LIC's Two New Plans Go On Sale This Week — Which One Actually Pays for a Child's Education?
Life Insurance · Product Launch · India · September 2026
LIC’s Two New Plans Go On Sale This Week — Which One Actually Pays for a Child’s Education?
LIC’s Bima Platinum (Plan 770) and Jeevan Raksha (Plan 894) were launched on 1 September 2026, the Corporation’s 70th anniversary, and open for sale on 7 September 2026. One is a savings plan that pays out in instalments. The other is pure term cover capped at ₹24 lakh. Only one of them can build a fee corpus.
Two new LIC plans reach counters on 7 September. Within a day, most parents comparing them will ask the same question in the same wrong shape: which of the two is the better plan for my child? The launch details make that question almost unanswerable, because the two products are not competing for the same job.
Bima Platinum accumulates money and hands it back in scheduled instalments. Jeevan Raksha pays nothing at all unless the insured person dies during the policy term. A parent planning school and college fees needs one of those things guaranteed and the other bought cheaply. Getting the order wrong is the expensive mistake.
Quick Summary
Bima Platinum is the education-funding plan of the two. It pays a Booster Income Benefit of 70% of the Basic Sum Assured at the end of the (premium paying term plus five) year, plus 10% of the Basic Sum Assured every year through the payout period, with Guaranteed Additions of ₹70 per ₹1,000 of annual premium accruing each year of the premium term. Jeevan Raksha is pure risk cover with a maximum Basic Sum Assured of ₹24 lakh, which is protection for the plan rather than the plan itself.
What We Know: the confirmed detail behind both launches
LIC announced both products on 1 September 2026 and disclosed the launch to BSE and NSE under Regulation 30 of the SEBI listing rules. These are the features stated at launch.
LIC’s Bima Platinum
- Non-par, non-linked individual plan combining savings and protection, sold on a limited premium basis.
- Guaranteed Additions accrue at ₹70 per ₹1,000 of annual premium, at the end of each year of the premium paying term.
- Booster Income Benefit of 70% of Basic Sum Assured on survival at the end of the (PPT plus 5) year.
- Regular Income Benefit of 10% of Basic Sum Assured at the end of each year of the payout period.
- Minimum Basic Sum Assured ₹3,00,000, in multiples of ₹10,000, with no stated upper limit.
- Premium paying term options of 7, 10, 12, 15 and 18 years.
- Entry age from 30 days completed to 55 years; maturity age from 28 to 75 years.
- Rebates for existing policyholders and for nominees of deceased policyholders; riders available.
LIC’s Jeevan Raksha
- Non-par, non-linked pure risk plan paying a guaranteed, fixed death benefit during the policy term.
- No bonus, no share in surplus and no discretionary benefit of any kind.
- Entry age 18 to 45 years; maturity age 33 to 60 years, so the shortest possible term is 15 years.
- Basic Sum Assured from ₹5 lakh to ₹24 lakh, subject to underwriting.
- Steps of ₹50,000 between ₹5 lakh and ₹7 lakh, and ₹1,00,000 above ₹7 lakh.
- Single, regular and limited premium payment options.
- Special rates for women and a high sum assured rebate.
- Riders available to widen the cover.
Why comparing them head to head is the wrong instinct
Insurance marketing invites a straight fight between two products because a straight fight is easy to publish. Here it hides the structure. Bima Platinum turns premiums into a schedule of guaranteed cash flows. Jeevan Raksha buys the largest death benefit LIC will sell under this plan for the smallest premium, and returns nothing if you live.
An education goal has two failure modes, and they need different instruments. The first is that the money simply is not there when the admission letter arrives. The second is that the parent paying the premiums dies at 44 and the plan stops halfway. A savings plan answers the first. A term plan answers the second. Buying one and calling the job done leaves a hole you will not notice until it matters.
The sequence experienced planners use
Cover first, corpus second. Work out what the family owes and what it would need if the earning parent disappeared, buy term cover for that number, and only then decide how much monthly surplus goes into a guaranteed savings plan. Doing it the other way round produces a well-funded corpus that nobody is left to keep funding.
Inside Bima Platinum: three separate payments, not one maturity cheque
The plan pays in three streams, and this is what makes it readable as an education product rather than a generic endowment. Take a Basic Sum Assured of ₹10 lakh with a ten-year premium paying term, purely to see the shape of the numbers.
The Regular Income Benefit is 10% of the Basic Sum Assured, which is ₹1,00,000 at the end of each year of the payout period. The payout period is the policy term minus the premium paying term, so a longer policy term means more of these payments. The Booster Income Benefit is 70% of Basic Sum Assured, which is ₹7,00,000, payable on survival at the end of the fifteenth year in this example. Guaranteed Additions accrue separately at ₹70 per ₹1,000 of annual premium each year of the premium term, which is 7% of the annual premium a year.
