ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan: Good or Bad? A Detailed Review
What is legacy planning and why is it important for your family’s financial security?
Can the ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan help you build wealth and create a lasting legacy?
Is the ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan an effective way to pass on your hard-earned wealth to your loved ones?
Does the ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan really deliver on its promise of creating a lasting legacy?
In this article, we take a closer look at the ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan—its key features, potential advantages and important limitations.
More importantly, we explore whether this type of insurance-based investment is the right way to create and preserve a meaningful legacy for your family.
1. What is the ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan?
2. What are the features of the ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan?
3. Who is eligible for the ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan?
4. What are the benefits of the ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan?
5. Grace Period, Discontinuance and Revival of the ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan
6. Free Look Period for the ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan
7. Surrendering the ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan
8. What are the advantages of the ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan?
9. What are the disadvantages of the ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan?
10. Research Methodology of ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan
11. ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan Vs. Other Investment
12. Final Verdict on the ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan
ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan is a Non-Participating, Non-linked, Life, Individual, Savings Product.
It is designed to help you build long-term wealth for the people who matter most—your family.
It ensures that what you’ve built is passed on with clarity, efficiency, and confidence.
| Entry age | 40-65 years (Based on premium payment term) |
| Premium payment options | Limited Pay: PPT 3–10 years (age 40-65) and 11–15 years (age 40-75 years less PPT) |
| Policy term | Whole life (up to age 99) |
| Premium modes | Annual, Half-yearly, Monthly |
| Minimum premium | ₹5,00,000 (3-4 years) and ₹2,00,000 (5-15 years) |
Provided all due premiums have been paid, the Death Benefit payable, in the event of death or diagnosis of terminal illness (TI) (whichever happens first) of the Life Assured during the ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan policy term, will be the highest of:
where, the Minimum Life Cover is equal to Death Benefit Multiple times the Annualised Premium / Single Premium.
The Death Benefit Multiple applicable depends on Your Premium Payment Option and is outlined in the table below.
| Premium Payment Option | Entry Age less than 50 years | Entry Age greater than or equal to 50 years |
| Single Pay | 1.25 | 1.1 |
| Limited Pay | 7 | 5 |
Death benefit as Income Option: Your family can choose to receive the amount as a lump sum or as regular income for 5 years, or a mix of both, whichever works best for them.
Terminal Illness Benefit: In case the life assured is diagnosed with a terminal illness during the policy term, 100% of the death benefit is paid upfront, helping the family manage expenses or plan ahead during a difficult time.
On survival till maturity (99 years of age), the policyholder receives 100% of the total premiums paid.
On payment of the maturity benefit, the policy terminates.
Grace Period
The grace period for payment of premium is 15 days for monthly mode of premium payment and 30 days for other frequencies of premium payment, commencing from the premium due date.
Discontinuance
If any premium instalment is not paid within the grace period before at least one full year’s premium is paid, then the policy shall lapse, and the cover will cease.
If the ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan policy is not revived within the revival period, then the policy shall foreclose without any benefits payable and all rights and benefits under the policy shall stand extinguished.
If any premium instalment is not paid within the grace period, any time after one full year’s premium is paid, then the policy shall become a paid-up policy, and benefits will continue.
Revival
A policy can be revived within 5 years from the due date of the first unpaid premium and before the date of maturity of the policy.
On receipt of the ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan policy document, whether received electronically or otherwise, you have an option to review the policy terms and conditions.
If you are not satisfied or have any disagreement with the terms and conditions of the Policy or otherwise and have not made any claim, the Policy Document needs to be returned to the Company with reasons for cancellation within 30 days from the date of receipt of the Policy Document.
You can surrender the ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan policy any time:
Single Pay: You can surrender the policy any time immediately after payment of the Single Premium.
Limited Pay: You can surrender the policy any time after payment of at least one full policy year’s premium(s). Prior to receipt of one full year’s premium, no surrender value is payable.
