Last year was good for the Rs.40 lakh crore life insurance industry. The industry has added over 1.12 lakh agents in just one year, shows the latest data issued by Life Insurance Council, a trade body of the life insurance industry.
The total life agency force increased from 21.38 lakh in January 2019 to 22.50 lakh in January 2020.
Industry behemoth LIC India added 44,294 agents last year while private players added 67,716 agents last year.
xperts said that many life insurers have realized the importance of agents in the insurance distribution business. Vighnesh Shahane CEO and MD, IDBI Federal Life Insurance told Cafemutual that insurers have realized they cannot just rely on banks as selling partners even though it is a good channel, the companies need of proprietary sales force.
Currently, agents dominate life insurance sales for individual investors. Individual agents have sold 62% of the new life insurance policies in FY 2018-19. Both the state owned LIC (96% share) and private players (26% share), receive substantial new business through agency channel.
|
Insurer |
Net No. of Agents as on 31 Jan 2020 |
Net No. of Agents as on 31 Jan 2019 |
Change |
Change(%) |
|
Private Total |
1045710 |
977994 |
67,716 |
6.92 |
|
Life Insurance Corporation of India |
1204759 |
1160465 |
44,294 |
3.82 |
|
Grand Total |
2250469 |
2138459 |
112,010 |
5.24 |
Source: Life Insurance Council
