Page 8 - Insurance Times December 2018

IRDAI

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IRDAI wants Rs. 15,000-cr More awareness will drive crop insurance- IRDA Chair-
unclaimed amounts re- man Dr Subhash Chandra Khuntia
turned to policy holders Creating awareness among farmers holds the key to expand crop insurance
coverage across the country, said Dr Subhash Chandra
IRDAI is working on mechanism to Kunthia, Chairman, Insurance Regulatory and Development
return Rs. 15,000 crore of unclaimed Authority of India.
deposits lying idle with life insurers.
While inaugurating an Conference on Pradhan Mantri Fasal
For amounts stuck in pension
schemes, IRDAI has asked life insur- Bima Yojana, Dr Khuntia advised stakeholders such as the
ers to repay them as lumpsum pay- Centre, States and insurers to strengthen the grievance
ments to policyholders or their ben- redressal mechanism to make the scheme more effective
eficiaries. and expand its coverage. Dr Khuntia further suggested that the cut-off dates
for the insurance schemes should be announced well in advance so that farm-
"There are many reasons why the in- ers can take advantage of the scheme. Also, the companies should work towards
surance money is lying unclaimed. settlement of crop insurance claims within 30 days.
The policyholder may have died or
there may be other reasons. In pen- PMFBY is currently being implemented in 27 states and territories and about
sion schemes, it was often the case 18 insurance companies have been empanelled with the Agriculture Ministry
that the accumulated amount was to implement the scheme. About 30 per cent of the cropped area is covered
insufficient to buy annuity from the by the scheme.
life insurer," according to sources.
IRDAI proposes changes to policy revival norms; in-
Earlier, the IRDAI had asked life in-
surance companies to provide a creases surrender benefits
search facility on their website so Insurance policyholders are set to get substantial benefits, with IRDAI propos-
that policyholders or their nominees ing significant changes to revival of policies and en-
could find out about the unclaimed hancing guaranteed benefits while surrendering the
amount by citing their Aadhaar or cover ahead of maturity. IRDAI has proposed to en-
PAN. Life insurers are expected to hance the revival period to five years from the current
update details and inform the IRDAI two years and introduced guaranteed surrender value
about unclaimed amounts lying with after two years from three years earlier.
them at least twice a year.
IRDAI has sought comments from all stakeholders on the norms. It has proposed
According to official data, Rs. a minimum death benefit of seven times for regular premium products and 1.25
15,166.47 crore was lying unclaimed times for single premium products for all ages. Earlier, benefits varied between
with 23 life insurers as on March 31. 5 and 10 times, depending on the age of the policyholder. The regulator has
Of this, Rs. 10,509 crore was with proposed non-linked policies to acquire guaranteed surrender value after two
Life Insurance Corporation of India, years, with revival period extended to five years from the current two years in
and Rs. 4,657.45 crore with private respect of non-linked products. IRDAI has introduced the option for commuta-
insurers. tion up to 60% and facility for partial withdrawal for linked pension products.

8 The Insurance Times, December 2018