Thursday, January 2, 2014

Over 400 life insurance products to hit Indian market next year

The Indian insurance buyers will have more options to choose from different life insurance products of different insurers from 2014. Following the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority's (IRDA's) new product guidelines, which emphasises insurers to make products more customer-friendly and transparent, hundreds of new products are expected to hit the market by early next year.

The regulator's new guidelines would be applicable from January 1, 2014. Earlier, the deadline to sell old products was October 1, 2013, but the regulator had extended the deadline, after the country's largest insurer Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India had sought an extension of the deadline.

As of now, the IRDA has already approved 4oo products. Market experts are expecting this would heighten competition in the segment, which would benefit the customers most.

Along with several insurers, state-owned insurer the Life Insurance Corporation of India is all set to withdraw several of its products including Jeevan Anand, Jeevan Saral and Jeevan Madhur and launch new products in their place. Insurers such as HDFC Life, ICICI Prudential, Reliance Life Insurance, PNB MetLife and Max Life have already launched several new products which include term, savings, investment, retirement and health.

On the new product guidelines, the CEO and MD of Max Life Insurance, Mr. Rajesh Sud said, “The industry will start the new year with a bouquet of completely new products and with a state of readiness in terms of operation and training of distributors ..the regulatory changes in product guidelines have not only resulted in change in product design and features but also require changes in systems and operations."



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