The average premium per policy of a life insurance policy has decreased by nearly 8 per cent in FY12 over last year according to a study carried out by Deloitte India.
Insurers with over 8 years of existence managed to retain the ticket size of regular premium policies at around Rs. 32,000 in FY12, similar to that of last year. The younger insurers observed a decline in average ticket size of regular premium policies by nearly 16 per cent from around Rs. 34,500 in FY11 to about Rs. 29,000 in FY12.
“Older insurers, along with their more experienced channel partners have been able to respond to changes in regulations, especially related to ULIPs, better than the younger insurers by refining their product portfolio more swiftly. Younger players are relatively more reliant on captive channels and customer base, making it difficult to alter focus on customer segments and channels”, said Sachin Sondhi, Senior Director, Deloitte India.
Bancassurance among all channels continues to procure the highest ticket size business followed by Broking and Direct channels. Whereas ticket size for Bancassurance channel decreased by about 7 per cent, policy procured by Direct & Broker channels, which have lesser reliance on ULIP products, witnessed an increase in ticket size over the last three years.
Direct channel witnessed the highest increase of 20 per cent in ticket size at Rs 27,400 in FY12 as against Rs 22,900 in FY10.
Among the mix of products offered by insurers, 54 per cent of the products sold by respondents were ULIPs followed by 45 per cent Non-ULIP (participating and non-participating) and 1per cent pure term products suggesting the gradual shift away from ULIP products.