keeping a simple document summarising all your insurance policies in a location your family knows about.
Open a separate savings account or liquid fund and systematically build 3–6 months of expenses in it. Automate a monthly transfer if it helps with consistency. An emergency fund is not an investment — its job is to be there instantly, which is why liquidity matters more than returns here.
Schedule a calendar reminder to revisit your insurance coverage every April — when you receive your salary increment and are naturally reviewing your finances. Check whether your sum assured still reflects your current income and liabilities, whether your health cover is adequate for current medical costs, and whether any life changes require new or updated coverage.
Traditional endowment policies do provide some life cover, but the sum assured is typically very low relative to your income and liabilities. Calculate the total sum assured across all your endowment policies and compare it to your income. For most people, there is a significant gap that only a term plan can cost-effectively fill. A term plan provides 10–50 times more cover per rupee of premium than a traditional plan.
No — 3–5 times salary is well below even the minimum recommended coverage multiple of 10–15 times income. Additionally, employer group cover is not portable: you lose it if you change jobs, are laid off, or retire. It should be treated as a supplement to your personal term plan, not as a substitute for it.
Filling out an application typically takes 20–40 minutes. If you are below 45 with no significant health history, some insurers offer instant underwriting and policy issuance. Others require a medical examination, which can be scheduled within 1–2 weeks. The total process from application to policy in force is usually 2–4 weeks.
Review your insurance coverage whenever you have a major life change: marriage, the birth of a child, buying a home, a significant salary increase, taking a new loan, a change in health status, or the death or financial independence of a dependent. At minimum, do an annual review at the start of each financial year.
Term insurance is the most important and most cost-effective protection, but a complete protection plan includes: (1) term life insurance for the death benefit, (2) health insurance for medical costs, (3) personal accident cover for disability and accidental death, and (4) a critical illness plan if your health or family history suggests elevated risk. Term insurance alone does not protect you if you become disabled and can no longer earn — that gap requires accident or disability cover.
The fundamentals are the same, but the stakes are higher. A salaried employee has a guaranteed monthly income; a self-employed person's income can be variable and may stop entirely during illness or recovery. Self-employed individuals typically need a larger emergency fund (6–12 months rather than 3–6 months), a personal accident plan that covers income loss during disability, and the same or greater life insurance coverage as salaried individuals.