Chennai: The Bangalore-based life insurer, MetLife India Insurance Company Private Limited, has launched two unit-linked insurance products Met Smart and Met Advantage.

Met Smart covers a person up to the age of 100 and comes with three death benefit and six investment fund options. A policyholder can switch between the death options once a year from the third year of the policy.

The policy also allows the face value of the policy to be increasesd or decreased and offers flexible premium paying option after the third year. A policyholder can increase, decrease, stop or skip premium payments when his needs and goals change.

The policy also allows policy-holders to exercise the option of withdrawing from the funds anytime after the first policy year to meet one's financial requirements, though this is subject to a customer having at least 5 per cent of the face amount value in the account. The first two partial withdrawals in each policy year are free of charge.

The premia qualify for tax rebate under Section 88 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 and its benefits — including partial withdrawals, surrenders and maturity proceeds qualify for deduction under section 10(10D) of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

Speaking about Met Smart, managing direcor Venkatesh Mysore, said, "Our product portfolio comprises participating and non-participating policies and we have designed Met Smart for the latter segment of people."

The second product Met Advantage has introduced is a unit-linked pension product offering a choice of six investment fund options and seven annuity vesting periods.

The pension product offers single or regular premium payment options. After paying premia for a minimum of five years, policyholders can stop or start, increase or decrease premium payments depending on their circumstances and needs, provided there is enough cash value in their account.

The premiums qualify for deduction under Sec. 80CCC of the Income Tax Act of 1961.

According to Mysore, in order to prevent and avoid mis-selling by its agents, MetLife India contacts the policyholders to check whether they have properly understood the policy features and whether their buying decision was based on a proper understanding of the products.