Banking/ Finance
What is this buzz about term insurance plans?
Most people in India are familiar with life insurances and many are even insured under various policies. Term insurance plan is very popular among the Indian population due to the benefits it provides. The simplicity and the low risk factor makes this a go to option for the Indian population looking to get covered. The term insurance plans are cheaper than other insurance policies and provide the same coverage as the others. This also makes the term insurance plans more preferred by the general Indian population.
What is a term insurance?
Term Insurance plans are pure risk insurance policies. The term insurance plan covers for the misfortunate death of the person insured. Like all insurance policies, the person looking to get insured will pay the premium for the policy. The premium paid is according to the duration the plan goes on for. The beneficiaries receive the profits and benefits if the person insured dies while the policy term is still active. There is no maturity or survival benefit if the person who is ensured outlasts the policy term. The term insurance plan is simple, you pick a term period you want to be covered for and then you pay the premium for policy term.
Term plans have various offers for coverage ranging from 5 years to 30 years depending on the insurance company. Insurance companies such as MetLife Insurance offer coverage up to 99 years along with pay out options that are flexible and other tax benefits. Term insurance plans are popular as they have a low-cost value than the various insurance policies while providing the same protection. Term insurance plans offer a much higher return than the premium invested.
What are the advantages of term insurance plans?
Term insurance plans are easy to understand than other plans like the endowment policies. Endowment policies combine savings with risk cover. Plans that comprise saving components with risk covers are called cash value plans. To part the premium a person pays into the amount being invested on their behalf as savings and risk cover cost is not easy for anyone. Planning financials goals around policies such as the cash value plans is a lot more complicated than the term insure plans which are straight forward. Term life insurances are simple as the person pays the premium and gets the coverage he or she wants for a set term. Meanwhile, cash value plans also have rules regarding things like size of an insured person’s cash savings, repayment of policy loans etc. which make understanding the policy even harder. This simplicity acts as an advantage in the favour of term insurance plans.
FLEXIBILITY
Term insurance plans are flexible as it is really easy to opt out of these policies. Opting out of term insurance plans is easy as all the insured person has to do is to not pay the premium. Once the insured person does not pay the premium the policy will end. Nothing is paid to the insured though as there is no element of saving in this policy. In cash value policies there is a saving element involved and the person is offered a full survival benefit if they hold it for a full tenure. Therefore, making it harder for the insured to opt out. Besides the freedom to opt out whenever the insured wants, they can also renew the plan after it is over and even convert the term plan into an endowment policy if they want. An insured person can also increase the term of the policy further if they want to.
Availability of plans for every budget
If an individual’s budget is a tight one and they need coverage the term insurance plans are more preferable than the cash value plans. Cash value plans cost more than the term insurance plans. This policy is suitable for those who have low income or are the sole bread winners in the family as they do not require a large premium to provide coverage. On the basis of price, term policies are easily comparable with each other. Due to all of them having a similar structure and being easy to understand the market of term policies is booming. This provides the buyer with competitive prices and few problems related to information.
Lower premiums
The premium for term insurance plans are a lot lower than that for the cash value policies of the same comparison. The annual premium is about Rs 50,000 for an endowment policy with profits. With the death benefits being exactly the same as the term insurance plan, the annual premium will be slightly above Rs 30,000 for an endowment policy without profits.
Meanwhile, a 30-year old person can purchase a level term insurance policy for a set term of 20 years with an assured sum of Rs 10 Lakhs to beneficiary for an annual premium of just Rs 3000.
Full coverage for family
Term insurance plans ensure future insurability. Term insurance plan is the minimum requirement to secure your family members financially in case of an untimely death. The most cost-efficient way to protect an individual’s income in the future from the risk of them dying before they have rightfully earned it is a term insurance plan. Inexpensive term insurance policies can be converted into cash value policies in the future without the requirement of any medical check ups and examinations. If some individual plans to get a cash value policy at a late they might get denied due to a medical check up or other tests regarding their health. Term insurance plans are also used by many employers to cover for their employees at low costs as a measure for the welfare of the staff usually the ones belonging to the labour class.
