IDBI Federal makes the quickest break-even
IDBI Federal has recorded a maiden profit of Rs. 9.24 crore during the financial year 2012-13 which is its fifth year of its operations. This is claimed to be The company has reported a maiden profit of Rs. 9.24 crore in 2012-13, thus making it one of the fastest to break-even in the Life Insurance industry one of the fastest to break-even in the Life Insurance industry where there are challenges of falling margins, shrinking new business volumes, high cost ratios and low profitability.

IDBI Federal started its operations in March 2008. IDBI Federal’s New Business Premium (APE) grew by 23% in 2012-13, which compares with the negative growth of -15% posted by the industry. The company also witnessed a 44% increase in the number of new business policies sold as compared to the previous year.

IDBI Federal has a healthy solvency ratio at 491% as against the regulatory requirement of 150% with a paid-up share capital of Rs. 800 crore. IDBI Federal has paid-up share capital of Rs. 800 crore.

IDBI Federal Life Insurance’s performance has been a result of its better than industry business growth, better persistency experience, more profitable product-mix, robust investment performance as well as lower cost ratio. In a fast-changing industry landscape, IDBI Federal was quick to realize the challenges and act on them.

New Guidelines on Traditional Life Insurance Products from IRDA
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has introduced a new set of guidelines for traditional life insurance products by engaging additional staff in product approvals.

It is understood that IRDA would be complying with the July and October deadline for re-filing the group and individual products of life insurers.

The new guidelines comprising of changes in the product structures, charges ad commission structures will be implemented from July 1, 2013 for group products and October 1, 2013 for individual products.

New Formula for Persistency Rates -IRDA
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) is working through a new formula for calculating persistency rates of life insurers.

Persistency ratio shows the percentage of policies that continue paying premiums rather than cancel policies. A higher ratio is better than a lower ratio. IRDA is expected to disclose the revised persistency ratio soon.

According to Sudhin Roy Chowdhury, Member-Life, IRDA, the regulator will disclose the new formula soon.

HDFC Life launches 'ClassicAssure Plus' protection cum investment plan
Following the recent regulatins of IRDA with regard to Traditional and ULIPs, HDFC Life Insurance, has launched HDFC Life ClassicAssure Plus, which is a participating, traditional insurance plan. This Plan offers limited premium payment term along with a guaranteed reversionary bonus during the premium payment term. In line with the new regulation, the plan also offers higher death benefit during the policy term. This plan is ideal for meeting long-term financial goals and creating security and prosperity, according to Sanjay Tiwari, VP, Products, HDFC Life.

New Retirement Plan from ING Life
Tapping the potential in the Retirement Life Cycle of human beings, ING Vysya has designed a new Retirement Plan - “ING Golden Years Retirement Plan”. This Plan will help the customers to create a solid corpus for the retired life.

The unique feature of the ING Golden Years Retirement Plan offers several benefits that include guaranteed returns and unlimited-top ups and flexible premium payment terms The premium can be paid either monthly or annually. The premium amount can be increased or decreased keeping the premium amount same subject to meeting the applicable minimum premium. The retirement age can be postponded depending upon change in the retirement planning of the individual policyholder.

All the premiums paid are tax free under section 80C.

Private life insurers Record increase of ' YoY premium by 19% in April
According to IRDA data, Private life insurers' first year premium collections increased 19% to Rs. 13.34 billion in April 2013 compared to Rs. 11.25 billion in the same period last year.

During the period under review, SBI Life’s first year premium collections zoomed 65% to Rs. 2.85 billion as against Rs. 1.73 billion.

HDFC Life's first year premium rose 44% to Rs. 1.6 billion as against Rs. 1.14 billion, while Reliance Life’s first year premium increased 29% to Rs. 1.11 billion as against Rs. 860 million.

Smart Pension Plan from Reliance Life
The plan allows saving from age of 18 years to help create large corpus till retirement

With increasing life expectancy, the need for encouraging long-term savings on the part of the youth population is critical. Considering this, Reliance Life Insurance (RLI) launched Smart Pension Plan which is a comprehensive non-participating unit-linked pension plan that offers a range of benefits and encourages early saving for post-retirement financial independence. This plan offers individuals to start savings early and create a long-term corpus that ensures post-retirement security.

‘Smart Pension Plan’ offers a range of unique benefits including: starting as early as 18 in order to benefit from the power of compounding; the only retirement plan that offers rider options to customers to safeguard against accidental death, illnesses and even life insurance; guaranteed returns and loyalty additions safeguard against volatile market conditions. It is tailor-made to include riders, guaranteed returns and flexibility of premium payment that allows creation of long-term corpus for post-retirement and provide safeguards against life’s uncertainties. This plan comes with five riders viz. accidental death and total and disablement rider, term life insurance benefit rider, new major surgical benefit rider, new critical conditions benefit rider and family income benefit rider.

Smart pension Plan is available for individuals in the age group of 18-65 years with a minimum policy term of 10 years and a maximum of policy tenure 30 years, while the maturity/vesting age is between 45 and 75 years.

In case of death of the life assured before the maturity and vesting date, the higher of the total balances in the unit account or 105% of the total premiums paid will be paid to the nominee. On survival of the life assured, up to the end of the policy term, the higher of the total balance in the unit account or 101% of the total premiums paid will be paid to the policyholder.

