Listen to this article
Not all life insurance agents sell non-life and health policies. Only 3 out of 10 life insurance agents sell general and health insurance policies, shows IRDAI data.
Currently, there are over 24.43 lakh life insurance agents. However, IRDAI data reveals that of these agents, only 6.88 lakh agents are selling general and health insurance policies. Typically, agents having general insurance and health insurance distribution business along with life insurance are considered as active.
IRDAI norms allow individual agents to sell policies of three insurers – one life insurance company, one non-life insurer and one standalone health insurer.
IRDAI data shows that the total number of general and health insurance agents has gone up from 6.52 lakh in FY 2020-21 to 6.88 lakh in FY 2021-22, a growth of 6%.
Experts attribute lower proportion of active agents to recruitment of non-serious agents and lower incentives in non-life products compared to life insurance policies. Also, many life insurance agents are either inactive or work on part-time basis, they said.
They further pointed out that insurance is a difficult product to sell for most people as non-life and health policies do not offer any investment returns.
Currently, banks and insurance brokers account for the distribution of 60% of non-life policies. The reason behind this trend is commercial policies. These intermediaries do not like to sell life insurance to retail customers as they feel the effort and expenses incurred in acquiring and servicing customers is too high. Instead, they focus on selling large ticket size non-life products like group health insurance, motor insurance, liability insurance etc. to corporates.
