HDFC Bank — Hdfc life sampoorn samridhi plan (policy no.[protected]

Address:

Pune, Maharashtra, 411018

Hi,

I had purchased "hdfclife sampoorn samridhi plan" in 2012.
As per information given by the agent, i have to pay annual premium of rs. 50, 000 for at least 5 years.
At the end of the 5th year, i can surrender the policy if i want, and i will get minimum rs. 4, 43, 750 and if i continue to pay premium in subsequent years, my maturity amount will be increased by 1 lakh ever year i. E. At the end of the 5th year i will get rs. 4, 43, 750 after surrender of the policy and if i pay premium for 6th year my maturity amount will become 5, 58, 750; after paying premium for 7th year, it will become rs. 6, 73, 750 and so on.

Few days back i visited hdfclife's nigdi branch in pune to collect some documents.
I found that one man was talking (Rather arguing) with the hdfclife staff member about his policy benefits and hdfclife's staff member was continuously telling him that your agent has given you wrong information and your policy provide no such benefits.
I talked to that person and he told me that he had purchased "hdfclife sampoorna samridhi plan" and his agent had told him that he have to pay premium for at least for 3 years and after 3 years he can surrender the policy and he will get some good amount of returns, but as per hdfclife's staff member there is no such promise of return mentioned in the document. He told me that, "if i surrender policy after 3 years i will be in loss. I will not even get the total premium that i have paid, forget about the profit". I was shocked because i had purchased the same policy and the agent had told me the similar things. Immediately i returned to home and read the whole policy document of this policy and i did not find any clause mentioning returns after 5 years. Rather as per policy document i have to pay rs. 50, 000 per year for 12 years and my maturity amount will be rs. 4, 83, 358. I was assuming that this is the amount that i will get after 5 years as told by the agent hence i did not bother to cross verify this point with hdfclife when i had read this first time after receiving the policy document. (One of the biggest mistake of my life). Then i searched on internet and found many negative comments about this plan from the victims of this plan and surprisingly most of them have been given similar information by their agents.
Following are two of those links for your information.

http://www.consumercourt.in/life-insurance/127310-hdfc-life-sampoorn-samridhi-in...⇄
http://www.mouthshut.com/review/HDFC-Life-Insurance-review-rnrrrrnpor

Still i decided to take a last chance and visited hdfclife branch personally to enquire about this plan.
The representative told me that i will get 3% annual bonus on this plan and till now i have accumulated rs. 8000 as bonus on premium paid till date.

I was surprised.

My policy started in 2012; my total premium paid till date is rs. 2 lakh and in 4 years i have accumulated only rs. 8000 as bonus?
Even bank fixed deposits would have given me much better returns than this.
I argued with the representative that as per policy document i will not even receive the amount that i have paid as premium.
He said that "no, at the time of maturity, you will receive at least 20 to 25 thousand more than total premium paid".
When i asked “how?”, he was not able to explain me this and simply told me that "you can calculate it by your own assuming 3% annual returns on total premium paid.”
But as per policy document my sum assured is rs. 4, 83, 358 which i will get after paying total premium of rs. 6 lakh.
When i was not satisfied with his justification i told him that i want to surrender this policy. He told me that if i surrender this policy then i will be in loss.
But if i keep paying premiums till maturity then i will be in more loss.

Later i was thinking about this plan and i was not able to understand following points.
1. How come hdfclife launched a product where it is taking rs. 6 lakh as total premium and giving only rs. 4, 83, 358 as guaranteed returns and still call this plan a"with profit plan"?
2. I thought it must be agent's who are fooling the customer by giving them wrong information. But even if agents are giving wrong information to customer, how come so many people from different part of india have told same wrong information by different agents? Does hdfclife really not encouraging agents to do this?

Also company has made this plan such that once entered, no one will be able quit the plan before maturity and if he does then he will be in loss (And off course hdfclife is in profit)
And if he stays invested till maturity, then also he will be in loss and hdfclife is in profit.
So this"sampoorna samridhi plan" is designed for sampoorna samridhi of hdfclife and not for its customers.

I requested for surrender quote of this policy and i have been told that i will get around rs. 1 lakh if i surrender this policy which 50% loss for me.
In the policy document it is mentioned that if hdfclife found that information provided by customer is false then company will not be liable to provide any benefits to the policy holder. Now do hdfclife has any accountability when such policy is mis-sell to customer?

Someone may say that its agent who gave me wrong information and not the hdfclife. Hence hdfclife is not responsible for my loss.
But as i said above, it is not possible that different agents gave same false information to different customers without consent from hdfclife. You can verify this from the comments of people on the links given above also search on google.
Hence according to me hdfclife is responsible for my loss and they should return my entire premium to me.

Thanks
Amol