Jeevan Nidhi and Flexi Plus from LIC
Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has launched two new insurance products out of which one is a conventional product and the other is a UNIT linked product.

Flexi Plus is a unit linked insurance product. This plan provides a twin benefit: one is the lump sum benefit on the death of the insured and the other is the maturity benefit irrespective of the survival of the policyholder. The policyholder can choose the amount of premium he/she desires to pay, depending on which equivalent level of cover will be provided.

New Jeevan Nidhi is a conventional product with profit pension plan, which provides for death cover during deferment period and offers annuity on survival to the date of vesting.

Two New Plans from Edelweiss Tokio
Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance has launched two new plans under the name Edelweiss Tokio Life-Save n Grow Plan (WA) and Edelweiss Tokio Life-MultiGain Plan (WA). While Tokio Life- Save n Grow is a participating endowment plan with increasing protection over the policy term, Edelweiss Tokio Life-MultiGain Plan is a participating endowment plan with regular cash back WA stands for “wealth accumulation” and both these plans address the Wealth Accumulation needs of a customer and protect the family against any eventuality.

In both the plans, company will declare bonus every year which will be payable on death or maturity of the policy

Edelweiss Tokio Life–Save n Grow Plan(WA) is aimed to target the customers who want a mid to long term investment horizon and achieve their long term goals such as getting a home or meeting child’s education or marriage expenses. This plan offers a policy term of 15, 20, 25 and 30 years and the customer has an option of paying premium for only 10 or 15 years or paying it throughout the policy term. This plan offers an increasing death benefit. On death of a policyholder his family gets sum assured along with the increasing benefit of 15% of sum assured every 5th year from the policy inception.

Edelweiss Tokio Life–MultiGain Plan (WA) is typically a money back plan aimed at the customers with short term investment horizon who plan to achieve their short term goals such as buying a car or planning a holiday.

In both these plans, on maturity, the customer will receive the basic sum assured along with the accrued bonuses.

New Bancassurance Guidelines Proposed by IRDA
As per the statement of Mr. J Hari Narayan, the Chairman, IRDA, IRDA is expected to float its “Bancassurance’ guidelines by the first week of February. The new bancassurance guidelines would be beneficial to those banks who want to become ‘brokers’ as against their current role as “agents”. While an agent is a representative of a single insurance company, authorized to sell only one insurance company’s products, a broker is authorized to sell insurance products from multiple insurance companies. In the current bancassurance model, the banks are authorized to sell insurance products of only any one insurance company as its agent. The banks are looking forward to a new bancassurance model which will allow them to offer insurance products of multiple insurance companies.

While IRDA has expressed a positive nod to this proposal, RBI wants banks to restrict to one single company and continue being an ‘agent’.

New Retirement Plan from ICICI PruLife
ICICI Prudential Life launches a new retirement plan – “ICICI Pru Shubh Retirement”. This plan would address the growing need of post retirement income. This is a unit linked pension product which has been designed to protect the customer’s capital and offer higher returns.

The age bracket of this pension plan ranges between 35 and 70 years while the maximum maturity age is 80 years. The customers can choose a premium paying term of five or ten years.

This is the only pension product which offers consumers the flexibility to choose their investment strategy with varying levels of risk appetite on equity participation such as aggressive, moderate and conservative.

Future Generali Life MD & CEO resigns
Mr. Deepak Sood, MD & CEO of Future Generali Life Insurance has resigned his post and his resignation has been accepted by the shareholders.

G. N. Agarwal, Chief Actuary and Chief Risk Officer, has been appointed as the interim CEO.

New CEO for Reliance Life appoints Anup Rau as CEO
Reliance Life has appointed Mr. Anup Rau as its CEO who succeeds the place of Mr. Malay Ghosh, President and Executive Director. The appointment awaits the approval of IRDA.

Mr. Anup Rau, aged 39 years, joins Reliance Life Insurance from HDFC Life Insurance and brings with him over 17 years of industry experience. As the Head of Sales and Distribution in HDFC Life he was responsible for managing Sales Commercials, Distribution Operations and Sales Support. In his stint with HDFC Life Insurance, Mr. Rau has been instrumental in building new channels, transformation of agency channel, diversification of product mix and strengthening of bancassurance business.

