The life insurance sector is
witnessing a slowdown, but at least one segment of the industry is growing in
leaps and bounds. Sales of online
term plans are booming, with
nearly 55,750 term policies sold in the past six months. During 2011-12,
roughly 49,500 plans were sold in the entire year and the figure is expected to
more than double this year.
On an average, every five
minutes somebody buys an online term plan in India. Insurance portal
Policybazaar.com gets almost 2,600 enquiries for term plans every day. The
portal has sold about 33,800 online term plans (60% of the total) in the past
six months, averaging more than 140 policies per day. The average cover is 72
lakh, which is 35 times larger than the average cover for all insurance
policies sold during the past six months.
Aegon Religare Life Insurance,
which pioneered the online sale of life insurance nearly two years ago, is the
largest player in this segment. It is followed closely by Aviva India. Snapping at their heels is HDFC Life, which launched its
Click2Protect plan in January this year. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance and Kotak Life Insuranceare the other
active players in this segment.
While other big players such as Reliance Life Insurance and Bajaj Allianz have also jumped
onto the bandwagon, Life
Insurance Corporation has shelved
its plans because of its powerful agent lobby
The article has been taken from leading newspaper The Economic Times.