The 70% that behaves like a first-year fee cheque
A single ₹7,00,000 payment landing in one identified year is unusual in an income-style plan, and it is the feature that maps onto education. Most fee shocks are front-loaded: admission, first-year tuition, hostel deposit, equipment. If the booster year is aligned with the child’s eighteenth birthday, that lump lands exactly where the largest single bill sits, and the 10% annual payments then cover the years that follow.
The timing trick: lining up the booster year with the admission year
Because the booster is fixed at the end of the (PPT plus 5) year, the premium paying term is effectively a timing dial. A seven-year term puts the booster in year twelve. An eighteen-year term puts it in year twenty-three. Choosing the term is therefore not only a cash-flow decision, it decides which birthday the biggest cheque arrives on.
Where Jeevan Raksha stops: the ₹24 lakh ceiling
Jeevan Raksha does one job cleanly and cheaply, and the special rates for women plus the high sum assured rebate make it cheaper still for some buyers. The constraint is the ceiling. The maximum Basic Sum Assured under this plan is ₹24 lakh, and that figure has to be read against what it would be asked to replace.
Read that chart once and the role of the plan becomes obvious. ₹24 lakh does not replace a parent’s income and fund a degree. It is a useful block of cover, particularly for a younger buyer paying low rates, or as a top-up sitting above an existing term policy. Treating it as the family’s only life cover is where the trouble starts.
The number that quietly decides everything: education inflation
Every guarantee in a savings plan is a rupee figure fixed today. Fees are not. Published analyses place education inflation in India at roughly 10 to 12% a year, against consumer inflation of about 5 to 6%. The gap is the whole problem.
The trajectories are documented. IIM Ahmedabad’s MBA fee has moved from about ₹4 lakh in 2007 to about ₹27.5 lakh, which works out to roughly 12% a year. IIT fees have gone from about ₹50,000 a year to about ₹2.5 lakh a year over fifteen years. Private engineering sits at ₹15 lakh to ₹20 lakh and climbs at around 10% annually.
Fix the sum assured to the future bill, not today’s
If the target is a course costing ₹20 lakh today and the child is three, the relevant number is not ₹20 lakh. At 10% it is closer to ₹1.1 crore by the time the admission letter arrives. A guaranteed plan sized against today’s fee schedule will deliver exactly what it promised and still fall short, which is the single most common disappointment with guaranteed education products.
Side by side, on the criteria that actually decide it
| What you are checking | Bima Platinum | Jeevan Raksha | LIC child plans | Term plus SIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary job | Build and release a corpus | Replace income on death | Build a corpus for the child | Cover plus growth |
| Pays if you survive | Yes, in instalments | No | Yes | Yes, from the fund |
| Maximum cover | No stated upper limit | ₹24 lakh | Plan dependent | Set by underwriting |
| Entry age | 30 days to 55 years | 18 to 45 years | 30 days to 13 years | Adult buyer |
| Return certainty | Guaranteed percentages | Fixed death benefit | Guaranteed or with bonus | Market linked |
| Payout timing control | Via premium paying term | Not applicable | Fixed to child’s age | Withdraw at will |
| Inflation protection | None built in | None built in | None built in | Depends on returns |
| Main risk to you | Under-sizing the cover | The ₹24 lakh ceiling | Rigid payout ages | Sequence of returns |
Which one fits, by where you actually stand
Four mistakes that show up every time a guaranteed plan launches
- Insuring the child instead of the earner. A child’s death is a tragedy, not a financial event for the household. The cover belongs on whoever pays the bills. Bima Platinum accepts entry from 30 days, which makes it tempting to put the policy on the child; that decision should be about who receives the payouts, not about buying the child life cover.
- Reading the booster as the whole return. 70% of Basic Sum Assured is a payout, not a yield. What matters is that payment plus every year of income plus Guaranteed Additions, measured against total premiums paid across the term.
- Sizing the plan against today’s fees. The chart above is the argument. A guarantee fixed in 2026 rupees meets a bill priced in 2044 rupees.
- Ignoring the minimum maturity age. Bima Platinum’s minimum maturity age is 28 years. If the policy is written on a young child’s life, the contract cannot mature before that child turns 28, which changes what the plan can and cannot do around an eighteenth birthday.
Decoder: the launch vocabulary, in plain terms
| Term used at launch | What it means | Why it matters to you |
|---|---|---|
| Non-par, non-linked | No bonus, no market exposure | Every benefit is contractual and known in advance. |
| Basic Sum Assured | The reference figure all benefits are set against | Both the 70% booster and the 10% income are calculated on it. |
| Guaranteed Additions | ₹70 per ₹1,000 of annual premium, added yearly | Calculated on premium, not on sum assured. Different base. |
| Premium Paying Term | Years you pay: 7, 10, 12, 15 or 18 | Sets the booster year at PPT plus five. |
| Payout Period | Policy term minus premium paying term | Decides how many annual income payments you receive. |
| Pure Risk Plan | Death benefit only, nothing on survival | Jeevan Raksha returns nothing if you outlive the term. |
| High Sum Assured Rebate | Lower rate per ₹1,000 at larger cover | Buying closer to the ₹24 lakh cap can cost proportionately less. |
What Is Still Unclear
The launch disclosure is a feature summary, not a prospectus. Four things a buyer needs are not in it.
