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Volume 10, Issue 5, May 2014
 


Exide Acquires 100% stake from ING Vysya Life Insurance
ING Vysya Life Insurance becomes Exide Life Insurance following regulatory approval with the formal exit of ING Group from the insurance venture. Exide Industries, the battery makers has acquired 100% ownership of ING Vysya Life Insurance in 2013. The Company had recorded doubling in profits to Rs. 53 crore driven by growth in renewal premiums and improvements in efficiency and product mix.

Last year, ING exited from the life insurance venture with selling 26 per cent stake to domestic partner Exide Industries, manufacturer of electric storage batteries.

According to industry sources, the company was exploring for a potential partner after acquiring 26% stake from ING Vysya Life Insurance and there were talks with Samsung Life of Korea and Manulife of Canada. However, the Company has refuted such plans.

Shriram Life Insurance records profit for profit for FY14 
Shriram Life Insurance Company today had posted 4.87 per cent growth in profit to Rs 86 crore and profit after tax at Rs. 82 crores for 2013-14 financial year.  The company had recorded the total gross premimum collected at Rs. 395 crores for FY 2013-14 as against Rs. 421 crores during the previous financial year.  

The total number of policies stood at 1.38 lakh during 2013-14 as against 1.54 lakh policies of the previous year. Ms Akhila Srinivasan, the MD of the Company said that the company focuses more on quality rather than business volume and the company is planning to expand to other locations apart from the currently operating southern territories.

Seven New Plans from IDBI Federal Life Insurance
IDBI Federal Life Insurance, a joint-venture between IDBI Bank and Ageas, a multinational insurance giant based out of Europe, has launched four individual products and three group plans. According to a Press release by the CEO Vighnesh Shahane, the CEO of the company, the new plans focus on customer needs of financial security, savings and growth of investments.

The four new individual plans include Incomesurance Guaranteed Money Back Insurance Plan, a guaranteed traditional non-participating money-back plan with a 10-year term, and Lifesurance Savings Insurance Plan, a traditional participating endowment plan with guaranteed additions, bonuses and accidental death benefit.  Childsurance Savings Protection Insurance Plan, a traditional participating endowment plan with guaranteed annual payouts and inbuilt waiver of premium and Wealthsurance Suvidha Growth Insurance Plan, a unit-linked endowment plan aimed at the first time ULIP customer.

The three new group plans include Termsurance Group Insurance Plan, a pure term cover plan for group members, Group Microsurance Insurance Plan, a microinsurance plan, and Loansurance Group Insurance Plan, a group insurance plan   aimed to cover the customer's outstanding debt. 

Life Insurers in bind over mandatory customer bank account details 
IRDA, the Insurance Regulator has come out with a new norm which makes it mandatory for the insurers to seek bank details of new policyholders buying new insurance policies effective from April 1, 2014. As per this new norm, the insurers have been asked to collect bank account details at the time of sale of new policies so that all payments can be made through electronic transfer.

For existing customers, the life insurers have been asked to intimate their existing customers for providing bank account details by August 2014.

This has put the life insurance companies, including the state-owned LIC into a complex situation where the premium collection happens in cash in many new policy sales. Moreover, compliance of these norms becomes more difficult in smaller towns where the banking channels are not widely used. According to a senior LIC official, around 40 per cent of insurance premiums come in cash and expecting all of them to have a bank account, as of today, is still premature. 

According to industry sources, the Insurance Companies have decided to represent to IRDA for easing out this norm at least in terms of more time for compliance.

New Term Plan from PNB Met Life
Met Family Income Protector Plus Plan launched by PNB Met Life is a term insurance plan designed to offer a guaranteed monthly income for up to 20 years to the family of the policyholder upon his death. This plan has the facility of choosing between a lumpsum pay out or monthly pay out to the family of the customer. There is also the option of return of premium at the end of the policy term. This option provides coverage during the policy term and return of 110% of the premium paid at the end of the policy term.

Mumbai has highest number of critical illness insurance policies
The life style of the Mumbaites has resulted in increased number of critical illnesses to them leading to increased number of critical illness insurance policies in Mumbai.

The ICICI Lombard Tobacco Consumption Habits 2014 survey results reveals that Mumbai has the highest number of insurance policies which cover critical illnesses including ailments related to tobacco consumption. The survey said that two-thirds of the respondents have a health insurance policy in Mumbai. Over 41% of the respondents in Mumbai have increased cigarette consumption in the last 2-3 years whereas only 14% have decreased consumption. Almost half of the respondents have not disclosed their smoking / chewing tobacco habits in the insurance policy declaration. Only 1 in 4 respondents are willing to buy a health insurance policy.

While 8 in 10 respondents feel health insurance is a necessity, about three-fourth of the respondents consider health insurance as a tax saving investment. Only 9 out of 10 smokers have never tried to quit smoking, among the survey respondents. 

Reliance Life new business rises 40% at Rs. 1,934 cr in FY14
Reliance Life Insurance has recorded its new business premium collection at Rs. 1934 crores during 2013-14 from Rs. 1377 crore in the previous financial year. The increase shows 40% sure in the new business premium income in the Fy 2013-14.

The entire life insurance industry has shown a growth of new premium income by 11.6% while Reliance has registered a rise of 6% in its total premium income comprising new business and renewal premium collections to Rs. 4283 crore in the financial year ended March 31 2014 from Rs. 4045 crore in 2012-13.

