# Opinions on investing in smart wealth plan by bank? This is not that different from the query on LIC. Bank / Insurance company would take your money, invest in some market-linked securities, deduct insurance related charges; and give you back peanuts. Upside is limited, but bank would sell you on the idea that downside is also limited. As a rule of thumb, any policy or plan sold by bank, especially one that has a *smart* in its name, can be avoided without further consideration. ULIP (Unit Linked Insurance Policy), Endowment plan, Annuity Plan - these are all great plans for the banks & insurance companies. But they are terrible for you. Before buying into any bank products that are sold with such hopes and optimism, ask the bank RM to put you in touch with an existing subscriber, so you can review returns-in-the hands of an investor who actually invested in that. Note that just because a bank RM is selling you, doesn't mean its returns are guaranteed by the bank. Other than bank deposits, nothing else is guaranteed, even if a bank sells you that. You can look at the brochure / policy doc, and you'd see nice fat projections. But that's all those are - projections. Per IRDA regulation, banks & insurers can create projections with 8% and 4% return as illustrations. That's not a guaranteed amount. Some banks do sell guaranteed annuity and similar products. Putting those in a single excel sheet, or Google Spreadsheet, and invoking `XIRR()` function would show you that returns would barely be anything close to long term FD returns. Here's an example from #insurance channel: As said above, buy term cover if you need insurance. Invest in market-linked cost-efficient assets if you need returns. Most importantly, don't mix insurance with investment, where investment pays for the insurance. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://www.indiainvestments.wiki/faqs/insurance/opinions-on-investing-in-smart-wealth-plan-by-bank.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.