Product Re-filing process ready from IRDA
Till now, IRDA has cleared 50 products under the new regulatory regime for traditional products.

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) confirmed that the products sent for re-filing that are compliant with the new guidelines would be cleared in a week’s time.

So far, IRDA has cleared 50 traditional products under the new regulations. The new products that have been cleared have complied with the guidelines issued by IRDA on the traditional products in February 2013 which include changes in the surrender charges, product structures and commission paid to the agents. Companies have to re-file those products which do not conform to the revised norms. The last date for re-filing of group insurance products is 1st July 2013 and for individual products is 1st October.

According to IRDA norms, current products of life insurers cannot be sold to customers after October1, if they are not in line with the regulatory changes.

Expansion of Agency Force by Shriram Life
Shriram Life Insurance plans to focus on Group Insurance business in the next three years. The main target will be from small and medium enterprises. The Company is clear that there is great potential in the group insurance segment viz. employees deposit linked insurance scheme (EDLI) and group gratuity.

To tap the potential from the Group Insurance segment, the company has planned to recruit 8000 new agents this year. Shriram Life is also planning to expand its presence in the tier II and IV cities with 40 new branches and recruit 300 people.

While the Hyderabad-based Life Insurer has 60% share of its business from the South, it plans to spread its base in North and West that includes Chhattisgarh, M.P., Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Rajasthan.

S K Roy is LIC Chairman
Mr. S K Roy has been appointed as Chairman of Life Insurance Corporation of India by the Government who would be taking over the position from D K Mehrota, the current Chairman whose term ended on 31st May 2013. Mr. Roy would hold the office for a term of five years.

New IRDA Compliant “Flexi Save” from Bharti AXA Life
Bharti AXA Life Insurance, has launched a unique traditional participating endowment plan - Bharti AXA Life Flexi Save. This is the first product launch as per the new IRDA guidelines on traditional products.

The plan provides the policyholder a lump sum benefit at maturity with life insurance cover. There is a unique feature to this plan that offers flexibility to the customer to modify the policy maturity date and withdraw their savings with full maturity benefits, based on their needs.

The policyholder can decide to withdraw his savings anytime during the Flexi benefit period (i.e., the last 10 years of the policy term) and avail the maturity benefits which is 100% of Sum Assured plus accrued reversionary bonus till date plus terminal bonus, if any. In the event of death, the policyholder or nominee shall receive higher of either sum assured or 105% of premiums paid till date of death or a multiple of Annual Base Premium.

LIC to set up 300 mini offices by end-June
As per the statement of Mr. Thomas Mathew T, Chairman-in-charge of LIC, The Life Insurance Corporation of India will set up 300 mini offices across the country by end of June and towards this activity, LIC is opening 10 mini officers a day.

These office are meant to provide basic insurance services and would be managed by the existing LIC employees.

LIC has 2,067 offices and satellite centers across the country and will open 1,320 more.

LIC should protect its shareholding: Takru
Rajiv Takru, Financial Services Secretary emphasizes highest governance standards from LIC. He said that LIC should protect its shareholding and ensure highest standards of corporate governance.

Though LIC manages assets worth over Rs. 13 trillion and investments in hundreds of Indian companies, it is looked at as a passive fund manager.

In order to pose aggressiveness in managing its assets and investments, LIC should, according to Takru, should exercise greater control and seek more board seats if required, in some of the listed companies in which it has sizeable holdings to ensure the safety of investments.

ING completes sale of 49% stake in KB Life
ING announced that it has completed the sale of its 49% stake in Korean insurance venture KB Life Insurance Company Ltd (KB Life) to joint venture partner KB Financial Group, one of Korea’s leading financial institutions.

In a Press Release on 20th June, ING confirmed that it received a total cash consideration of KRW 166.5 billion (approximately EUR 115 million) for its 49% stake in KB Life.

Great Place to Work for – IndiaFrist Life tops the 100
IndiaFirst Life Insurance, was ranked amongst the top 100 Great Places to Work for in India on the survey conducted by the Great Place To Work Institute India.

According to Dr. P. Nandagopal, MD & CEO, IndiaFirst Life, “People form the bedrock of our business. We encourage our employees to think new, be honest, be helpful and do more. We don’t think we can establish the culture of a Company by merely laying rules and policies. While rules are important, it’s much better to go beyond the rules”

IndiaFirst has also been ranked amongst the top 5 Best Companies for Flexibility and Work Life Balance.

Uttarakhand calamity: FM asks LIC to relax claim norms
The incessant rain that hit Uttarakhand from June 14 triggered flash floods and landslides leading to thousands of deaths and thousands more are missing. Over 1 lac people have been evacuated so far from the affected areas.

To help the aggrieved who have lost their near and dear in this calamity, P Chidambara, Union Finance Minister has directed LIC to set up a special team for settlement of claims. LIC has followed similar practice in case of the 2004 Tsunami and Earth Quake in Bhuj and Latur in 2001. He said LIC has to dispense with the normal compliance practices in such cases. He said the rule of presumption of death should not be 7 years in these cases for those who are missing in this calamity. In such cases, Indemnity Bonds can be taken and the claims can be settled on top priority.

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