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3 out of 10 life insurance agents sell general insurance policies, shows IRDAI data.
Of the 26.28 lakh life insurance agents, only 7.24 lakh agents are selling general insurance policies, which is 27% of the total life insurance agents. The data further shows that 11.58 lakh agents are associated with standalone health insurers.
Typically, agents having general insurance and health insurance distribution business along with life insurance are considered active.
The data shows that the total number of general insurance agents went up from 6.83 lakh in FY 2022 to 7.24 lakh in FY 2023, a growth of 6%. Such a growth was 20% for standalone health agents.
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.