Online sale is gathering momentum in the life insurance sector with one out of five-term products being bought directly by customers are online rather than from agents and advisers, according to a Max Life Insurance senior official.
Last financial year, 12.5 percent of overall term policies by premium were purchased by Indians online, while on the saving side, it is still muted with less than 1 percent of total premium via the channel, Max Life Insurance deputy managing director V Viswanand said.
"So, it started becoming quite a significant channel now for some companies like us…Max Life market share was close to 30 percent in FY'21. Currently, also holding up which means one in three online term purchases in India is from Max Life while our market share in the offline is one-fifth of that," he said.
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In an interaction with PTI, Viswanand said the average age of policyholders buying a policy online is 36 years and the company has introduced some innovative schemes for online customers based on their feedback.
"We also introduced a lot of financial auto underwriting, leveraging with credit bureau tie-ups. So, we don't ask for any additional documentation from 60 percent of our e-commerce customers because of our bureau tie-ups. This has reduced a lot of friction for customers," he said.
The company is also offering a premium holiday for customers after few years without any question asked, he said, adding, there are special exit options as well.
Attributing to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, it has led to rising awareness about insurance and adoption of technology has gathered pace during the period.
"In the first wave, we saw elderly going to hospital and mortality happening, but in the second wave, we saw that it had no bias for age. It had no bias for co-morbidity. Mortality was widespread and I think people realised that they're not infallible as far as their own life is concerned. Just because you have good health now, it doesn't mean you'll have good health tomorrow," he said.
The pandemic has brought in a lot of awareness among the people and this is evident from the fact that the sale of pure protection plans has seen a significant jump post-COVID-19.
(Edited by : Jomy Jos Pullokaran)
