LIC enjoys quick start of Pension plans

Pension Plus introduced by LIC on 2nd September crossed more than 30000 policies. The plan has collected Rs.150 crore as premium. ICICI Prudential life is the only other private insurance company to get approval from IRDA for its ULIP pension plan. This was named as ‘LifeLink Pension SP'. ICICI have begun to sell the plan recently.

No more Universal Life insurance policies till IRDA’s further order

IRDA banned sale of universal life insurance policies from 22nd Oct 2010. Till the guidelines of these products are issued, the ban will be there. The Regulator said that this decision was taken based on the complaints received about the sale practices of the insurers. Universal life policies comes with traditional and ULIPs. Customers can select the option of changing premiums, the term and the sum assured.

Life Insurance industry before and after ULIP guidelines

An impressive growth of about 60% by the Life insurance industry is recorded in new business in the first half of this financial year. Eventhough slowdown happened in September sales, the companies could increase the growth. In September the new business was 48% lower compared to the previous month’s collections. Most of the insurance companies were concentrating on selling their ULIP products before the ULIP guidelines came into effect. After the new guidelines which came in September, the companies find it difficult to sell the products resulting in the slowdown on sales. Life insurance companies collected Rs.62361 crore in new business premium. LIC of India increased their market share to 73% and SBI Life emerged as the largest private sector player as of September 2010.

Insurance companies are confident that in the coming months more customers will buy ULIPs and the sales will increase once the agents get accustomed to the new commission pattern.

MetLife goes online with ‘Met Protect’

MetLife India has started its online product ‘Met Protect’ which is a pure-term insurance plan. Customers can logon to the company website and buy the plan. The customer can avail an affordable life cover protection. The plan has single and semi-annual premium payment options. Mr. Rajesh Relan, Managing Director, MetLife, said, “This is part of our larger strategy towards increasing our distribution reach and enabling us to maximise the benefits in order to provide value to the customers.” At present the company has about 55000 advisors and a bancassurance channel.

SBI’s 3rd ULIP past September’10

SBI Life has introduced their third ULIP after Septermber 1. The product named as Saral Maha Anand has a minimum yearly premium of Rs.15000 and a maximum of Rs.29000.

Aegon Religare seeking bancassurance tie-ups

Aegon Religare is ready to enter in a tie-up bancassurance in the near future. At present the insurer has tie-up with two co-operative banks in Maharashtra and Uttarakhand. Mr. Yatheesh Srivatsava, Chief Marketing Officer, Aegon Religare Life Insurance told “We are in advanced stages of dialogue with at least five banks — both from public and private sector”.

Insurers and infra structure bonds

Life Insurance Corporation is ready to approach IRDA to get approval for their infrastructure bonds. An individual can invest upto Rs.20000/- in the infrastructure bonds and claim tax benefit.  But IRDA has reservation about insurance companies floating infrastructure bonds.  IRDA Chairman, Mr. J Hari Narayan said, "As a regulator, we have certain concerns with regard to insurance companies issuing infrastructure bonds. I think there should be certain curbs on such issues by insurance companies. We are yet to look into this issue".  He said no insurance company has approached IRDA on this issue so far. In the present regulation, pure equity only is allowed as capital and debt is not allowed to be raised by insurance firms.

HDFC Standard Life expects break even in 2011-12

HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co. incurred Rs 2.75 billion loss in the financial year 2009-10. This is, of course, less than the previous year’s loss of Rs.5.03 Billion. The company is expected to stay red in this year also. Its chief executive, Mr. Amitabh Chaudhry said "If the premium continues to see the growth we are seeing and if we are able to manage the costs well, we should be able to break-even next year,” The company is expected to go for IPO in the second half of 2011 if the insurance bill raising the FDI in insurance companies to 49 % is approved by the Parliament

ING Life’s ‘prospering life’

ING Life has brought up a new ULIP named ING Prospering Life aiming at customers at the protection needs and wealth accumulation. The new products has a number of benefits to the customers including choice of 5 fund options, partial withdrawals free of charge, asset allocation etc. The product has annualized premium from Rs. 48000 to Rs. 96000 for long term options at competitive prices. The assured amount is equal to 10 times of the annual premium at inception for 45 years and less age group and 7 times of the annual premium for age above 45.

The company intends to increase the business to 15% from Kerala and aims at 20 to 25% growth in business from South India

DLF Pramerica life’s new products

DLF Pramerica Life launched four new products. Two traditional plans named DLF Pramerica Assure Money Plus and DLF Pramerica Tatkaal Suraksha Gold gives savings and protection plans. Assure Money Plus has minimum guaranteed earnings on maturity and the advantage of high life insurance cover.

Other two products are ULIP plans named DLF Pramerica Wealth Plus Premier which aims for high networth individuals seeking high investment returns with a secured future for the family and DLF Pramerica Ezee Wealth Plus with simplified underwriting

The company started its operations in September 2008 and at present it has 30 offices across Delhi NCR, Haryana, Punjab and Gujarat

Reliance Life announces highest NAV guarantee plan

Reliance Life Insurance Co. launched a new unit linked insurance plan named The Reliance Life Insurance Highest NAV Advantage Plan. The main features are guarantee on maturity with highest NAV per unit achieved during the entire policy term, pays the customer double the assured sum plus total fund value in case of accidental death for the base cover portion. The target customers are in the age group of 7-65 years. The policy opens two premium options at minimum Rs.20000/- yearly /half-yearly and quarterly or a single premium of Rs.50000/- at the start of the term. The policy comes with partial withdrawal, loan tie-ups.
Mr. Malay Ghosh, executive director and president, RLIC, "Our new unit-linked plan fulfils the diverse needs of customers across different segments while addressing their need for
long-term wealth-creation and increased life protection," This is the first product from Reliance Life after the new ULIP guidelines announced in September.

Bharti AXA aims to increase productivity

Mr. Glenn Williams, CEO of Bharti AXA life informed that Rs.450 crore might be added to their present capital base of Rs.1300 crore. They plan further redirect cost to achieve increased productivity as they have sufficient branches. It was further told that they would pay the fund value within 48 hours of receipt of the claim to customers and further delay might be compensated @1% of fund value per day of delay. The company plans to bring out NAV guaranteed plan shortly and also exploring option of selling policies online.

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