Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], September 8 (ANI): Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) will focus on protection, retirement and annuity businesses as key areas of growth over the next few years, while continuing to strengthen its savings and unit-linked insurance products (ULIPs), LIC Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director R Doraiswamy said.
Speaking exclusively to ANI in Mumbai, Doraiswamy said LIC's strategy will focus on strengthening its leadership position while becoming a more diverse, technology-enabled and customer-oriented organisation.
“LIC's strategy or focus will both be on strengthening our leadership and remaining as a diverse, technology-enabled and customer-oriented organisation,” Doraiswamy said.
He said the insurer expects growth to come from all the segments in which it currently operates, but will particularly work on increasing the contribution from protection, retirement and annuity businesses.
“Primarily, we are looking at improving the contribution from protection and retirement and annuity business. Apart from retaining our strength in savings and the focus on ULIPs as well,” he said.
Doraiswamy said the company expects to maintain its growth trajectory in the coming years and continue to remain the market leader.
“So, we should be able to maintain our growth trajectory in the years to come and remain a market leader continuously,” he said.
The increased focus on protection and retirement products comes as India has a large underinsured population and rising awareness about financial planning is creating opportunities for the insurance industry.
Doraiswamy said LIC sees significant scope to increase both the number of people covered by insurance and the amount of insurance protection available to those who are already insured.
“We are looking at covering every insurable person in the country by insurance protection both in life and non-life,” he said, adding that this is part of the broader goal of achieving “insurance for all by 2047”.
He said LIC also wants to play a larger role in people's long-term financial planning, including retirement income and wealth creation.
“We look at increasing the insurance protection for the people as well as being part of the financial planning activities of the individuals to see that they also take care of their post-retirement income through annuities and pensions as well as have their wealth creation done through insurance products as well,” Doraiswamy said.
The LIC CEO said growing awareness about financial planning is also helping create demand for insurance products. He said insurance has traditionally been a “push product”, where customers often need to be encouraged to buy it because it is not always seen as an immediate need.
However, he said greater access to information and growing awareness about financial planning could help the industry expand insurance coverage.
“As an industry also, we are trying to improve the awareness about insurance products, about the need for insurance in the market,” Doraiswamy said.
LIC is also reviewing its product portfolio based on changing customer preferences and plans to introduce products in areas where it sees gaps in the market.
“We have been continuously reviewing our product portfolio vis-a-vis the demands in the market and the preference of the customers,” he said.
Doraiswamy said the company has recently launched two products, Jeevan Raksha and LIC’s Platinum MIMA Platinum Plan, aimed at meeting different customer needs. He described Jeevan Raksha as a term insurance product focused on protection, while the other product offers protection, income and booster benefits.
“Jeevan Raksha takes care of the protection needs, which is a term insurance plan,” he said.
He added that Jeevan Raksha also aims to cover a segment that was not adequately served earlier, with insurance coverage of up to Rs 24 lakh.
“We are continuously evaluating our portfolio, and we will be coming up with new products to see that we continue to grow and tap the market in the best possible way,” Doraiswamy said. (ANI)
LIC to focus on protection, retirement and annuity business to drive growth: CEO
