Bangalore:In bid to attrract investors the Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority (IRDA) are coming up with two additional options on pension products.Under the current option,policy holders get a minimum 4.5 per cent return a year, which will be subsequently linked to the Reserve Bank of India's reverse repo rate. According to Shilpy Sinha of Business standard the first option would offer pension products with a capital guarantee and a minimum 5 per cent return on the accumulated sum of the policyholder at maturity. In addition, the holder will get a large portion of the actuarial surplus. The second option would be similar to the New Pension Scheme (NPS) floated by the Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority, where as much as 60 per cent could go into equity and the remaining into fixed-income instruments rated at least AA. In the last two to three years of the term, the entire fund would be moved to debt. However, this option may not be as attractive, as the fund management charges would be comparatively higher than the 0.009 per cent levied by the six NPS managers at present. The move by Irda follows a decline in new plan offerings by insurers under rules introduced from September 1. At present, insurers have to ensure a 4.5 per cent return a year, in addition to capital guarantee. This prompts them to play safe and invest mainly in debt. Under the first option, insurers will have the flexibility to invest half their funds in equities, which typically provide a higher return than government securities. "We are likely to offer more choice by introducing capital guarantee and an NPS-like scheme. We want to assure investors that capital is protected on the whole," said a senior Irda official. In the new regime, most insurance companies have confined themselves to filing single-premium pension products.Under these, a policyholder pays a premium only once, at the time of buying the plan. However, single-premium pension products not only fail to offer long-term protection, as the corpus is limited to the initial payment, but also limit the returns, the official added.