Mr. Sam Ghosh, CEO, Reliance Capital, while speaking to the Press said that Mr. Malay Ghosh has made vital contribution to the company in its challenging times and he will continue to guide the company as a member on the Board.

Mr Rau will also be on the Board of Reliance Life Insurance.

Online Term Plan and Health Plan from Aviva
Aviva i-Shield is an addition to the suite of innovative online products that Aviva offers. The company currently offers a term plan – Aviva i-Life and a health plan – Aviva Health Plus as part of its online portfolio.

Aviva i-Shield provides life cover with a provision of return of 110% of paid premium, in case the insured survives the policy term. This product is designed to provide customers life insurance with a “zero wastage” proposition. It can be purchased online from Aviva’s official website www.avivaindia.com.

The key features of Aviva I Shield are: Entry Age (Last Birthday): 18 years to 55 years,
Maximum Maturity Age (Last Birthday) -65 years, Policy Terms - 10 years to 25 years and the Premium Payment Term (PPT) - Equal to Policy Term.

The admissible Sum Assured is in the range of Rs. 15 Lacs to Rs. 5 Cr (In multiples of Rs. 25,000), subject to underwriting. 110% of the premiums will be returned if the insured survives the policy term, provided all due premiums have been paid.

Two New Pension Plans from HDFC Life
HDFC Life Insurance has launched two pension plans in Kerala. They are: HDFC Life Pension Super Plus and HDFC Life Single Premium Pension Super. As the name suggests, HDFC Life Single Premium Pension Super is a single premium unit lined plan while HDFC Life Pension Super Plus is a regular premium unit linked plan. So far, HDFC Life has recorded a premium collection of Rs. 1 billion from these two new plans.

These plans are designed to help people to build a sizeable volume of funds for post retirement life. Both the plans offer assured benefit on death and vesting. HDFC Life Pension Super Plus offers assured death benefit of total premiums paid to date accumulated at a guaranteed rate of 6% per annum and an assured vesting benefit of 101% of total premiums paid. HDFC Life Single Premium Pension Super offers assured benefit of 101% of total premiums paid on death and vesting.

Launch of Online Licensing System by IRDA
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority is in process of launching the web-based Integrated Licensing Management System soon, which would enable submission of trainee enrollment forms, application of grant of fresh, renewal and modified licenses online. The website would be for all licensed individual & corporate surveyors & loss assessors.

As per the IRDA Circular, the online licensing system would enable the submission of applications of those surveyors belonging to both individual /corporate director and Partners who hold a valid license in their name as on the date of application and are duly categorized.

Insurance Bill Rejected in Parliamentary Panel
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance has rejected the proposal to increase foreign direct investment to 49%.

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government introduced the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2008, in the Rajya Sabha. The Cabinet approved amendments to the Insurance Bill, including higher FDI of 49% though the standing committee on finance had opposed any increase in FDI limits.

New Pension Plan from Birla Sun Life Insurance
BSLI Empower Pension, the new pension plan launched by Birla Sun Life offers customers a choice to select the premium amount, vesting date and risk profile. This is a non-participating ULIP Pension Plan.

In this plan, the policyholder enters two different phases namely the ‘accumulation phase’ and the ‘income phase’. This plan helps customers to accumulate their premiums and the investment returns into a corpus funds to meet their retirement needs which is known as the ‘accumulation phase’. The ‘income phase’ commences once the policyholders decide to vest their policy when they use their corpus to purchase annuity for procuring regular stream of income to take care the rest of their lives.

This plan offers tax benefits under Section 80CCC and Section 10 (10A) of the Income Tax Act, 1961

New Customer Centric Initiatives from Max Life
Max Life Insurance Company has been taking various initiatives towards ensuring customer satisfaction and retention during the year 2012. These initiatives include Claims Guarantee and the Benefit Illustration. The company now plans to launch the Key Features Document (KFD) very soon.

