MetLife India Insurance Company Limited (MetLife) today announced the launch of its new unit linked child plan - "Met Smart Child". As Indians, we aspire the very best for our children and Insurance companies want to encash that feeling by launching new products targeted for children. This is the second Child Savings Plan added in MetLife's portfolio, after Met Bhavishya.

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The Metlife child plan offers the same things as the other insurance companies in India. They all claim to offer a complete solution for child's higher education, even in the absence of parents. The life insured is the parent or grandparent and the beneficiary is the child/grandchild.

The fund will charge 7 per cent in the first year, 6 per cent in the second year and from third year onwards a charge of 5 per cent will be levied on the premiums before investing. The administration charges will be Rs 10 per month between first to fifth year and from sixth year onwards the administration charges become Rs 35 per month. The fund management charges will range from 1.10 per cent - 1.25 per cent and the mortality charges will be calculated on the basis of the attained age of the parent.

The fund is locked in for the benefit of the child till the child turns 18. This will ensure that the fund never gets misused and is solely used for the child's benefit.

Met Smart Child offers a differentiated death benefit. In case of the unfortunate demise of the parent, the sum assured under the product is paid immediately to the beneficiary and all the future premiums which would have been otherwise paid by the parent are paid by MetLife into the fund.

These future premiums are paid into the Balancer fund, which offers the twin benefits of potential equity based upsides as well the steady performance of the debt markets.

The plan is available in three terms of 10, 15 and 20 years with a minimum premium of Rs. 18,000. The amount cover is equal to 10 times of the chosen premium and remains constant throughout the term of the Policy. The plan comes with 6 unit linked funds for customers with varying risk appetite to choose from. It provides customers with an option of unlimited switches between the available funds to take care of the changing risk appetite of the customers.

Systematic Transfer Option under this plan allows the customer to hedge against the near term market volatilities and built corpus for long term systematically. Policies with 15 and 20 year term have a loyalty additions benefit of 2% and 3% respectively. These loyalty additions will be paid even on demise of the parent.

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