Some people compare life insurance with other saving instruments such as PPF as both can be saving avenues as well as allow one to reduce one's tax outgo. However, strictly speaking PPF and life insurance are actually two very different instruments with few features in common. Sound financial planning rests on the twin pillars of protection and savings. Protection always comes first because once you are fully insured even if something unfortunate happens to you, your family will be able to maintain its standard of living without any trouble. Only after ensuring financial protection can you think about saving for other goals such as your child's education, his/her marriage, your retirement etc. An example will bring out why the life risk element is the primary need in financial planning i.e. protection first, savings next: A person, aged 30 with good taxable income, wants to create a corpus for use after 15 years for the wedding of his daughter who is now 5...