Thursday, October 8, 2009

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Life Insurance Market in India


The Life Insurance market in India is an underdeveloped one that was tapped by the state-owned LIC until the entry of private players in the market. Insurance products reached only 19 percent of the 400 million of the insurable population. The state owned Life Insurance Corporation sold insurance only as a tax instrument and not as a product that gave protection. Most customers were under-insured with no transparency in the products. With the coming of the private insurers the rules of the game has changed.

The 12 private insurance companies offering life products in India have already grabbed nearly 9 percent of the market in terms of premium income. The new business premium of the 12 private players has tripled over the couple of years. Meanwhile, the state owned Life Insurance Corporation's new premium business has fallen steadily. And in the coming days more private players are to join the market.

Innovative products, smart marketing strategies and aggressive distribution networks have enabled the private insurance providers to attract Indian customers faster than anyone ever expected. Indians, who always looked at life insurance as a tax saving device are more aware about the need for having insurance for life. People are now suddenly turning to the private sector and buying new innovative products on offer.

The growing popularity of the private insurers is overwhelming but the state owned insurance companies still dominate segments like endowments and money back policies. Te private insurers have taken over 33 percent of the market in the annuity or pension products. And in popular unit-linked insurance schemes they have a virtual monopoly, with over 90 percent of the customers.

Private insurers are scoring big in other ways. They are persuading people to take bigger policies. For instance, the average size of a life insurance policy before privatization was around Rs.50,000. That has risen to about Rs.80,000. But private insurance companies are way ahead in this game and the average size of their policies is around Rs.1.1 lac to Rs.1.2 lac, way bigger than the industry average.

By these super success stories, all private insurers are moving to the second phase of their expansion plans. No doubt the aggressive drive of private insurers is already paying rich dividends. But LIC is also not lagging behind, it is trying to fight back and woo new customers by introducing newer products and quality service.

Bijeta has experience in content development for various domains like IT, SAP, Creative and now Insurance!

Insurance Brings Peace of Mind

Most people find insurance annoying. People don't understand why it's the law to have insurance on things like their cars, house and businesses. That's because nothing bad has ever happened to them before. The problem with that train of thought is that something bad might happen to them eventually and insurance will be there to help them along the way. Having to deal with problems and expenses that you simply cannot afford at the time is never something to look forward to. Insurance will always be there to back you up and ensure that you won't have to pay the full amount to cover whatever mishap may have occurred.

Auto insurance is the most famous and somewhat annoying insurance out there. The thing about auto insurance is that it is also the most useful and probably most used insurance that people ever buy. People get into accidents all the way, whether it is just a small fender bender or a full on total crash. Accidents do happen, so insurance is there to not only protect you from the law, but to also protect you from having to pay a lot of money straight out of your pocket for something that you may or may not have had any control over. Auto insurance for you works if you get into an accident with someone else and the accident is found to be your fault. Your insurance will pay for the other car's damages while leaving you with a very little bill on your end.

Home insurance is another big one that people need. Although less frequently auto insurance, home insurance is used by a lot of people because accidents happen in the home as well. You cannot control nature, so if nature hits in the form of a fire or flood, you are basically out of luck unless you have insurance. Home insurance will protect you against things like floods and natural disasters and can even be as specific as helping to protect your home from things like break-ins and robbery.

Business insurance is used by all businesses and is extremely important unless you want to get sued for a lot of money. If you own a business, you must get business insurance so that if something happens to any of your employees, you will not need to directly deal with the situation.

Insurance is an important aspect of life, so make sure that you get insured for all of the things that need it in your life.

What Is Payment Protection Insurance?

You may have experienced a purchase of a new vehicle, a residential apartment, or a home decor item and have done the payment via credit card, financial plan, or credit facility. Payment protection insurance, or PPI, is when you are offered a warranty of repayments on all credits through insurance plans.

Payment protection insurance is offered extensively nowadays to cover up all types of credits or loans. Loan protection products like credit cards, car finance, monthly payouts and bank loans are put up for sale. Currently, such kind of payment protection insurance is offered to cover different types of credit cards or loans. However, due to high street banks and lenders who provide limited offers, this has been declared till 2009 as a legal and restrictive practice by Competition Committee.

Ultimately, the payment-insurance plans offered today are comparatively cheaper than before which has led to an increased level of interest of independent dealers in the main market place. If you have bought your home via mortgage loan and have used home equity mortgage loan for your residence, then this can be categorized as Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance or MPPI

Even though this type of loan plan is very cheap, the drawback is that it offers coverage to only monthly mortgage payments. A lot of other protection-insurance products like income payment protection insurance or life style coverage are available. These products offer to adjust with your salary or monthly income. Using these kinds of products, you may go beyond the limits of agreed repayments, by spending your wages or salary in order to get additional income benefits.
All the payment protection-insurance products provide full coverage against your monthly payment charges along with covering all kinds of events like sickness, unemployment, or an accident. You may encounter some risky events in your life and at that time protection insurance plans will help you with those unexpected redundancies.


The administration, coverage and benefits depend on the type of deal the individual opts for. These may vary from company to company. Some flexible insurance service providers offer full-year coverage (24 months) at premium insurance plans.

However, keep in mind that such kind of payment-protection-insurance is viewed as insufficient short-term solution to your problems in life, and will not be able to cover long-term ailments like any disability or an accident. Deciding the time span of benefits that you want to get from PPI (payment protection insurance) when encountered with such an ailment will be considered as an extra period which may stretch to 3 months.

Whenever you are planning to buy some payment-protection insurance quotes or plans, it is very significant to search for a reliable insurance provider who may cover all your monthly outgoings. Each payment protection insurance service provider has its own limits. Finding the suitable insurer who will not leave you with deficits for repayments is totally your responsibility. Therefore, try to find a reliable insurance company who will protect you against your non-payment issues!