Have you thought of building an insurance portfolio?

Naval GoelPolicyX.comYou know that uneasy feeling in your stomach that you get sometimes when you are out on a trip and are suddenly struck with this nagging suspicion that you might just have left the front door to your house unlocked? Remember that typical old Bollywood movie scene where the protagonist’s mother is in the hospital – unconscious under the nebulizer – awaiting an expensive emergency surgery for which the protagonist has no money and the doctor is suddenly portrayed as evil for demanding any? Think about the last time you got stuck in a big fat Indian traffic jam that ruined your plans for the entire day (and probably for the following two days as well). Then, after hours of honking and cussing, you finally managed to reach its root cause – an accident that banged up a car pretty bad in the middle of the road with two people yelling and a crowd gathered there like a movie audience eagerly awaiting the unpredictable climax. Remember wondering how it’s going to cost a fortune to get it repaired and on the road again? Luckily for the middle classes all over the country, insurance is a blessing that ensures that we need not stress about the financial aspect of such emergencies and unfortunate situations as much as we tend to. Insurance, in its simplest form, is merely a form of periodical savings for any future contingencies and emergencies involving a considerable financial loss to the insured party. It is a safety net that is provided to the insured person in case any of the unfortunate event that she has been insured against, occurs.While we may be blissfully unaware of any sort of risks we could be facing – or deliberately ignorant, for that matter – the fact remains that we face risks every moment of every day. In today’s financially competitive environment, we all have our finances smartly planned out. We make the right investments in the right mutual funds, we purchase the right shares on the stock market and we have the ideal real estate portfolios. Is it not highly ironic then, that we are willing to let all of this money that we have spent years carefully planning, saving up and smartly investing to suddenly have to lose it in one huge medical bill or automobile repair bill? Is the fact that someone we love is sick or has been in an accident not the more important thing to be worried about than the fact that our carefully laid out financial plans have all suddenly been tossed out like garbage?So why worry about the financial aspect at all in such times of adversity? Insurance is the simple solution here. But we understand it might be confusing to know exactly which kind of insurance to invest in – after all, the market is a vast one. We bring to you a list of five essential insurance policy covers you absolutely must have to secure your future and that of your families:•Life insurance- No surprise here! There is nothing more important or invaluable that a life. Life insurance is, thus, without a doubt possibly one of the most important forms of insurance that you cannot do without. It ensures that in the unfortunate event of the death of an individual, their immediate family gets a lump sum payment as financial assistance from the insurance company. •Health and critical illness insurance- Health insurance covers your medical bills when you need to be hospitalised and most policies these days also cover pre and post-hospitalisation bills ensuring that you worry about nothing but your health in the unfortunate incident of an accident or sickness. Critical illness involves health coverage for more serious and long-term illnesses and hospital bills.•Automobile insurance- If you are going to purchase a new vehicle, you want to take it out on the road and show it off. Yet, the daunting Indian traffic does tend to worry you about your shiny new car getting dented by that careless man on the motorbike. It is to remove these fear that automobile insurance is a must-have in your insurance portfolio. Because the fact remains that in the unfortunate event of an accident on the road, you’d have to be more worried about the people injured instead of your beautiful car. Let the insurance company worry about that!•Homeowner’s insurance- Home, sweet home – it’s where your whole life is situated and it’s where you have all the materialistic possessions you love and need. A home along with everything in it is a reflection of the life you’ve built for yourself over the years. You wouldn’t want it all destroyed in a fire or burgled by robbers or destroyed by an earthquake! This insurance protects your home and belongings from such unwanted events and much more.•Disability insurance- While an accident or illness may leave you alive, but it may also disable you, possibly even permanently. As grim as it may sound, one needs to be practical in life and prepare for the worst. In case of a disablement, you may not be able to work and provide a steady source of income for your family. Disability insurance provides financial cover in the occurrence of such an unfortunate event and is an absolute necessity.In a country like India, characterised by its high population, with roughly 1.25 billion people accounted for, insurance industry should be constantly growing. The industry has become a US$72 billion industry by 2012, the percentage of population covered under healthcare insurance is a shockingly meagre 0.1%! In USA, however, 75% of the total population is insured. Where resources are limited and are distributed among a population as large as this country’s, it is smartest to look out for oneself financially, especially in times of adversity. Insurance is the only answer, the only plausible solution. What is important is that we realise the necessity and indispensability of insurance in our risk-filled lives today. After all, in the fast moving race that is life, it’s good to have a safety-net to fall back on.