Plan 720's money-back structure trades a larger single maturity payout for a series of intermediate cashflows: 20% of BSA returned at years 5, 10, and 15, followed by the residual 40% at maturity. For policyholders who need liquidity milestones — school fees, a daughter's wedding, down payment on a flat — this timing is genuinely useful, provided they actually retain the money rather than spend it on discretionary consumption. The most misunderstood feature is the simple reversionary bonus: unlike the death benefit or maturity SA, the SRB is computed on the full original BSA every year, not the 'remaining' BSA after each survival payout. This is the right number; LIC's participating money-back valuation explicitly uses the original BSA as the bonus base. The XIRR of 5–6% is modest but the product is not pretending to be an equity-linked vehicle.

• Survival benefits of 20% of BSA at years 5, 10, and 15 return ₹3 lakh on ₹5L BSA during the term — useful liquidity anchors if you actually have specific uses planned for those dates.
• SRB accrues on the full original BSA (not the 'remaining' balance after each payout) — a genuine participating-plan feature that makes the bonus pool larger than casual reading of the brochure suggests.
• The maturity payout is only 40% of BSA (because 60% has been returned), but full bonuses (SRB × 20 years) and FAB are added on top — total maturity value is typically 2–3× the residual BSA at base bonus.
• Death benefit = max(125% BSA, 7× annualised premium) + vested bonuses, regardless of SBs already paid. A policyholder who collected all three SBs before dying still leaves the full SA to the family — a genuine consumer-protection feature.
• §80C applies to premiums; §10(10D) applies to maturity and death benefit. Survival benefit payments to the life assured are also tax-free under §10(10D), not just the terminal payout.
• Compared with a term plan + mutual fund of the same premium outlay, the money-back XIRR of 5–6% consistently underperforms after tax. Plan 720 is a forced-savings vehicle, not an investment.

Asymmetrica isn't an insurance advisor. The opinions above are editorial; the numbers in the calculator are computed from the plan's own brochure. Read both, then decide.