Despite tax benefits, ULIPs saw a marginal decline in their assets

The life insurance industry’s AUM (assets under management) grew by 12% from Rs. 28.54 lakh crore in FY 16-17 to Rs. 31.89 lakh crore in FY 17-18.

Traditional policies and pension plans witnessed a healthy growth in FY 17-18. However, ULIPs, which saw an uptick in their assets in FY16-17, declined last fiscal. AUM of ULIPs fell marginally by 1% to Rs. 3.78 lakh crore.

The AUM of life policies, which includes traditional policies like whole life, endowment and money back reached close to Rs.21 lakh crore. The AUM of these policies went up from Rs.19.08 lakh crore to Rs.21.37 lakh crore in FY 2017-18, a growth of 12%.

Similarly, the AUM of pension and general annuity (including group policies) increased from Rs.5.66 lakh crore in FY 2016-17 to Rs.6.74 lakh crore in FY 2017-18. The category witnessed the fastest growth of 19% last financial year.

LIC continues to be India’s largest life insurer with 79% market share in terms of AUM. It added assets Rs. 2.51 lakh crore in assets to reach Rs.25.27 lakh crore last fiscal. Meanwhile, all private players put together added Rs. 83,221 crore. However, in percentage terms, AUM of private players (14%) grew at a faster pace compared to the state owned insurer (11%).

Among the top ten private insurers, SBI and HDFC Standard joined ICICI Prudential in the Rs.1 lakh crore+ AUM club.  ICICI Prudential continued to dominate the top spot with Rs. 1.36 lakh crore in assets while SBI stood at the second position with AUM of Rs.1.15 lakh crore crore (19% growth). HDFC Standard had AUM of Rs.1.05 lakh crore as on March 2018.

Among the top 10 private insurers, Kotak Mahindra Life recorded the highest growth of 20% in its AUM while Bajaj Allianz Life grew at the slowest pace 5%.

Overall, barring Aviva Life, all other life insurers witnessed a growth in their assets last fiscal.

AUM of top 10 private life insurers