Mr S B Mathur, Secretary General of Life Insurance Council, a statutory body and an association of all the Life insurance companies in India, speaks of the reservations in the industry that the ULIP jurisdiction issue is only shadow boxing for achieving the ‘no entry load’ demand. Talking to K Nitya Kalyani of Premium, Mr Mathur, retired Chairman of LIC, explains how there are many misconceptions about Life insurance selling and its basis in the industry today on which the arguments about abolition of commission or the jurisdiction of ULIPs are being based.

An old year has ended and a new year has begun. Milestones 2009 recaptures the mood of the insurance industry at the close of the year 2008 and beginning of the year 2009.
Every month it goes on to highlight the stories of each issue that best summed up the state of the industry. In conclusion the story of the Year is told through Numbers.

December’s cover story on ‘The Decade of Transformation’ elicits opinion from institution heads. These institutions are the Life and General Insurance Councils, two educational training institutions Insurance Institute of India and Financial Planning Standard Boards and the National Federation of Insurance Field Workers of India and the Life Insurance Agents Federation of India representing agents.

Many of those who matter, including Mr D Swarup himself, have expressed their opinion about the recommendation phasing out agents’ commission to which the media has given wide coverage

Even as disbelieving agents had little time to react to the Swarup Committee recommendation phasing out commissions, Mr S B Mathur, Secretary General, Life Insurance Council, said the, ‘The Report is Unfair’ and select data had been used to project a tarnished picture of the industry.

Challenges can arrive in any form and from any direction, risk is part of life. As insurance agents you know this very well. You have faced reluctant prospects and their rude rejections, indifferent policyholders and their forgetfulness. Today, as opposed to ten years ago, there is tremendous competition in the market. Many people thought that [...]

‘Death claims payout rises 21 %’ The Indian Life Insurance industry has paid out 20.74 per cent more as death benefits to its policyholders during the April-June 2009 quarter at Rs 1,717 crore as compared to Rs 1,422 crore during the corresponding quarter last year. Stating this in a press release, Life Insurance Council which [...]

The Indian stock markets declined drastically in the third quarter of the financial year 2008-09 but a bigger decline was prevented by the ongoing investment plans of the Indian Life insurance companies, say media reports. Life insurance companies invested around Rs 47,900 crore between April and December, 2008 in the stock market according to data [...]

Insurance Bill : Reforms, Part II “Foreign shareholding ceiling in Indian insurance companies proposed to be increased from 26 per cent to 49 per cent.” If you got the impression that this was the one point agenda of the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2008, it is a wrong impression. The Bill was tabled in Rajya [...]