Banking/ Finance
Ripple Survey Reveals Appetite for Digital Assets
Cornerstone of Financial Services
A survey of more than 1 000 global finance leaders undertaken by digital payment network Ripple shows that 72% of respondents believe they need to offer a digital asset solution to remain competitive.
According to Ripple, leaders from the banking, fintech, corporate and asset management sector have made it clear that the “digital asset revolution is happening now”.
“Digital assets are quickly becoming a cornerstone of financial services, underpinned by progressive regulation, growing interest from Tier-1 banks, a steady consumer shift from banks to fintech providers, and booming stablecoin adoption,” Ripple says.
The survey was conducted in early 2026 and the findings released in March.
Stablecoin Boon or Bane?
Ripple has experienced significant success in the stablecoin sector since launching its Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin in 2024.
With a market cap of $1.56 billion, it is considered a major regulated player in the market.
No doubt the platform was pleased to learn through its own survey that financial leaders were most bullish about stablecoins.
Roughly three-quarters of respondents believed they could boost cash-flow efficiency and unlock trapped working capital.
Ripple noted that finance leaders were thinking about stablecoins as more than “just a new way to execute payments”; instead, they viewed them as effective tools for treasury management.
In March 2026, Ripple began testing a new trade finance model built around RLUSD in a bid to increase the speed of cross-border payments.
The pilot initiative, developed alongside supply chain finance company Unloq [https://unloq.com], is running on the XRP Ledger inside a testing framework developed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
The Asian city-state is one of the platform’s biggest growth markets.
The idea behind the project is to see whether stablecoin-based settlement can streamline trade finance, too often hampered by reliance on intermediaries and slow reconciliation.
The only potential drawback is that if the initiative takes off, the Ripple to USD price could be negatively affected.
Ripple has always championed its native XRP token as a bridge asset, the “middleman” in the process of a financial institution turning dollars in the US into pounds in the UK, for example.
Ripple converts dollars into XRP and then back into pounds.
If RLUSD can do exactly the same thing, questions will be asked about XRP’s relevance.
That is a bridge Ripple will have to cross if it gets to that point.
Tokenisation Partners
Another interesting finding from Ripple’s survey is that most banks and asset managers are seeking tokenisation partners to help execute their strategies.
Some 89% of respondents said digital asset storage and custody were top priority. “Token servicing/lifecycle management also ranks highly for banks at 82%, while asset managers place greater emphasis on primary distribution at 80%,” Ripple found.
The survey also revealed that just more than half of fintechs and financial institutions want an infrastructure provider that can offer a “one-stop-shop solution”. This rose to 71% among corporate financial leaders.
Ripple attributes this to institutions and firms wanting uncomplicated, cohesive systems.
Infrastructure Rules
In its final analysis, Ripple says companies across the board are looking for partners and solutions that are “secure, compliant, battle-tested and that enable growth and execution”.
“The message is clear: infrastructure decisions made today will shape competitive positioning tomorrow.”
No surprise that this is precisely where Ripple is placing much of its focus.
Banking/ Finance
Forex Trading Signals: Advantages and Usage
Forex trading signals are an automation tool. It represents trading advice based on analysis: in which direction the security price is going to go, to which levels it is most probable to reach as well as at which level it is reasonable to set a trailing stop loss.
Signals for Forex
Forex signals must answer the next questions:
- what asset does it make sense to open a deal at this moment?;
- in what direction will the price go?;
- open a short position or long?;
- what is the target profit level? ;
- at what level should I insure the deal and why?;
- when will the price reach the target level?;
- what is the probability of a positive result?.
A trader determines the volume of a deal him.
Benefits and Drawbacks of Trading Signals
For you, the benefits of signals in your trading are as follows:
- Time to save money.
