Page 15 - Insurance Times February 2016
P. 15
The Insurance Act, 2015 interpretation mystification Future Generali hiring
housewives as insurance
The Insurance Act, 2015 contained was suppression of material facts at agents
provisions for non-life insurance claim the time of insurance of policy.
rejection after three years, has been Future Generali Life Insurance Com-
interpreted differently by the insurers. Vighnesh Shahane, chief executive of- pany has been reaching out to
The small hitch is that many are as- ficer, IDBI Federal
suming it retrospectively from 2012, Life Insurance, said housewives who are frequent visitors
others are looking at it from the date they were following to shopping malls to portray the role
of passage of the ordinance. the section from of insurance agents or advisors.
the date of passage
Section 45 of the Act says no claim can of the Ordinance; "We have got encouraging response
be repudiated after three years of the that is from Decem- from women. About 100 housewives
policy coming in force. Even if there is ber 24, 2014. He said, "We have made have already become insurance
a misrepresentation of facts, claims a minor change - earlier, the guaran- agents for us," Munish Sharda, Man-
cannot be rejected. tee was not applicable to death claim aging Director and Chief Executive
arising within two years of insurance, Officer, Future Generali Life Insur-
Life insurers had sought clarifications commencement or revival of policy or ance told.
from IRDAI on whether premium addition/deletion of any rider, now we
would be refunded for a policy that has have increased this cap to three The rationale behind the move is in-
run for more than three years and ac- years,". teresting. There has been a dearth
quired paid-up value results in claim of youngsters who wish to take up
within three years from the date of Hence, the claims guarantee norms sale of insurance as a profession and
last revival and it is found that there would underdog a change. it makes sense to supplement the
marketing efforts by enlisting house-
Future to apply for Corporate Licence to sell Insurance wives who might have some free
time to sell insurance between their
in Stores daily chores.
Kishore Biyani's Future Retail in plan- The insurance companies had earlier "Actually, this is a profession where
ning to apply for a corporate agency started selling products at these stores one can work selectively. Once you
licence to sell insurance policies to any- by themselves, but failed to make it understand the product and its rel-
one walking into the group's work and they had to abort the plan. evance to customers properly, it
hypermarkets and retail stores. About Now they have decided to come out should not be a difficult task as lev-
32 crore footfall is calculated in Big with a more vigorous effort with Future els of awareness about insurance
Bazaar and other retail outlets every Retail as their corporate agent. has been fast growing. This suits
year. housewives," he said.
"The earlier model is undergo-
Selling insurance through its ing some changes. Previously, According to V. Manickam, Secre-
stores is a natural course for we had our own set of people tary-General, Life Insurance Council,
the Future Group, which holds stationed at stores. Now, em- the move to rope in housewives is
major it stakes in two ventures ployees of Future Retail will be relevant for the industry as well as
- Future General India Life In- responsible for selling policies," society.
surance and Future Generali K. G. Krishnamoorthy Rao, MD
India Insurance Company. & CEO of Future Generali India "It is welcomed as a lady can easily
Insurance told. convince another lady than a man
"Big Bazaar is big. We need to figure on the need for saving and having
out how to capture the imagination of The retail giant is in the process of ap- social security. The household savings
customers," said Munish Sharda, MD plying for a licence from IRDAI a senior with women can be tapped while
and CEO of Future Generali India Life Future retail executive said. "Future offering social security for the fam-
Insurance. "We are planning over the Retail can be a big distribution platform ily or the kids," he said.
counter products to suit customers for insurance products. It's a win-win
stepping into Future Retail's stores." solution for all," the executive said.
The Insurance Times, February 2016 15
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