Claim settlement ratio and insurance companies reputation

Claim Settlement Ratio is probably the most important factor while buying insurance. This becomes even more critical for Life Insurance as you would like your dependents to run pillar to post to claim your sum assured in case of unfortunate death. The recently published Insurance Regulatory And Development Authority - IRDA Annual report 2010-11 has the settlement ratio for the following life insurance companies in India.

Please beware of  companies whose claim settlement ratio is below 90%.

Company	Claims settled	Claims Reputed	Claims Pending
LIC	97.03%	1.00%	1.46%
HDFC Life	95.41%	3.97%	0.61%
Birla Sunlife	94.66%	4.99%	0.35%
ICICI Prudential	94.61%	3.14%	2.25%
lNG Life	90.49%	3.53%	5.19%
Kotak Mahindra	89.30%	3.89%	6.81%
Bajaj Allianz	88.69%	7.08%	4.23%
Bharti AXA	87.17%	12.58%	0.25%
Metlife	85.43%	6.06%	8.30%
Aviva	84.15%	12.23%	3.62%
SBILife	82.24%	16.73%	1.03%
India First	82.01%	17.99%	0.00%
Tata AIG	81.93%	17.07%	1.00%
Reliance Life	81.36%	8.66%	9.85%
SUD Life	80.69%	1.38%	17.93%
Max  New  York	77.96%	14.90%	7.14%
Canara HSBC	71.02%	16.61%	12.37%
IDBIFedral	64.92%	21.00%	14.08%
Shriram	55.69%	25.87%	18.44%
Sahara	53.23%	14.39%	31.64%
Aegon Religare	52.31%	44.63%	3.08%
DLF Pramerica	51.22%	19.51%	29.27%
Future Generali	50.52%	21.53%	27.95%

Income Tax Slabs FY 2013-14

For a resident woman (who is below 60 years)
Net income range	Income tax rates
Up to Rs. 2,00,000	Nil
Rs. 2,00,000 – 5,00,000	10% of (total income – 2,00,000)
Rs. 5,00,000 – 10,00,000	30000 + 20% of (total income – 5,00,000)
Above Rs. 10,00,000	130000 + 30% of (total income – 10,00,000)

For a resident senior citizen(who is above 60 years but below 80 years)
Net income range	Income tax rates
Up to Rs. 2,50,000	Nil
Rs. 2,50,000 – 5,00,000	10% of (total income – 2,50,000)
Rs. 5,00,000 – 10,00,000	25,000 + 20% of (total income – 5,00,000)
Above Rs. 10,00,000	1,25,000 + 30% of (total income – 10,00,000)

For a resident super senior citizen(who is above 80 years)
Net income range	Income tax rates
Up to Rs. 5,00,000	Nil
Rs. 5,00,000 – 10,00,000	20% of (total income – 5,00,000)
Above Rs. 10,00,000	1,00,000 + 30% of (total income – 10,00,000)

For any other individual/HUF
Net income range	Income tax rates
Up to Rs. 2,00,000	Nil
Rs. 2,00,000 – 5,00,000	10% of (total income – 2,00,000)
Rs. 5,00,000 – 10,00,000	30,000 + 20% of (total income – 5,00,000)
Above Rs. 10,00,000	1,30,000 + 30% of (total income – 10,00,000)