The low-cost Unit-Linked Plan KSIP offers long-term equity exposure while guaranteeing the sum assured. Other features include switching between funds, loan facility and surrender facility after three years. Along with these features of the KSIP, the enhancements on the new KSIP II provide for a 'lump sum injection', 'partial withdrawal', 'bond fund' and 'limited premium payment' option.

An investor with surplus money can make lump sum injection at anytime during the tenure of the policy. The lump sum money injected can also be utilized towards paying future premiums.

The 'partial withdrawal' feature, enables an investor to withdraw money from the fund through partial surrender of units thus extending liquidity in case of need.

Another significant feature of KSIP II is the introduction of the 'bond fund' in addition to the existing 'gilt fund', 'balanced fund' and 'growth fund' in the investment portfolio. The bond fund is an ideal option for an investor with relatively low risk appetite as the fund will invest in highly-rated debt instruments.

The 'limited premium payment' option addresses concerns of investors who may not wish to be burdened with long term premium commitments. The option of paying premium money is spread over a period of 3,5,7,10,15 years even though the term of policy may be longer.

The plan also offers loan facility and an array of six riders covering critical illness, accident and permanent disability etc.

Commenting on the launch, Shivaji Dam, MD, Kotak Life Insurance said " We are launching the Kotak Safe Investment Plan II to offer greater flexibility to the customer to inject and withdraw funds, to structure his payment modes which we believe will benefit the customer substantially".

The Aggressive Growth Fund
The company has added another fund to the four existing funds of the recently launched Kotak Easy Growth Plan (KEGP) - The Aggressive Growth Fund, which will invest between 60-100 per cent of the fund in equity shares. This fund is aimed at investors having preference for a high exposure to the equity market. All other benefits of KEGP, which include life cover, tax benefits, transparency, fund management skills, low cost operations etc. will apply to the new fund also. The fund management charge is at 1.6 per cent and the buy sell spread is 0.55 per cent only.