Demand for term insurance could increase after lockdown as per Max Life CEO
Apr 21, 2020, 19:47 IST
New Delhi, Apr 21 () The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has led to increase in demand for pure protection products like term insurance and this is expected to gain traction post lockdown, said Max Life Insurance CEO Prashant Tripathy. There is pressure on growth due to the lockdown but the life insurance business would be back on its feet once it's lifted, he said.
"Insurance is a very fundamental thing of life like food, clothing and shelter...We are finding that the demand for protection business has gone up. People are preferring term rather than saving products to secure the future of their loved ones in these uncertain times," he told .
COVID-19 is expected to result in improved awareness and importance of life insurance as a risk cover rather than a mere investment product during the uncertain times, he said.
Tripathy also emphasised that like any other business, insurance too is very much connected with economic growth and there will be impact on the industry if there is deceleration as has been projected by various agencies.
"There has been an impact on new sales due to the lockdown. We are trying to cover it up with digital means. For the lockdown period, there would be pressure on growth," he said.
Sharing details of sales through digital means, he said, "we quickly adapted to new reality and initiated sellers' online training for enabling digital engagement across distribution channels, as an outcome of which around 24,000 policies were issued in the last week of March 2020 since the announcement of lockdown."
Within four days of work-from-home, customer-related operations were operating at about 80 per cent efficiency level with more than 1,000 employees engaged in customer facing activities, he said, adding, policy issuance for many medical pending cases was enabled via TeleMER protocol that ensured remote medical underwriting.
The company has processed a total of 1,938 death claims in the second half of March 2020 even with the majority of employees operating from home and all supporting documents were accepted online, he added.
Self-service options were made available through website, digital bots and AI driven Interactive Voice Response. In the last two weeks around 5,000 policyholders have utilized self-service options on the company's website, he said. DP ANUANU
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"Insurance is a very fundamental thing of life like food, clothing and shelter...We are finding that the demand for protection business has gone up. People are preferring term rather than saving products to secure the future of their loved ones in these uncertain times," he told .
COVID-19 is expected to result in improved awareness and importance of life insurance as a risk cover rather than a mere investment product during the uncertain times, he said.
Tripathy also emphasised that like any other business, insurance too is very much connected with economic growth and there will be impact on the industry if there is deceleration as has been projected by various agencies.
"There has been an impact on new sales due to the lockdown. We are trying to cover it up with digital means. For the lockdown period, there would be pressure on growth," he said.
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Within four days of work-from-home, customer-related operations were operating at about 80 per cent efficiency level with more than 1,000 employees engaged in customer facing activities, he said, adding, policy issuance for many medical pending cases was enabled via TeleMER protocol that ensured remote medical underwriting.
The company has processed a total of 1,938 death claims in the second half of March 2020 even with the majority of employees operating from home and all supporting documents were accepted online, he added.
Self-service options were made available through website, digital bots and AI driven Interactive Voice Response. In the last two weeks around 5,000 policyholders have utilized self-service options on the company's website, he said. DP ANUANU