Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance expects to grow its premium income by 40-50 per cent this year, Deepak Mittal, Managing Director and CEO of the company said.

Edelweiss Tokio reported 53 per cent growth last year, with premium income touching ₹123 crore.

Private sector players in the life insurance industry grew 16 per cent last year even as the entire industry contracted a tad because of the decline in LIC’s premium.

While the outlook for premium growth this fiscal is not very different from last year, the industry is becoming healthier, notes Deepak. Edelweiss Tokio, which began operations in 2011, expects to break-even on ‘embedded value’ basis in 2018-19, he said.

Embedded value is a measure of the value of the business in the books and takes into account future profits of existing life policies.

About 50 per cent of the insurer’s income comes through the agency channel, 10 per cent via direct sales (mainly online), and the balance through other partners.

The company, Deepak said, has fine-tuned its ‘needs-based selling process’ to achieve right balance and ease of delivery.

He said that this approach was necessary because insurance is often sold to consumers by known people — family or friends — and there are sensitivities involved when sharing financial information with them.

The needs broadly encompass children’s education, wealth accumulation and enhancement, health expenses, term insurance (income replacement), and retirement plans.

The products are sold depending on the manner in which the customers prioritise these needs, he said.

Productivity of agents Edelweiss Tokio is focussing on improving the productivity of its agency force of about 11,000 by using technology through mobile platforms, Deepak said. This can range from how to do a better pitch to managing their calendar better.

Some pilots are being done to help increase the number of meetings that the average agent conducts in a month, which typically ranged between 30 and 40. Comparative figures in the developed markets were over 80 and the aim was to get closer to this number, he said.

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