The Hindu Business Line : LIC to go aggressive on unit-linked plans

REALISING that it has been the unit-linked insurance policies that are enabling the private sector insurance players to garner significant share of the expanding market, Life Insurance Corporation of India has initiated measures to go aggressive on unit-linked schemes.

Disclosing this on the eve of the Corporation's 48th anniversary celebrations here on Wednesday, the LIC South Central Zonal Manager, Mr T. Chattopadhyay, said the public sector major was gearing up to compete with private insurance players in the unit-linked policies by rolling out a number of products in this segment.

Talking to newspersons, he said efforts were also on to focus on celebrity marketing to rope in high net worth individuals.

According to Mr Chattopadhyay, the corporation has historically been focussing mainly on traditional insurance products that accounted for nearly 95 per cent of its business while only around five per cent business was generated from the unit-linked products. As against this, the private insurance players were heavily banking on unit-linked schemes recording nearly 90 per cent of business from unit-linked policies and only around 10 per cent coming from traditional products.

"LIC is also planning to roll out more number of unit-linked products from now onwards to further consolidate its leadership position. We are also working on four new products, out of which one is a unit-linked pension policy," Mr Chattopadhyay said, adding that at present LIC's unit-linked policy, Bima Plus, was doing well.

According to the LIC Regional Manager (Marketing), Mr Ashok Kumar Sahoo, the corporation was also focussing on celebrity marketing. Last year, the zone emerged national topper in this segment and sold a big policy with a sum assured of Rs 35 crore.

For the current fiscal, the South Central Zonal office has set a target of selling at least 500 polices in the category of celebrity marketing with a sum assured of Rs 5 crore and above, with a minimum sum assured of Rs 2,500 crore, Mr Sahoo said.

The zone has set an ambitious target for the current fiscal of achieving 47.66 lakh policies with sum assured of Rs 36,400 crore, fetching a first premium income of Rs 1,550 crore, Mr Chattopadhyay said.