Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

<ul><li>We bring to you a series of columns from industry experts, looking back at the last 10 years.</li><li>The columns will explore how the media, marketing and advertising industry has transformed in the last decade.</li><li>Tarun Chugh, MD and CEO, <keyword id="151079" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bajaj-Allianz-Life-Insurance">Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance</keyword> tries to decode evolving consumer behaviour and shares a few ways in which the BFSI sector is reaching out to them in today's digital era.</li></ul>New-age Indians are unlike their previous generations. As a demographic, India’s population is getting younger and with more exposure to the world, the demands of the younger generation are changing. This change is forcing all industries to innovate, and the shift is more visible in the insurance space than anywhere else. For instance, young people are considering life insurance not simply for protection but to achieve their life goals. Ambitions such as entrepreneurship, world travel, preventive healthcare and having a parallel career demand financial planning by young people. According to a recent survey conducted by Kantar IMRB, 2 in 5 Indians have retirement related goals and the number is even higher in the metros with every second person wishing for a comfortable retirement as one of their life goals. In fact, retirement related life goals feature in the list of top 5 life goals for Indian millennials as well. This has led to a paradigm shift in the way financial planning has been so far. Indians are now looking at planning their retirement early on in life to maintain their standard of living and achieve life goals even post retirement. There’s a lot more interest towards long term life insurance products and the appearance of new-age online ULIPs has really helped the takeoff for these products as they offer transparency and convenience. Customers’ expectations from insurance products are rapidly changing as they demand more efficient service which match their lifestyle and needs example, Digital touchpoints, self-service apps and automated payment reminders. Increasingly, the product demand is also shifting towards new-age products which can be bought and redeemed online, have more transparency and don’t tangle the customers in complex terms and conditions. It’s not hard to see that the industry is responding to these shifts comprehensively. And regulatory changes by the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India have also helped. For instance, IRDAI’s regular interventions have meant that products in the market are transparent and customer-friendly with more benefits than the terms and conditions attached to them. The intervention has also ensured that new products are innovative in terms of their structures and payouts rather than refurbished old schemes launched with newer names. This has led to renewal premium collections going up recently which has greatly helped affirmed people’s faith in life insurance as a product. Insurance premiums as a percentage of GDP have been steadily climbing up as it reached 3.69% in 2017 from 2.71% in 2001. Gross premiums in India reached Rs 5.53 trillion in FY18, with Rs 4.58 trillion contributed by life insurance and Rs 1.51 trillion coming from non-life insurance. Even though it’s a significant development, the penetration level at 3.69% of the total addressable population remains quite low and provides itself as an opportunity for companies to innovate and reach the last mile. The way to reaching new consumers is largely going to be phygital -- physical + digital. A recent research survey by PwC stated 47% of people research insurance online before making a buying decision as compared to 22% relying on agents. Moreover, 49% of consumers said that they prefer digital mode as their preferred channel for purchasing insurance followed by 32% who still prefer to call an agent. Interestingly, 18% of people want their insurance companies to communicate with them through emails – clearly emphasizing the increasing importance of two-way communication rather than a one-time sale model. The life insurance sector is set for a big boost with the increase in digital proliferation and customer awareness. According to the Kantar IMRB survey, Indians choose life insurance as their preferred investment option for 60% of their life goals. This is a clear signal of the latent demand in the country which the insurance industry is eager to fulfil with innovative products, tech-enabled seamless services and newer distribution channels. Further, with the right pace of technology adoption and customer-centric business processes, India’s life insurance sector is poised to be the fastest growing sector. - By Tarun Chugh, MD and CEO, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance

How consumer behavior has evolved in the life insurance sector

The <keyword id="6358021" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="budget" source="Orion">Budget</keyword> has left the life insurance industry a worried lot with the new tax proposal on higher premium annuity products, a move which the industry fears will hit their top-lines by 10-12 per cent. Leading private life insurer <keyword id="472962" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="hdfc-life" source="Orion">HDFC Life</keyword>'s chief executive <keyword id="323997" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="vibha-padalkar" source="Orion">Vibha Padalkar</keyword> told PTI that she stares at 10-12 per cent hit on the company's top-line with the Budget proposal to tax life products having annual premium of over Rs 5 lakh. She also fears that the increased tax exemption bracket of Rs 7 lakh and the steep reduction in the maximum surcharge on the affluent to 39 per cent from 42.74 per cent earlier may nudge them to spend more and save less. This can have many cascading impacts on the macro sector by way of a spike in the already high inflation, apart from the life insurance sector which has been facing sales issues since the Covid pandemic as people were not investing in long-term savings. And since the opening up of economic activities, many are on a "revenge spending mode" and not investing in financial products even now. Given the overall increase in incomes, the government should have either ignored the new tax levy on insurance products or it should have imposed tax on products with premium of Rs 10 lakh or upwards. At this level, it will definitely hit the industry hard, she added. The industry was expecting a proposal to offer composite lincence for the insurance sector wherein life insurers would be allowed to renter the health business which they were doing till 2015. Besides, the insurance sector players were also expecting some positive moves on the annuity products front. <keyword id="699506" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="tarun-chugh" source="Orion">Tarun Chugh</keyword>, chief executive of <keyword id="138574" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="bajaj-allianz-life" source="Orion">Bajaj Allianz Life</keyword>, said the tax proposal on higher value non-Ulip or traditional life policies "is bit of a dampener for the insurance industry and for increasing penetration of insurance and household financial savings." "We as a market still have quite low insurance penetration and there is a need to provide measures and incentives to boost that in the coming years. Also, household financial savings have been falling and insurance is a critical component of that. Household financial savings as percentage of GDP has fallen from 8.1 per cent in FY20 to 6.5 per cent in FY23, he said and warned that discontinuing incentives on insurance plans should put further pressure on household financial savings to some extent. Vighnesh Shahane, chief executive of <keyword id="10687373" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="ageas-federal-life-insurance" source="Orion">Ageas Federal Life Insurance</keyword>, said the finance minister has announced that from April income from life insurance policies, other than Ulips, with an aggregate premium amount of Rs 5 lakh per annum or more, which was earlier tax-free, will now be taxable. But she said if the insured person dies in between, the death benefit will continue to remain tax-free. The move is similar to the proposal introduced a couple of years ago which imposed tax on the maturity amount of Ulips if the annual aggregate premium exceeded Rs 2.5 lakh, he said. The proposal is likely to dent the sales of non-par products which have been witnessing strong growth over the last few years, especially during the pandemic. As the cap of Rs 5 lakh is applicable for all life policies across insurers, it may deter individuals from purchasing additional policies if they have exhausted their limit with their primary insurer, he explained. <keyword id="14942220" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="supriya-rathi" source="Orion">Supriya Rathi</keyword>, a wholetime director at <keyword id="2647323" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="anand-rathi-insurance-brokers" source="Orion">Anand Rathi Insurance Brokers</keyword>, opined that the budget has "given bad news for life insurance companies" by limiting the income tax exemption on proceeds of insurance policies.

Life insurers stare at 10-12% hit on top-line as Budget taxes higher premium products

You Searched For "tarun chugh" and got 2 results

How consumer behavior has evolved in the life insurance sector

Guest Author

Life insurers stare at 10-12% hit on top-line as Budget taxes higher premium products

PTI

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides