Kolkata: Weddings in India are more than just ceremonies—they are grand celebrations of culture, love, and sharing happiness, marking one of the most significant milestones in a family’s life. At the same time, weddings have become a matter of social status, leading to the emergence of themes and destinations spreading over days and even weeks. As a result, ensuring adequate funds for the occasion requires meticulous financial planning, not just over a few months but over many years.
Historically, Indians have relied on gold, fixed deposits, and other community saving methods to prepare for wedding expenses. Investments in real estate and traditional savings schemes have also been common, offering stability and long-term value. However, these options often lack flexibility or the ability to grow wealth significantly over time.
Here is why life insurance solutions can provide a disciplined approach to goal-based savings. They combine wealth creation with financial security, ensuring the child’s wedding aspirations are fulfilled even in unforeseen circumstances.
A report by investment banking and capital market firm Jefferies highlights that India hosted over 80 lakh weddings in 2024, making the Indian wedding system the second largest globally, with an estimated spend of INR 10.7 lakh crore. On average, Indian weddings cost around INR 12.5 lakh—twice as much as the expenditure on education from preschool to graduation. Luxury weddings dominate the market, with expenses often rising above INR 1 crore.
Recognising the significance of weddings and their monetary impact on consumers, Tata AIA Life Insurance (Tata AIA), one of India’s leading life insurers, has introduced ‘Shubh Muhurat’, an innovative life insurance solution. It features capital guarantee with equity exposure, certainty of benefits to the desired beneficiary, life cover, immediate death benefit, and more to help parents save for their child’s dream wedding and ensure the occasion becomes memorable for a lifetime.
Commenting on the launch, Venky Iyer, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Tata AIA, said: “At Tata AIA Life, we endeavour to understand and address the unique needs of our consumers based on their life stages. Further, we understand the significance of weddings for parents. A marriage is not only a celebration of love and togetherness but also a testament to familial emotion and aspirations. Shubh Muhurat is intended to help families plan well in advance.”
“Also, we wanted to provide a solution that in the unforeseen event of the loss of life of the parent, the goal is protected. With Shubh Muhurat, we aim to help families confidently plan these joyous moments and ensure that they are taiyaar (prepared) to celebrate one of the most important milestones in their life.”
This solution is best suited for parents aged between 31 and 50 years, having children in the age group of 1 to 20 years. Investing in this solution early can give the parent long enough to accumulate the desired corpus for the child’s grand wedding.
Tailored Benefits of Shubh Muhurat
Shubh Muhurat is designed to make wedding planning a joyous, stress-free experience with the following unique benefits:
- Planning for the various wedding-related expenses: A wedding involves significant expenses spread across multiple stages—from booking venues, hosting ceremonies, expenditures on food and drinks, buying jewellery and wedding outfits, arranging accommodation for the guests, etc. Shubh Muhurta’s planned payouts ensure funds are available precisely when needed, allowing parents to focus on celebrating rather than arranging for money at the last minute.
- Capital Guarantee with Equity Exposure: The assurance that the premium paid will be protected provides parents financial security and peace of mind. Even if markets fluctuate, the guaranteed lump sum ensures that wedding plans remain on track, unaffected by market uncertainties.
- Long-Term Wealth Growth: Weddings often come with grand aspirations. Shubh Muhurat helps build a substantial corpus over time through market-linked investments. This ensures that the financial resources are adequate to meet even extravagant wedding dreams, such as destination venues or high-end arrangements, without compromising other life goals.
- Exclusive Protection under MWPA: By safeguarding the policy proceeds under the Married Women’s Property Act (MWPA), Shubh Muhurat ensures that the funds intended for the child’s marriage are legally protected and will only be available to the nominee regardless of external financial claims.
- Benefit Protection Rider: This rider provides unparalleled security:
• Immediate Death Benefit: In the unfortunate event of the insured’s demise, the family receives financial assistance to continue their life’s aspirations without disruption.
• Premium Waiver: Future premiums are waived, ensuring policy continuity without financial strain on the family.
• Maturity Benefit for Nominees: Even in the insured’s absence, the intended maturity benefit is paid, ensuring the child’s marriage goals are fulfilled.
