India’s life insurance sector has been on a roller-coaster ride. While the structural growth opportunity is large and promising (favourable demographics, increasing financialisation and a large protection gap), near-to-medium term risks exist from regulating product structure, pricing and protecting policyholders’ interests. These factors could dent profitability —in particular, the disproportionately higher pricing in credit protect, and high surrender penalty for policyholders in non-linked savings.
