Life Insurance · advanced
Pension & Retirement Planning
Pensions and retirement income: annuities, the National Pension System and its exit rules, insurers' pension plans, estimating a retirement corpus, commutation, vesting and surrender, employer schemes, and health cover and income for senior citizens.
- 01Annuity Plans — Immediate vs Deferred, Types of Annuity OptionsWhat an annuity is, how immediate and deferred annuities differ, the main annuity options and what each pays, what moves an annuity rate, and how annuity income is regulated and taxed.
- 02National Pension System (NPS) — Structure, Fund Choices & Tax BenefitsHow the National Pension System is built, who does what in it, the exit rules in force since December 2025 for non-government and government subscribers, and the income-tax treatment of contributions and withdrawals under the Income-tax Act, 2025.
- 03Pension Plans by Life Insurers — Guaranteed vs Market-LinkedHow a life insurer's pension plan builds a corpus and turns it into income, the difference between non-linked and unit-linked pension plans, who carries the investment risk in each, and IRDAI's current rule on commutation at vesting.
- 04Retirement Corpus Calculation — Income Replacement & Inflation AdjustmentHow a retirement corpus is estimated: the income replacement and expense methods, the effect of inflation, the real rate of return and longevity risk, with a worked illustration in which every figure is a labelled assumption.
- 05Commutation Rules — How Much Can Be Withdrawn as Lump SumWhat commutation of pension means and how much may be taken as a lump sum from each source: a central government pension, an insurer's pension plan and the National Pension System, with the separate income-tax rules under section 19 and Schedule II of the Income-tax Act, 2025.
- 06Vesting & Surrender — Rights, Lock-in & IRDAI RegulationsWhat vesting and surrender mean for a pension plan, how IRDAI routes the proceeds in each case, the five-year lock-in and discontinued policy fund for unit-linked pension plans, and the vesting rules of the National Pension System.
- 07Corporate Pension Schemes — Superannuation Fund ManagementThe retirement benefits an employer arranges for employees: the statutory provident fund and gratuity under the Code on Social Security, 2020, superannuation schemes of the defined-benefit and defined-contribution kind, employer contributions to the NPS, and how these are taxed.
- 08Senior Citizen Insurance Planning — Health + Pension IntegrationHow health cover and retirement income fit together for people aged 60 and above: IRDAI's rules on entry age, renewal and premium increases, Ayushman Vay Vandana, the main income sources, and the deductions under sections 126 and 128 of the Income-tax Act, 2025.