Exide Life Insurance aims 10% growth in 2014-15
Exide Life Insurance had recorded doubling in profits to Rs. 53 crore driven by growth in renewal premiums and improvements in efficiency and product mix. The Company expects 10% growth in 2014-15 following the strong rebranding initiatives and the expected turnaround in the economy. The total premium income has grown to Rs. 1830 crores in spite of the challenging market conditions.

Currently the company is present in over 200 cities with over 10 lakh customers.

Latest Initiatives from Tata AIA Life
Life insurance is a long term solution and customers need to be guided properly with the policy benefits. In this direction, Tata AIA Life Insurance has initiated a unique engagement program under the banner “Face to Face” with the objective of proactive query resolutions to the customers on their insurance requirements and to engage with them better. The program has been organized in approximately 150 Tata AIA Life branches across the country. Under this unique initiative, the customers are welcome to visit their nearest Tata AIA Life branch on a specific date which is communicated to them by way of SMS or e mails. During this personal meet, the customers are updated on the various services of Tata AIA Life and help them in managing their policies effectively along with the new services launched.

To encourage the customers to reduce paper usage, the Company has decided to plant trees when customers register their email IDs and opt for e-communication. For every 10 policies registered with Tata AIA Life, the Company will plant one tree. The trees are planted by Grow Trees, a tree planting partner of the United Nations, at pre-selected locations. The initiative was started in February, 2014 and till March 2014, approximately 8,000

Tata AIA Life has also been taking several initiatives to ensure that the customers are able to pay the premium regularly, thereby, ensuring that their Protection cover continues. The company recently launched Revive, a special drive to reinstate lapsed insurance policies. Under this initiative, the policies that had lapsed with Premium due date between 1st April 2012 to 31st December 2013 were not charged any interest to revive their policies and also were not required to submit any health declaration certificate for the reinstatement. policyholders have been registered for e-communication.  

HDFC Life posts Rs. 725.3 crore profit in FY’13
HDFC Life Insurance Ltd., has recorded a profit of Rs. 725.3 crores for the financial year 2013-14. The company recorded 7% growth in total premium, primarily driven by 17% growth in renewal premium and 30% growth in group business. The company has introduced new processes to strengthen the quality of business which impacted growth in individual first year premium.

Key Financial and Operational Highlights:
Total premium: Growth of 7% to Rs 12,063 crore from Rs 11,323 crore in 2012-13 largely due to healthy growth in renewal premium and group business;

First year premium (Individual business): Introduction of stringent measures to strengthen the quality of business resulted in a deceleration in business through Bancassurance channel and we closed the year with Rs 2,356 crore which is a de-growth of 24% vs previous year;

Renewal premium: 17% increase to Rs 8,024 crore from Rs. 6,887 crore in 2012-13. Consistent renewal growth over the years, aided by a number of customer education initiatives, reflects the quality of business underwritten by HDFC Life;

Market share: Continue to be amongst the top 3 private players in individual and group business. Ended the year with a market share of 13.8% in Individual business (private industry) in terms of Weighted Received Premium (WRP); a rebound in Q4 with market share of 15.6%;

Operating expenses ratio: Expense ratio maintained at 10.7% and is one of the best in the private industry. This is despite making significant investments in new distribution channels, technology and products;

Conservation ratio: Persistent efforts in customer education, customer interaction avenues and a heightened focus on “need-based” selling helped in maintaining the conservation ratio at a healthy level of 79% (PY 79%);

Assets Under Management: 25% growth (PY 24%) to Rs 50,258 crore as compared to Rs 40,108 crore in the previous year;

Balanced product portfolio: Maintained a balanced product mix with ULIPs contributing 49% and Conventional business forming 51% of the APE (Annual Premium Equivalent) in the Individual business. Within the the Conventional business segment, the Company’s strategy of increasing its focus on Non Participating business worked well and it contributed to 15% of overall individual APE (PY 3% );

Diversified distribution mix: Efforts to fortify and diversify channel mix have started yielding results with channels other than bancassurance contributing 30% (PY 28%);

Claim settlement ratio: Ranked 1st in group claim settlement ratio (99.8%) and 2nd in Individual claim settlement ratio (95.7%) amongst private players (as per the data published by IRDA for 2012-13)

Source: India Infoline

DHFL Pramerica Life Insurance Launches 'Knowledge is the Best Policy'
DHFL Pramerica Life Insurance Company Ltd.(DPLI) is a joint venture between Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd. (DHFL), India's second largest private sector housing finance company and Prudential International Insurance Holdings, Ltd. (PIIH), a fully owned subsidiary of Prudential Financial, Inc. (PFI).

The Company has launched an initiative that would enhance customer awareness on their insurance planning and requirements. The initiative is called as “knowledge is the best policy” campaign in order to education customers on various matters relating to financial planning.

The ‘Knowledge is the Best Policy’ campaign seeks to educate customers on various matters such as steps to maximize benefits from insurance, how to stay covered through better policy management, and ways to get their service requests and grievances addressed.

According to Mr. Anoop Pabby, MD & CEO, DPLI, “To increase life insurance penetration in our country, educating customers on the need and benefits of insurance is a must. It is heartening to see the steps being taken by IRDA to encourage insurers to step up their efforts in creating awareness about insurance.  Eventually, this will help customers make an informed decision to protect themselves financially”

The communication material for the awareness campaign has been designed to be simple and reader-friendly so that customers can relate to, and assimilate the content easily. Various basic topics like understanding the fine print of one’s policy document, sharing details with the nominee, keeping the policy in a safe place and paying renewals on time have been addressed through this initiative.

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