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In an effort to check piling up of unclaimed amount in the insurance industry, IRDAI has directed insurance companies to make their agents and intermediaries accountable for unclaimed amount on policies sold by them.
IRDAI said agents and intermediaries will have to trace contact details like mobile number, address, bank account and so on across all unclaimed policies sold by them.
Further, IRDAI said that insurers will have to ensure that agents/intermediaries do not give their phone number or email id while submitting proposal forms and application forms of their clients.
In addition, the insurance regulator has asked insurance companies to put in place a mechanism to automatically validate mobile number and email id of all existing and new customers.
Here are other key measures to reduce unclaimed amount:
- Prompt exiting policyholders at the time of renewal to update mobile number, email address, nominee details and so on
- Insist them to complete KYC or do Re-KYC of minors
- Avail online facility to consumers to update their contact and bank details
- Engage with account aggregators and e-commerce websites like Amazon/Flipkart to trace consumers
- Advertise across mass media channels to reach out to consumers
- Send advance notice to policyholders at least 6 months prior to maturity of their policies
- Put in place appropriate system to check fraudulent claims
IRDAI has also revised definition of unclaimed amount. Now, policies where claim amount is withheld due to litigation, rival claims and freezing of insurance policies by government agencies will not be considered as unclaimed amount.
The regulator clarified that policies in which beneficiaries or consumers are not contactable will be termed as unclaimed claims.
