Another private life insurance company comes to town

chandigarh: hdfc standard life insurance company launched its operations in the city, on friday, with managing director and chief executive officer deepak m satwalekar inaugurating its sector 9 office. later addressing mediapersons, satwalekar said this was the concern's 10th office, after mumbai, delhi, chennai, kolkata, pune, hyderabad, bangalore, lucknow and jaipur.an office, at ludhiana, would also be opened soon, he added. "we offer the customer the ability to personalise the product to suit their requirements. to the basic endowment and money back plans, a customer can add any of the four additional benefits including critical illness, double sum assured, accidental death benefit and waiver of premium," satwalekar said, adding that almost 60 per cent of their customers have so far taken plans with at least one additional benefit. the company also offers the single premium whole of life insurance policy, which offers considerable flexibility in that the customer needs to decide only at the end of year 10, 15 or 20 whether he wants to cash in or continue with the life cover. another product called group term insurance can be taken by companies, professional associations and other such groups. the second group product called development insurance plan is for non-governmental organisations. it provides low cost life insurance cover to members of self-help groups that are affiliated to the ngos. the premium paid on life insurance policies of any of the registered private life insurance companies are eligible for tax relief as per section 88, as with the life insurance corporation (lic). hdfc standard life insurance company is a joint venture between india's largest housing finance provider, hdfc and europe's largest mutual life assurance company, the standard life assurance company (uk).