Max Life to focus more on traditional plans

Max Life Insurance will focus more on traditional plans as customers look to play safe in the current environment.

“Private insurance companies’ sales till 2009 were mainly driven by unit-linked insurance plans (ULIPs). It accounted for about 90 per cent of total sales. Now it is less than 30 per cent,” Rajesh Sud, CEO and Managing Director, Max Life Insurance, told Business Line .

He said customers are moving towards more secure returns because of volatile stock market and deteriorating economic environment.

In the changed scenario, customers prefer steady 5-6 per cent returns over fluctuating -2 per cent to 12 per cent in ULIP products. In a study conducted by Max Life Insurance recently, Sud said about 85 per cent of the respondents preferred traditional plan over ULIPs.

The company too has tweaked its products to comply with the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority norms for assured returns. “We were impacted by the regulatory changes but by taking some investment risks, made changes in two funds to suit customers’ choice,” Sud said.

The company has also launched a pension plan called ‘Maximiser’, which has 60 per cent equity exposure and another pension plan ‘Preserver’ – which has maximum 35 per cent equity exposure,” he added.

Max Life Insurance is also aggressively looking at expanding pension portfolio. “Some laws concerning the insurance industry got defined last year. Yes, there was some delay and now after a gap of 2- 3 years, we are addressing it by launching more products,” he said.

anil.u@thehindu.co.in

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