To enhance the post sales experience of its policyholders, Max Life Insurance also pledges a ‘Service Promise’ that will entail 20 seconds call pickup, 4 hour query acknowledgement, 24 hour resolution of simple queries such as NAV information, request for premium receipts etc., and free premium cheque pick up in 20 cities within 24 hours.

Now the company plans to focus on the policy contracts which are the most critical document as far as the policyholders are concerned. To address the gaps in the policy contracts, Max Life Insurance is planning to launch a simplified and summarized version explaining the key product benefits and features (KFD). The Key Features Document (mentioned above) will be sent along with the policy contract and will enable the policyholder to better understand the policy purchased. The company will soon be including the KFD as part of policy pack for the complete product suite.

Max Life Insurance is also tracking 100% achievement on all the parameters of its Claims Guarantee started in April 2012. During the year 2012, in 100% of death claims, the claim was settled within 10 days of receipt of all valid documents, account value was paid within 48 hours for unit-linked policies, and no investigation was initiated or no claims denied on policies more than 3 years old.

Vision Life Income Plan – A Traditional Whole Life Plan from Birla Sun Life
Birla Sun Life has launched a traditional participating whole life plan- Vision LifeIncome Plan which is aimed to target those who look for a life cover as well as regular income post policy paying period.

Under this plan, the life cover is extended till the end of the premium paying term. If the policyholder dies during the premium paying period, sum assured plus accrued bonuses till then and terminal bonus, if any, will be paid to the dependants. If the policyholder dies after the expiry of this period, the dependants will receive sum assured, along with bonus from the previous policy year and terminal bonus, if any. As survival benefits, 5% of sum assured every year will be handed out from the end of the premium paying term up to the age of 100 years or till the policyholder's death, whichever is earlier

The minimum sum assured under the policy is Rs 2 lakh.

Reliance Life Insurance Super Endowment Plan from Reliance Life
Reliance Life Insurance has launched Reliance Life Insurance Super Endowment Plan which is a non-linked, non-participating plan that offers guaranteed life cover and maturity benefits. This plan provides life insurance coverage for the full policy term by paying for just half of the selected policy period.

Mr. Anup Rau, the Chief Executive Officer who has been appointed recently has launched this new plan.

The new plan is available for customers in the age group 8-60 years with a minimum sum assured of Rs. 1 lakh. The policyholder can opt for two policy terms–14 years or 20 years.

An attractive feature of the policy is that the premium payment term is only half the policy term—7 years for a 14 year policy; and 10 years for a 20 year policy—while the Life Cover is valid for the entire period.

Online Term Plan from Tata AIA Life
Tata-AIA Life has announced the launch of iRaksha Supreme which is a pure protection term insurance policy that is being offered only through the online channel.

Since the minimum life cover offered under the policy is Rs 50 lakh, it will be difficult to buy these term plans by those who have lower affordability. Moreover, the plan does not come with any rider benefits viz. accidental death or critical illness etc.,

IndiaFirst Life to Recruit Agencies for Loyalty Programs
IndiaFirst Life Insurance has invited proposals for empanelment of agency for managing its loyalty programs.

The empanelment will be for three years, renewable yearly. The scope of work, evaluation criteria and timelines are available on the company’s website–www.indiafirstlife.com under ‘Tender’.

The last date for the submission of the proposal is 1 February 2013

IRDA’s proposed application forms are Complex
The Life Insurance Companies have expressed that the seven application form proposed by IRDA (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority) to facilitate need-based selling is too complex. The application form contains questions which customers have to fill so that their insurance needs are identified. This proposed application form is being drafted by IRDA with a view to prevent mis-selling of insurance products to the customers.

The application form has detailed questions which customers have to fill. The form also requires insurers, agents and brokers to sign on the recommendations they make to the customers, thereby putting the burden for selling the insurance product on them, the reports added.

The proposed application form has four sections—section A asks for details of the prospective customer; section B, specialised and additional information; section C, needs of the prospect; and section D, the recommendation of the agent.

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