Make sure the rider adds value rather than just adding to cost.
Life insurance sector in India grew by 41 per cent in 2005-06 due to better performance of country's largest life insurer, LIC, and private players like Bajaj Allianz and ICICI Prudential.
Young investors with a higher risk appetite are better off with a combination of term insurance and equity funds.
The insurer is a venture between banking major ICICI Bank and the UK's Prudential Corporation Holdings. Singapore's Temasek and Premji Invest are also the shareholders.
Ask rediffGURU Naveenn Kummar your insurance mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
HDFC Life, which posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 281.83 crore (Rs 2.81 billion) for the quarter ended June compared with Rs 11.92 crore (Rs 119.2 million) in corresponding period last year (according to HDFC's first quarter results), has diversified its distribution mix.
Private life insurers experienced reasonable growth in the July-September quarter (second quarter, or Q2) of 2023-24 (FY24), and the October data is also encouraging. The individual weighted received premium (WRP) for private players grew by 19.8 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in October. However, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India had slower growth, pulling the industry growth rate down to 13 per cent Y-o-Y.
In order for life insurance customers to attain maximum benefits, it is crucial for the persistency ratio to be far higher than its current level, top executives of the industry said at the Business Standard BFSI Insight Summit on Thursday. The persistency ratio is a metric that measures the number of policyholders who continue paying renewal premium and is gauged at varying stages in the life of a policy. A higher persistency ratio is seen as an indicator of an insurance product that caters satisfactorily to the needs of a customer.
Private life insurers are expected to deliver decent growth in the first quarter of the 2023-24 financial year (Q1FY24) on the back of stronger group business performance and easing supply-side constraints on individual protection. Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), though, is likely to see a decline. Healthy 12 per cent year-on-year (YoY) retail annual premium equivalent (APE) growth for private players, coupled with 11 per cent year-on-year (YoY) decline in LIC, will pull retail APE growth to a mere 3 per cent YoY in June 2023.
With "profitable growth" replacing "expansion drive" as the buzzword in the sector, the country's top private life insurers have significantly reduced branches and employees over the last couple of years to cut costs and improve efficiency.
As of March 25, life insurers have paid Rs 1,986 crore towards 25,500 Covid death claims
Sources said that this is a contingency plan, in the event of an exit of the present heads of its two subsidiaries ICICI Prudential and ICICI Ventures. At present, Shikha Sharma is managing director & chief executive officer (CEO) of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, while Renuka Ramanathan is managing director and CEO of ICICI Ventures.
Biocon has tied up with ICICI Prudential Life Insurance to market its insulin, Insugen. Accordingly, the company will offer insulin at a subsidised rate to all 'diabetic care' insurance policyholders of the insurance company.
Life insurers' new business premium (NBP) reported stellar performance in November after a poor showing in October, on the back of strong growth in group single premiums for both private insurers and Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India. In November, 24 life insurers, including LIC, reported NBP to the tune of Rs 27,177 crore, up 42 per cent year-on-year (YoY) from the year-ago period. Private insurers' NBP rose 58.63 per cent YoY to Rs 11,209.75 crore as group single premiums more than doubled during this period.
Gautam Adani-owned Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) will replace IT major Wipro in the 30-share BSE Sensex from June 24, according to an official announcement on Friday. This marks the first inclusion of any Adani Group firm in Sensex. The group has 10 listed firms with a combined market valuation surpassing Rs 17 lakh crore.
The share of life insurance policies sold by top private insurers in the rural areas declined in the financial year 2023-24 (FY24) compared to previous year. SBI Life, HDFC Life, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance -- the top three players from the private sector-- have seen the share of insurance policies sold in rural areas drop in FY24 as compared to the previous financial year. Max Life Insurance's share of rural policies recorded an increase in FY24.
The country's largest private sector life insurer, ICICI Prudential Life, on Wednesday said it will hire 3,000 people in the next two months, debunking reports of any reduction in workforce.
'As our per capita income increases and various demographic segments emerge, the need for various kinds of protection and risk covers will become even more explicit.'
Prudential ICICI's managing director, Shikha Sharma, talks about how the journey has been so far and also why she thinks unit-linked insurance plans are the best allocators of long-term funds.
New India Assurance and Niva Bupa have invested in the Bima Sugam India Federation.
ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd will consider an initial public offering on reaching an overall market share of around 10 per cent even as ICICI Prudential Life Insurance plans to increase its capital base in the current fiscal.
High-value insurance policies experienced muted growth in the first six months of the current financial year after the Centre decided to tax such products in this year's Budget. Simultaneously, there has been a marked improvement in the growth of policies with premiums of 'less than Rs 5 lakh', mainly originating from smaller cities. During this year's Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed that insurance policies (excluding unit linked insurance plans or ULIPs) with an aggregate premium exceeding Rs 5 lakh, and the maturity amount, would not be exempt from tax.
Life insurance companies reported a 17 per cent year-on-year (YoY) drop in new business premium (NBP) in February as state-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India's premiums contracted 32 per cent during this period on account of a drop in its group single premium segment. According to data released by the Life Insurance Council, the industry earned an NBP of Rs 22,847.65 crore in February - a drop of 17 per cent from the same period a year ago.
A month down the line, you may be holding insurance policies in electronic form. According to sector experts, the regulator is in the last lap of checking repositories' preparedness and infrastructure, and is likely to allot licences by May-end or early June.
The 100-stock largecap basket of Mutual funds (MFs) has seen a major reshuffle in the latest semi-annual reclassification with seven midcap stocks and four new listings earning the largecap tag. According to a report from Nuvama Alternative & Quantitative Research, the midcap stocks that have been upgraded include CG Power, Rail Vikas Nigam, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, Polycab India, Indus Towers, Cummins India, and Info Edge.
'If through growth and serving the customer we become number one, we will be very happy and very proud.'
Life insurers are aggressively targeting HNIs. A look at some of the products on offer.
Sandeep Bakhshi named chief operating officer, who would be handling all the businesses.
SBI Life, ICICI Pru have seen their valuations increase by 33 per cent and 35 per cent recently. SBI Life Insurance has seen its valuation soar after just 3 months while ICICI Prudential's valuation has increased in just 5 months.
Some of the key names include: Maruti, M&M, Ashok Leyland, Britannia, Ultratech, JK Cement, Havells, Voltas, Amber, Metro, Trent, LemonTree, Indian Hotels, Niva Bupa, HDFC Life, IGL, Acme Solar, Suzlon, Swiggy, Delhivery, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finance, Shriram Finance," according to a report by Motilal Oswal Financial Services.
Bupa and Axa have already declared their intention to raise stakes.
Our focus around technology, cost efficiency, persistency and effective distribution channel will continue, says the ICICI Bank MD and CEO.
A seasoned banker with over 30 years of experience, Bakhshi is a mechanical engineer from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh. He has a post-graduate degree in management from Xavier Labour Relations Institute.
ICICI Pru's IPO is being managed by 10 investment banks, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch and ICICI Securities