Page 23 - Life Insurance Today OCTOBER 2017

Subsequently the insurer appointed a new chairman O.P. (AUM) stood at Rs1.02 trillion (Rs10,17,90.47 crore)
Srivastava. compared to Sahara Life’s AUM of Rs1,142.48 crore in the
same period.
Further, as it did not have an appointed actuary, no new
business was written from 1 April 2016 to 15 May 2016. Once the transfer happens, existing policyholders of Sahara
The company also said that the rental deposit it had made Life will become policyholders of ICICI Pru Life.
to the group company—Rs80 crore—has not been
refunded yet. Accordingly, Irdai in its order noted that it had “With the takeover, Irdai will ensure that the claims and
reasons to believe that the insurer was acting in a manner maturity amounts are duly paid to the policyholders on
that was likely to be prejudicial to the interests of life time. The roles and responsibilities of the incumbent
insurance policyholders as well as the orderly growth of the insurer will be taken over by the new insurer, thus
insurance sector as a whole. safeguarding policyholder interest. For any grievance or
recourse, policyholders can reach out to their new insurer,”
The regulator therefore saw this as a fit case for invoking said Abhishek Bondia, principal officer and managing
of Section 52A of the Insurance Act, 1938, which gives it director, SecureNow.in. For the policyholders, this simply
the right to appoint an administrator to manage the affairs means interacting with a new insurer and nothing changes
of the insurer. After the regulator gave the order, it in terms of their insurance policies.
appointed R.K. Sharma—a general manager with Irdai—as
the administrator. The role of the administrator in this case As per Sanjay Agarwal, whole-time director and chief
is to make sure that customer service by the insurer executive officer, Sahara Life, the policyholders have not
continues unhindered. Further, the administrator also hit the panic button. “We are amongst the top three in
needs to make sure that liabilities of the insurer are 13th month persistency, and in the top 5 in 61st month
properly valued and corresponding assets are intact. persistency in FY16. This indicates that our policyholders
are satisfied with us. Even now there has been no increase
Impact on policyholders in surrenders,” he added.
As per Sathe, it is expected that the transfer of life Though the insurer has directed Sahara Life to not issue
insurance business to ICICI Prudential Life would be new policies, existing customers will continue to be
completed in a couple of months. ICICI Prudential Life is serviced. “Our website is fully functional and the customers
the only life insurance company that has been publicly can renew their policies online as well. Our branch offices
listed till now. As of FY16, its assets under management are working and they can place request there as well. Our
call centre is not working at the moment because we don’t
have enough staff, but we plan to reinstate that shortly,”
said Agarwal. “For the policyholders there is no reason to
worry. Our investments are much more than policyholders’
liabilities, this means we are fully capable of settling all
sorts of policyholder’s claims,” he added.

As per Agarwal, Sahara Life will be making a representation
to the regulator on why policyholders’ interest were never
compromised and is hoping that the regulator will review
its decision. If you are a policyholder of Sahara Life, there
is no cause for concern and so you shouldn’t worry or try
to surrender your policy. Understand the exit penalties of
your policy as it can really cause a dent in your investments.
(Source : Mint)

What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do.

Life Insurance Today October 2017 23

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