To have a “Look” at your Life Insurance Policy Details for “Free”, each insurer provides a period of about 15 days or so from the date the policy documents reach the customer’s hands called Free look period.
Once you select a product and buy it from the insurer, you will get the policy documents via mail at the address mentioned and chosen by you. All the terms and conditions for that particular product would be clearly mentioned in the Policy Documents. A period of 15 days is provided to the customer to go through the Terms and Conditions of the policy in details and get back to the insurer in case of any queries and the insurer will clarify the same. This is the timeframe within which if there are certain queries unanswered or you are not satisfied with the terms and conditions mentioned in the policy documents, then you can cancel the policy without any charge. In case you choose to cancel the policy during the Freelook period, the following amounts would be deducted and the balance would be paid back to you:
- Mortality charges for the number of days from policy issuance to your cancellation
- Stamp duty charges
- Any expenses on account of medical tests.
Thus, once the policy is sold, the customer is not at the mercy of the Insurer. Each policyholder has a weapon in his hand called Freelook Period which he can utilize if required. However, if the customer does not come back within 15 days of receipt of policy documents, then the Freelook Cancellation would not be valid and normal procedures of the policy cancellation would be applicable. This is a great feature as you may have been mis-sold a policy by the agent and on receipt of the policy documents you may feel that you do not want it.
Usually all insurance companies grant a 15 days window of Free look Period where the customer can come back to the insurer and cancel the policy after reading the terms and conditions, if he is unsatisfied with the same, without any charges(except mortality charge for those 15 days and medical charges, if applicable). This period is called Free Look Period.