On policy surrender, Surrender Value equal to the higher of the following will be payable:
Guaranteed Surrender Value (GSV)
Special Surrender Value (SSV)
Silver Benefit: Eligible policyholders can avail complimentary periodic health check-ups, helping them stay proactive about their health at no additional cost.
Premium Reduction Option: After five years, you can reduce your premium if your financial circumstances change, offering greater flexibility.
Loan Facility: You can avail a loan of up to 80% of the policy’s surrender value, subject to applicable terms.
Riders: Additional riders can be added to enhance the protection offered by the base policy.
Multiple Nominees: You can appoint multiple nominees, allowing you to distribute the policy proceeds among your beneficiaries as desired.
Unclear Increase in Death Benefit: The ICICI Pru Wealth Forever plan does not clearly explain how the death benefit increases over time, making it difficult to assess the actual benefit payable to the family.
Limited Benefit on Survival: Although the plan places strong emphasis on creating a legacy, if the policyholder survives the policy term, only the premiums paid are returned.
Uncertain Death Benefit: The base sum assured is predetermined and may cover only the initial period. The actual death benefit payable later is not clearly defined, making the legacy amount difficult to predict.
Let’s assess the ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan based on the returns it offers.
While the plan provides lifelong protection and an increasing sum assured, the key question is whether the returns are sufficient to create a meaningful legacy.
Consider a 50-year-old male who purchases ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plus with a Base Sum Assured of ₹50 lakh. He pays an annual premium of ₹10 lakh for 7 years.
| Male | 55 years |
| Base Sum Assured | ₹ 50,00,000 |
| Policy Term | Whole Life |
| Premium Paying Term | 7 years |
| Annualised Premium | ₹ 10,00,000 |
As per the policy brochure, the death benefit increases over time—from ₹58.97 lakh at age 60 to ₹1.02 crore at age 65, eventually reaching ₹5.41 crore at age 96.
| Age | Year | Annualised premium / Maturity benefit |
| 55 | 1 | -10,00,000 |
| 56 | 2 | -10,00,000 |
| 57 | 3 | -10,00,000 |
| 58 | 4 | -10,00,000 |
| 59 | 5 | -10,00,000 |
| 60 | 6 | -10,00,000 |
| 61 | 7 | -10,00,000 |
| 62 | 8 | 0 |
| 63 | 9 | 0 |
| 64 | 10 | 0 |
| 65 | 11 | 0 |
| 66 | 12 | 0 |
| 67 | 13 | 0 |
| 68 | 14 | 0 |
| 69 | 15 | 0 |
| 70 | 16 | 0 |
| 71 | 17 | 0 |
| 72 | 18 | 0 |
| 73 | 19 | 0 |
| 74 | 20 | 0 |
| 75 | 21 | 0 |
| 76 | 22 | 0 |
| 77 | 23 | 0 |
| 78 | 24 | 0 |
| 79 | 25 | 0 |
| 80 | 26 | 0 |
| 81 | 27 | 0 |
| 82 | 28 | 0 |
| 83 | 29 | 0 |
| 84 | 30 | 0 |
| 85 | 31 | 0 |
| 86 | 32 | 0 |
| 87 | 33 | 0 |
| 88 | 34 | 0 |
| 89 | 35 | 0 |
| 90 | 36 | 0 |
| 91 | 37 | 0 |
| 92 | 38 | 0 |
| 93 | 39 | 0 |
| 94 | 40 | 0 |
| 95 | 41 | 0 |
| 96 | 42 | 5,41,00,000 |
|
|
|
|
|
| IRR | 5.51% |
Even at age 96, the IRR works out to only 5.51% as per the ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan maturity calculator. This is a modest return, and the IRR would be even lower if the benefit were received at an earlier age.
More importantly, the IRR is lower than the long-term inflation rate.
As a result, the purchasing power of the eventual benefit could decline significantly over time.
Therefore, despite its focus on creating a legacy, the ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan may not be an efficient legacy-building investment.
