Monday 9 May 2011

Insurance products in India

Insurance products in India



In India Insurance business is divided into four classes :
1) Life Insurance
 2) Fire Insurance
3) Marine Insurance
4) Miscellaneous Insurance
Insurance provides financial protection against a loss arising out of happening of an uncertain event. A person can avail this protection by paying premium to an insurance company.

A pool is created through contributions made by persons seeking to protect themselves from common risk. Premium is collected by insurance companies which also act as trustee to the pool. Any loss to the insured in case of happening of an uncertain event is paid out of this pool.Insurance works on the basic principle of risk-sharing. A great advantage of insurance is that it spreads the risk of a few people over a large group of people exposed to risk of similar type.

Insurance is a contract between two parties whereby one party agrees to undertake the risk of another in exchange for consideration known as premium and promises to pay a fixed sum of money to the other party on happening of an uncertain event (death) or after the expiry of a certain period in case of life insurance or to indemnify the other party on happening of an uncertain event in case of general insurance.

The party bearing the risk is known as the 'insurer' or 'assurer' and the party whose risk is covered is known as the 'insured' or 'assured'.

Concept of Insurance / How Insurance Works

The concept behind insurance is that a group of people exposed to similar risk come together and make contributions towards formation of a pool of funds. In case a person actually suffers a loss on account of such risk, he is compensated out of the same pool of funds. Contribution to the pool is made by a group of people sharing common risks and collected by the insurance companies in the form of premiums.
Insurance is a federal subject in India. The insurance sector has gone through a number of phases and changes. Since 1999, when the government opened up the insurance sector by allowing private companies to solicit insurance and also allowing FDI up to 26%, the insurance sector has been a booming market. However, the largest life-insurance company in India is still owned by the government. In the words of a layman, insurance means managing risk. For instance, in life insurance segment, the insurance company tries to manage mortality (death) rates among the wide array of clients.
The insurance company works in a manner by collecting premiums from policy holders, investing the money (usually in low risk investments), and then reimbursing this same money once the person passes away or the policy matures. The greater the probability for a person to have a shorter life span than the average mark, the higher premium that person has to pay. The case is the same for all other types of insurance, including automobile, health and property.
Ownership of insurance companies is of two types:
Shareholder ownership
Policyholder ownership
Following is the list of all life insurance company granted permission by IRDA.
     
  • Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company Limited 

  •  Birla Sun Life Insurance Co. Ltd 

  •  HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co. Ltd 

  •  ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd. 

  •  ING Vysya Life Insurance Company Ltd.

  •  Life Insurance Corporation of India 

  •  Max New York Life Insurance Co. Ltd 

  •  Met Life India Insurance Company Ltd.

  •  Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance Limited 

  •  SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd 

  •  Tata AIG Life Insurance Company Limited 

  •  Reliance Life Insurance Company Limited. 

  •  Aviva Life Insurance Co. India Pvt. Ltd.

  •  Sahara India Life Insurance Co, Ltd. 

  •  Shriram Life Insurance Co, Ltd. 

  •  Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company Ltd. 

  •  Future Generali Life Insurance Company Ltd. 

  •  IDBI Fortis Life Insurance Company Ltd. 

  •  Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Co. Ltd 

  •  AEGON Religare Life Insurance Company Limited. 

  •  DLF Pramerica Life Insurance Co. Ltd. 

 Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance Comp. Ltd.

LIC is the oldest player in the market. It is the market leader. However, some other companies also offer good innovative products. All insurance companies are regulated by the IRDA and are equally reliable

History of insurance in India:
Insurance in India has its history dating back until 1818, when Oriental Life Insurance Company was started by Anita Bhavsar in Kolkata to cater to the needs of European community. The pre-independence era in India saw discrimination between the lives of foreigners (English) and Indians with higher premiums being charged for the latter. In 1870, Bombay Mutual Life Assurance Society became the first Indian insurer.
At the dawn of the twentieth century, many insurance companies were founded. In the year 1912, the Life Insurance Companies Act and the Provident Fund Act were passed to regulate the insurance business. The Life Insurance Companies Act, 1912 made it necessary that the premium-rate tables and periodical valuations of companies should be certified by an actuary. However, the disparity still existed as discrimination between Indian and foreign companies. The oldest existing insurance company in India is the National Insurance Company Ltd., which was founded in 1906. It is in business. Before that, the industry consisted of only two state insurers: Life Insurers (Life Insurance Corporation of India, LIC) and General Insurers (General Insurance Corporation of India, GIC). GIC had four subsidiary companies.
With effect from December 2000, these subsidiaries have been de-linked from the parent company and were set up as independent insurance companies: Oriental Insurance Company LimitedNew India Assurance Company LimitedNational Insurance Company Limited and United India Insurance Company Limited.
General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC Re) is the sole Reinsurance company in the domestic reinsurance market in India with more than three decades of experience in the Re-Insurance business.
GIC has its registered office and headquarters in Mumbai.
The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is the largestlife insurance company in India, and also the country's largest investor. It is fully owned by theGovernment of India. It also funds close to 24.6% of the Indian Government's expenses. It has assets estimated of Rs. 8 trillion (US$ 170.4 billion). It was founded in 1956.
Headquartered in Mumbai, which is considered the financial capital of India, the Life Insurance Corporation of India currently has 8 zonal Offices and 101 divisional offices located in different parts of India, at least 2048 branches located in different cities and towns of India along with satellite Offices attached to about some 50 Branches, and has a network of around 1.2 million agents for soliciting life insurance business from the public


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