Sometimes you can’t always keep track of all of the charts at the same time. It happens that you are not necessarily aware enough to make the correct choice. There is sometimes not enough time to go over dozens of data sources to figure out the right choice.
- Practices.
By using the signals of the ISP, the trader can analyze it. “Why did the signal provider pick this particular one and not this one? If I were in his shoes, what would I do?”. The signals are an avenue to learn from the lessons of others.
- Mental effect.
Based on the signals from the providers, to a certain extent, a trader absolves of responsibility for his decisions. Psychologically, in the case of misfortune, it will always be simpler to blame somebody else rather than yourself. In doing so, the mental burden is lessened.
As an alternative, the signals provider can always act as a signals provider itself, thus generating additional revenue. At certain brokers, there is multi-level social trading. The trader copies trades of one or more traders to his account. And he/she makes their account accessible for other traders to copy.
Using Forex Trading Signals
The Forex signals arrive in the form of a message. It necessarily includes the action, type of asset, and level of the stop-and-take profit. It is a big plus if the signal provider provides advice: they add a screenshot of the chart with installed indicators and explain the decision, giving comments on critical levels and the principle of pending orders deployment. To use the recommendations or not is the trader’s choice. The trader also chooses the volume of the transaction and calculates whether the deposit will be able to withstand a drawdown at the selected amount and the stop recommended.
Banking/ Finance
How to deal with unexpected summer costs
Have fun saving money over lockdown, did you?
Sure, the distinct lack of expenditure over the past 15-16 months have been great, but things arestarting to get back to normal.With a return to normality,you’ll probably find your day-to-day spending is steadily rising to where it was before.
The next few months are set to be interesting ones from a budgeting perspective. Many rescheduled social events like weddings, stag and hen dos and other big celebrations that were postponed over the past year and a half are all getting crammed in close together. For those participating, that can rather quickly take monthly spending from next to nothing to an awful lot.
Indeed, summer is a classic time for unexpected costs to rear their head, but with this year especially likely to be a shock to the financial system, what can you do to deal with them?
Reasons your budget isn’t working
If your budget has gone from being watertight to looking shaky recently, these could be some of the reasons:
- You haven’t given it enough thought: Saving money over 2020 and beyond may have happened to you organically. By that we mean you didn’t make any budgetary decisions to generate savings, they just happened. Now that life is back to normal the associated costs come with it, so you might need to put more effort into your budget to stay in the black.
- You’re spending more than you’re earning: Again, this perhaps wasn’t a particular worry over the past year and a half with nothing to do, but that might have stopped youfrom thinking about where and how you’re spending your money. With every wedding, party or event you attend, you’ll be spending a small fortune.Those costs may well suddenly add up to more than your income on the month.
- You’re not budgeting properly for different categories: Now that a lot more recreational spending is back on the table, you may have to address your category spending and apportion more funds to having fun. That spending should come at the cost of another area, though, which is a key thing to figure out to get your budget in shape.
- You aren’t adjusting it: Summertime, and summer 2021 in particular, is always a period of higher spending. With holidays and general fun in the sun to consider, you need to account for that in your budget. Planning your finances to spend more now and save more later will help you to recover from the bigger spending months.
Building an emergency fund
Emergency funds are essential for dealing with unexpected costs, particularly if you’re getting to a point where you’re spending about as much as you earn again. Right now, you might be thinking about how next week’s stag do is going to affect your budget, but what if the boiler breaks down or a pipe suddenly bursts? Sudden, unanticipated but essential repair costs like these can send you into financial chaos if you’re not ready for them.That’s where an emergency fund can help.
You can build an emergency fundby aiming to set aside three to six months’ worth of living expenses. This might seem like a mammoth task, but if you put little bits of money aside gradually – as much as you can afford every month –you’ll build towards it quicker than you might think. Then, when a rainy (or chaotically sunny) day comes, you’ve got that all-important safety valve to keep you financially afloat.
Just remember to assess your finances and ensure you are only putting away an amount of money that will not leave you short.