Whole life insurance may appear to be a sensible way to provide lifelong financial security.
However, the primary purpose of life insurance is to protect dependents against the loss of income when the policyholder dies.
Once you retire and your dependents become financially independent, the need for life insurance generally reduces significantly.
If your retirement corpus is sufficient to meet your financial needs, purchasing whole life insurance may add little practical value.
For most individuals, pure-term insurance until age 60–65, during the earning years, is usually sufficient.
Since the ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan is positioned specifically as a legacy-creation solution, we have not considered the cost of term insurance in this comparison.
Instead, we assume that the entire ₹10 lakh annual premium is invested in equity during the initial years and subsequently shifted to debt for the remainder of the investor’s life.
This strategy could build a corpus of approximately ₹10.75 crore by age 96, compared with just ₹5.41 crore under the ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan.
| Age | Year | Term Insurance premium + Equity Mutual Fund |
| 55 | 1 | -10,00,000 |
| 56 | 2 | -10,00,000 |
| 57 | 3 | -10,00,000 |
| 58 | 4 | -10,00,000 |
| 59 | 5 | -10,00,000 |
| 60 | 6 | -10,00,000 |
| 61 | 7 | -10,00,000 |
| 62 | 8 | 0 |
| 63 | 9 | 0 |
| 64 | 10 | 0 |
| 65 | 11 | 0 |
| 66 | 12 | 0 |
| 67 | 13 | 0 |
| 68 | 14 | 0 |
| 69 | 15 | 0 |
| 70 | 16 | 0 |
| 71 | 17 | 0 |
| 72 | 18 | 0 |
| 73 | 19 | 0 |
| 74 | 20 | 0 |
| 75 | 21 | 0 |
| 76 | 22 | 0 |
| 77 | 23 | 0 |
| 78 | 24 | 0 |
| 79 | 25 | 0 |
| 80 | 26 | 0 |
| 81 | 27 | 0 |
| 82 | 28 | 0 |
| 83 | 29 | 0 |
| 84 | 30 | 0 |
| 85 | 31 | 0 |
| 86 | 32 | 0 |
| 87 | 33 | 0 |
| 88 | 34 | 0 |
| 89 | 35 | 0 |
| 90 | 36 | 0 |
| 91 | 37 | 0 |
| 92 | 38 | 0 |
| 93 | 39 | 0 |
| 94 | 40 | 0 |
| 95 | 41 | 0 |
| 96 | 42 | 10,75,42,676 |
|
|
|
|
|
| IRR | 7.43% |
The investment approach also generates an IRR of 7.43%, significantly higher than the plan’s 5.51%.
The comparison highlights an important point: insurance may not be the most efficient tool for creating a legacy.
A more effective approach is to buy adequate term insurance during your working years and invest separately to build wealth for your family.
The ICICI Pru Wealth Forever Plan provides lifelong life cover with a death benefit that increases over time.
However, the manner in which this benefit increases is not clearly defined. There is no meaningful survival benefit, while the maturity benefit is payable only at age 99.
More importantly, the 5.51% IRR is lower than inflation, which can significantly erode the purchasing power of the benefit over the long term.
Overall, the analysis suggests that ICICI Pru Wealth Forever may not be an efficient vehicle for either wealth creation or legacy planning and it also has a high agent commission.
Insurance-based investment is not the right strategy to create and preserve a meaningful legacy for your family.
Investors seeking to build a legacy may be better served by investing in equity instruments if they can accept higher risk, or debt instruments if they prefer lower risk.
The plan also comes with a relatively high cost for life cover.
In comparison, pure-term insurance provides substantial life cover at a much lower premium.
The amount saved by choosing term insurance can then be invested separately to build wealth and create a legacy.
The right strategy depends on your income, liabilities, financial goals and risk appetite.
Do Quora, Facebook, and Twitter have the final say when it comes to financial advice?
Consult a financial advisor to determine the appropriate life cover and build a customised investment strategy that aligns with your long-term goals.
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