In social media parlance, "LIC Uncle", refers to insurance advisors selling endowment insurance policies (and not just of one particular company). The phrase is often used to thrash the insurance policies that offer 5-6% guaranteed returns over 10-30 years, which are tax-exempt.
Interestingly, in most cases, the returns are superior to post-tax returns of Fixed Deposits. Plus these policies also have an additional death cover.
Financially speaking, despite higher first-year commissions, these endowment insurance policies are superior to fixed deposits and offer a guaranteed rate of return for 30 years whereas the longest tenure for Fixed Deposits is usually 10 years. Post which the individuals are exposed to reinvestment risk (which bites in the low interest rate environment like we are going through now!)
Objectively, if an individual is happy with Fixed Deposits (many of them are!) and has a long-term horizon, endowment policies are superior.
So the problem of mis-selling boils down to
✅Whether the endowment policies are aligned with the financial goals of the customer
✅Is the customer aware that surrendering the policies would lead to a loss in value
Need-based selling and creating awareness is the solution.