[Resolved]  Max Life Insurance — Mis-sold the policy and duped my father.

Address:

Mumbai City, Maharashtra, 400061

My name is Aarti Prajapati. I am complaining on behalf of my father who became a victim of mis-selling of the policy no[protected], premium of which is 12000 per year. My father is not well-educated and cannot read/write English. Max Life sold the Whole Life participating policy to my father stating that he will be required to pay the premium till 5 years after which remaining premiums would be paid through bonus and my father wouldn’t have to pay from his pocket. My father was 55yrs when he took the policy. As explained by Max Life, the premium payment term was 5yrs, so my father planned for next five years and purchased the policy. Today he is 60 and retired with no earnings. When he called Max Life regarding premium payment through bonus, he was informed that he has to pay premiums till 15 yrs. Only then bonus would be given. My father was shocked to hear this. He informed the representative that this is not what he was told at the time of buying the policy. The agent argued and suggested various options to my father like (i) taking out 1000 rupees every month aside for a premium is not a big deal. (ii) your children can pay the premium. (iii) you can pay the premium from whatever savings you have. For a retired senior citizen, 1000 per month is definitely a very big deal. Why will he make his children pay the policy premium. Why will someone spend his savings on an insurance policy that too at an age of 60, when he himself needs the money to meet his own expenses. After some discussion within the family, this time, I called Max Life again to understand the policy. The representative while explaining told me that as per this policy, we need to pay premium for only 10 yrs. Looks like Max Life themselves don’t know the policy well. Some say 5yrs and some say 10yrs. Max Life is not trustworthy at all. My father now wants to surrender the policy. He got a bigger shock to hear that the surrender value is bonus + 30% of all premiums paid (excluding 1st premium). Till date he has paid 60000. He cannot afford to lose such a huge amount at this age. Buying this insurance policy has ruined his entire planning done for retirement. He is repenting his decision to trust Max Life.