Shubh Muhurat is* part of the broader Shubh Solutions suite being introduced by Tata AIA, offering tailor-made life insurance products for every stage of life—from wealth creation in the early years to funding for child’s education to marriage, fulfilling aspirations and legacy planning during the golden years. It aligns beautifully with Tata AIA’s brand promise of empowering its consumers to be ‘Har Waqt Ke Liye Taiyaar.’
Recognising that every family’s aspirations are diverse and may be different from child’s wedding at a particular time, Tata AIA is simultaneously introducing the second offering in this series – Shubh Fortune*.
Shubh Fortune is a comprehensive financial solution created to address diverse life milestones. Whether it is wealth creation in the early part of your career, planning for child’s education or fulfilling aspirations like buying a house, Shubh Fortune is designed to help individuals seamlessly navigate life’s major events.
Empowering Indian Families to Celebrate Without Compromise
With these innovative offerings, Tata AIA Life reinforces its dedication to helping Indian families plan and celebrate life’s most meaningful milestones. It reflects Tata AIA’s mission to create solutions that blend financial stability with cultural values, enabling families to cherish life’s special moments without financial strain.
* The solution is a combination of Tata AIA Life Insurance Fortune Guarantee Secure (UIN:110N206V02), an Individual, Non-Linked, Non-Participating, Life Insurance Savings Plan, and Tata AIA Life Insurance Smart Fortune Plus (UIN:110L177V01), a Unit-Linked, Individual Life Insurance Savings Plan.
About Tata AIA Life
Tata AIA Life Insurance Company Limited (Tata AIA) is a joint venture Company formed by Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd. and AIA Group Ltd. (AIA). Tata AIA Life combines Tata’s pre-eminent leadership position in India and AIA’s presence as the largest, independent listed pan-Asian life insurance group in the world, spanning 18 markets in the Asia Pacific region. Tata AIA reported a total Premium Income of INR 25,692 crore for FY24, up 25% from FY23. The Company continues to rank among the Top 3 Private Insurers in Individual Weighted New Business Premium (IWNBP) with an IWNBP income of INR 7,413 crore. The Individual Death Claims Settlement ratio improved to 99.13%. The Company also achieved industry-leading Persistency performance (based on premiums), ranking #1 in four out of five cohorts.
About the Tata Group
Founded by Jamsetji Tata in 1868, the Tata group is a global enterprise, headquartered in India, comprising 30 companies across ten verticals. The group operates in more than 100 countries across six continents, with a mission ‘To improve the quality of life of the communities we serve globally, through long-term stakeholder value creation based on Leadership with Trust’.
Tata Sons is the principal investment holding company and promoter of Tata companies. Sixty-six percent of the equity share capital of Tata Sons is held by philanthropic trusts, which support education, health, livelihood generation and art and culture.
In 2023-24, the revenue of Tata companies, taken together, was more than $165 billion. These companies collectively employ over 1 million people.
Each Tata company or enterprise operates independently under the guidance and supervision of its own board of directors. There are 26 publicly listed Tata enterprises with a combined market capitalisation of more than $365 billion as on March 31, 2024.
About AIA
AIA Group Limited and its subsidiaries (collectively “AIA” or the “Group”) comprise the largest independent publicly listed pan-Asian life insurance group. It has a presence in 18 markets – wholly-owned branches and subsidiaries in Mainland China, Hong Kong SAR (1), Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan (China), Vietnam, Brunei and Macau SAR (2), and a 49% joint venture in India. In addition, AIA has a 24.99% shareholding in China Post Life Insurance Co., Ltd.
The business that is now AIA was first established in Shanghai more than a century ago in 1919. It is a market leader in Asia (ex-Japan) based on life insurance premiums and holds leading positions across the majority of its markets. It had total assets of US$286 billion as of 31 December 2023.
AIA meets the long-term savings and protection needs of individuals by offering a range of products and services including life insurance, accident and health insurance and savings plans. The Group also provides employee benefits, credit life and pension services to corporate clients. Through an extensive network of agents, partners and employees across Asia, AIA serves the holders of more than 42 million individual policies and over 18 million participating members of group insurance schemes. AIA Group Limited is listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited under the stock codes “1299” for HKD counter and “81299” for RMB counter with American Depositary Receipts (Level 1) traded on the over-the-counter market under the ticker symbol “AAGIY”.