- Premium rates. Nothing published so far allows a return calculation. Until the sales brochure and premium tables are out, any percentage return quoted for Bima Platinum is a guess.
- The permitted policy terms. The payout period is defined as policy term minus premium paying term, but the range of policy terms allowed against each premium term has not been stated publicly.
- The maturity benefit. The announcement describes Guaranteed Additions, the booster and the annual income, without spelling out what is payable at maturity or how the accrued additions are released.
- Surrender and paid-up treatment. Long premium terms make this material, and it sits in the policy document rather than in the launch note.
A checklist to work through before you sign
One recent change worth knowing
GST on individual life insurance premiums was removed in India with effect from 22 September 2025. Premiums quoted on both these plans should therefore carry no GST component, which makes the older premium comparisons you may find online misleading by roughly the tax that used to sit on top.
Frequently asked questions
Which LIC plan is better for a child’s education, Bima Platinum or Jeevan Raksha?
Bima Platinum, because it is the only one of the two that pays out while you are alive. It gives 70% of the Basic Sum Assured as a Booster Income Benefit at the end of the premium paying term plus five years, and 10% of the Basic Sum Assured each year of the payout period. Jeevan Raksha is a pure risk plan and pays only on death, so it protects the education plan rather than funding it. Most families need both, in that order.
When do LIC’s Bima Platinum and Jeevan Raksha go on sale?
Both plans are available for purchase from 7 September 2026. They were launched on 1 September 2026, on LIC’s 70th anniversary, and the launch was disclosed to BSE and NSE under Regulation 30 of the SEBI listing regulations. Both can be bought offline through licensed agents, corporate agents, brokers and insurance marketing firms, or online through LIC’s own website.
What is the Booster Income Benefit in LIC Bima Platinum?
It is a payment equal to 70% of the Basic Sum Assured, payable on survival of the life assured at the end of the year that falls five years after the premium paying term ends. On a Basic Sum Assured of ₹10 lakh that is ₹7,00,000. Because the premium paying term is chosen at the outset from 7, 10, 12, 15 or 18 years, you effectively choose which year that lump sum arrives.
What is the maximum sum assured under LIC Jeevan Raksha?
₹24 lakh, subject to underwriting. The minimum is ₹5 lakh, in steps of ₹50,000 up to ₹7 lakh and ₹1,00,000 above that. The cap matters for education planning because ₹24 lakh has to cover income replacement and fees together, and a single private engineering degree already costs ₹15 lakh to ₹20 lakh today.
Can I buy LIC Bima Platinum in a child’s name?
The entry age starts at 30 days completed, so a policy can be written on a very young life. Note the minimum maturity age of 28 years, which means such a policy cannot mature before the child turns 28 even though the booster and annual income arrive earlier. Consider whether the parent or the child should be the life assured, and confirm the effect on payout timing in the sales brochure.
How much will my child’s degree actually cost by the time they get there?
Published estimates put education inflation in India at roughly 10 to 12% a year, about double consumer inflation. At 10%, a course costing ₹20 lakh today is close to ₹52 lakh in ten years and about ₹1.1 crore in eighteen. For overseas study, add rupee depreciation, which has historically run at 3 to 4% a year against the dollar. Size any guaranteed plan against the future number, not the current one.
Are these better than LIC’s existing child plans like Jeevan Tarun or Amritbaal?
They are structured differently rather than being straightforwardly better. LIC’s child plans pay against the child’s own age, with Jeevan Tarun offering survival benefits from age 20 and maturity at 25, and New Children’s Money Back paying 20% of Basic Sum Assured at ages 18, 20 and 22. Bima Platinum ties the payout to the premium paying term you choose, which gives more control over timing but no automatic alignment with a child’s milestones.
Is the payout from an LIC savings plan tax free?
It depends on the conditions being met. For non-linked policies issued on or after 1 April 2023, the exemption is not available where the aggregate annual premium across such policies exceeds ₹5 lakh, and the annual premium generally must not exceed 10% of the sum assured. These provisions were carried into the new income tax law from the earlier Section 10(10D). Confirm your own position with a tax adviser before relying on it.
The short version
LIC has put a savings plan and a term plan on the counter on the same day, and only one of them can fund a degree. Bima Platinum pays 70% of the Basic Sum Assured in a single identified year, 10% a year through the payout period, and Guaranteed Additions of ₹70 per ₹1,000 of annual premium during the premium term, which makes it usable as an education instrument if the booster year is aligned with the admission year. Jeevan Raksha is cheap, clean protection with a ₹24 lakh ceiling that will not, on its own, replace an income and pay for a course. Buy the cover first, size the corpus against inflated fees rather than today’s, and ask for the benefit illustration before the brochure gets folded away.
