Click 2 Achieve Smart Student Review: 3.6% for a Degree

Is HDFC Life Click 2 Achieve a good child plan?

It is honestly built and it is the lowest-returning guaranteed plan we have reviewed. Both things are true at once, and a fair review has to say so.

The brochure's own example: a child aged 5, a proposer aged 40, ₹30,386 a year for five years - ₹1,51,930 in total - producing ₹75,000 a year for three years, or ₹2,25,000, when the child reaches college age.

That is 1.48 times the money over fourteen years. As an annual rate it is about 3.6%.

What the illustration says

Both totals reconcile exactly against the brochure. Three payments of ₹75,000 is ₹2,25,000, and five premiums of ₹30,386 is ₹1,51,930.

The rate is about 3.6% a year. It moves a little with the exact payout years, which the brochure sets by whether the survival benefit starts at 16 or 18, but it does not move far.

Where that sits against everything else

This is the comparison that matters, because it is the same insurer and the same guarantee:

The plan wrapped in the most emotive purpose carries the weakest rate, by roughly two percentage points against its own stablemate.

The structural reason is not sinister: the money is in for a short time and comes back over only three years, and short-dated guarantees pay less. But the consequence is real. A parent choosing this over the same insurer's adult savings plan, and earmarking the proceeds for the same purpose, is accepting about two points a year for the packaging.

The premium waiver is built in, and that is the genuine strength

The standard objection to child plans is that they insure the child rather than the parent, so if the earning parent dies the plan collapses along with the income funding it.

This plan answers that objection properly. The brochure describes a built-in waiver, not a priced rider, covering all three of:

• death of the proposer,
• critical illness diagnosis in the proposer, and
• total and permanent disability of the proposer.

In each case all future premiums are waived and the contract continues, with the benefits paid as scheduled. That is the right architecture for an education goal, and it is the single best thing about the product.

Worth being precise about who is insured, though: the life assured is the child. The death benefit - the highest of the sum assured on death, 105% of premiums paid, or surrender value, where the sum assured is ten times annualised premium - is therefore cover on the child's life, and on the example it is ₹3,03,860. That is not meaningful protection and it is not meant to be. The waiver, not the sum assured, is what protects the goal.

The Outstanding Achievement Award

An unusual inclusion. The plan pays two times the annualised premium if the child achieves any of:

• admission to a top-100 ranked world university or top-10 ranked Indian university,
• qualification for the Olympics, Paralympics or Winter Olympics,
• a gold, silver or bronze medal at the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, or a recognised world championship.

On the example that is about ₹60,772. It is a nice gesture and it should not enter your arithmetic: the qualifying bar is extremely high, and no purchase decision should rest on it.

The inflation point, which matters more here than usual

Education costs in India have historically risen faster than general inflation. A plan returning about 3.6% a year has to be judged against that rate, not against zero and not against a savings account.

This is not a reason to dismiss the plan. Certainty has value, and a parent who knows exactly what arrives in the year the fees are due has bought something real. But the honest framing is: you are buying a known amount on a known date, at about 3.6% a year, in a category where costs may rise faster than that.

What to ask before buying

1. Ask for the rate, not the total. "₹2,25,000 from ₹1,51,930" and "about 3.6% a year" describe the same contract.
2. Ask what the same insurer's adult savings plan pays over a comparable period, then decide whether the child-specific packaging is worth the difference.
3. Confirm the waiver applies to the person earning the money. It attaches to the proposer, so the proposer should be the earner.
4. Check the survival benefit start age, 16 or 18, and the payout length, 3, 4 or 5 years. Both are fixed at inception and both move the return.
5. Size the protection separately. If your child's education depends on your income, term insurance on your own life is the instrument that protects it, and life insurance vs term insurance explains why the two keep getting conflated.

FAQs

What return does HDFC Life Click 2 Achieve give?

About 3.6% a year on the brochure's own example, where ₹30,386 a year for five years, or ₹1,51,930, produces ₹75,000 a year for three years, or ₹2,25,000, over a fourteen-year term. That is 1.48 times the premiums paid, and it is the lowest rate among the guaranteed plans we have reviewed.

Is Click 2 Achieve better than a regular guaranteed savings plan?

On rate, no. The same insurer's Sanchay Plus returns 5.03% to 6.15% on its published illustration against about 3.6% here. What Click 2 Achieve adds is the built-in premium waiver and payouts timed to college age. Whether that timing and that waiver are worth roughly two percentage points a year is the actual decision.

What happens if the parent dies?

The plan continues. The built-in waiver cancels all future premiums on the death of the proposer, and also on a critical illness diagnosis or total and permanent disability, with benefits paid as scheduled. That is the right design for an education goal and it is included rather than charged as a rider.

Who is the life assured on a Click 2 Achieve policy?

The child. The death benefit is therefore cover on the child's life, set at ten times the annualised premium, which is ₹3,03,860 on the brochure's example. It is not income replacement for the family, and it is not intended to be - the premium waiver is the feature that protects the goal.

What is the Outstanding Achievement Award?

A payment of twice the annualised premium if the child gains admission to a top-100 world or top-10 Indian university, qualifies for the Olympics, Paralympics or Winter Olympics, or medals at the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games or a recognised world championship. The bar is high enough that it should not factor into the buying decision.

When does the money come out?

In the policy year the child turns 16 or 18, whichever is chosen at inception, paid over the last three, four or five policy years. The final instalment is paid at maturity and there is no separate maturity benefit on top.