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REVIEW PAPER ON INSURANCE COMPANIES

Dr. Bharti
Amanjot Kaur
Baba farid college of management and technology,
Dept. Of Management Studies,
Bathinda, Deon.

Insurance is the backbone in managing the risk of the country. The

insurance providers offer diversity of products to business, providing protection
from risk thereby ensuring financial security. It helps individual and
organization to minimize the consequences of risk which impart significant
cause on the growth and development of insurance industry. Indian insurance
industry is facing major challenges in reaching out willing customers, providing
them services, acquiring and retaining players, product and distribution
innovation etc. Apart from addressing the challenges of customers, improving
the performance to achieve profitable growth is another big challenge faced by
Indian life insurers. To sustain the profitable growth, private companies are
struggling in spreading awareness about need of insurance, developing brand
strength, meeting regulatory demands, establishing wide network of distribution
channels and setting infrastructure. Life insurance sector anticipate different
segments of customers with different needs thereby raising the importance of
new and competitive dynamics. To emerge as winners, they reconsider
strategies which help them to have a sustainable and profitable business.
According to McKinney and Company (2012), consumer rank life insurance
higher than any other investment options because of its ease and convenience in
investing, tax benefits, and tax protection. Among all investment’s options in
India, life insurance products enjoy high popularity and demand.
At the time of opening of the insurance sector in India there was no cut throat
competition in the market. Till 2000, there was only one life insurance company
operating in India i.e. Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) in the public sector.
Indian government allowed privatization in insurance industry in 1999 setting
up Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA) to regulate and
develop insurance industry. IRDA issued licenses and has opened life insurance
market to private companies. As a result, insurance sector in India has grown at
a rapid rate after liberalization in 1999 and private players have been allowed to
enter in life insurance market in India. The Indian Life insurance industry
expanded tremendously from 2000 onwards in terms of premium income, new
business policies, number of offices, agents, products, riders etc. Insurance
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industry in India is moving through a phase of high growth which is led by

players who tries to change the dynamics of market through modernization and
improvement. Presently in 2012-13 there are 23 private life insurers and 1
public life insurers operating in India. According to McKinsey study 2007, it
was estimated that India is likely to emerge as the fifth largest market in the
world by 2025.
Until 1999, the business of life insurance in India was the monopoly of life
insurance corporation of india (LIC). In 1956 nationalization of insurance
business was a major milestone in the development of insurance business in
India by taking 245 private insurers business. The Indian insurance market was
thrown open to private players in the year 1999 and the Insurance Regulatory
and Development Authority (IRDA) was established to regulate the insurance
market. After its opening, the insurance sector has the entry of a number of
private players who captured a significant market share in the life insurance
market. The public sector companies have to leverage upon their strengths to
give a tough flight to the private sector players. Privatization witnessed dynamic
changes in the insurance industry and most of the private companies are joint
ventures with recognized foreign players across the globe. Customers are the
main pillar of life insurance business. Every company tries to attract and retain
existing customers to keep their profits high. When compared life insurance
industry in India with foreign, it achieved only a little because of low consumer
awareness, poor affordability, delayed customer services, lack of suitable
products. At present, in addition to LIC in public sector, 15 private companies
are operating in life business. Companies like HDFC Standard Life Insurance,
TATA AIG Life Insurance, Allianz Bajaj Life Insurance, Max New York Life,
OM Kotak, Birla Sun Life Insurance, SBI Life, Aviva Life Insurance, ING
Vysya, MAT Life Insurance, Reliance Life, ICICI Prudencial, SAHARA Life,
SriRam Life, Bharati Axa Life & AMP Sanmar are doing good business in
Indian Soil. Kasturi (2006) highlighted that the performance was assessed by
maintaining the balance between all the measures in order to achieve success.
Malik (2011) determined the relationship of profitability and internal factors of
insurance companies in Pakistan. Chaudhary and Kiran (2011) observed
current scenario of life insurance industry in light of some changes and
regulation of IRDA. Gulati and Jain (2011) analysed business performance of
all life insurers in industry on the basis of various indicators. Gour and Gupta
(2012) determined the solvency ratio of Indian Life insurance companies for the
period of 3 years from 2009-10 to 2011-12. It analyzed whether performance of
different companies was similar or there was any significant difference.
Charumathi (2012) studied the factors that determine the profitability of life

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insurers operating in India. Kumari (2013) analysed the financial performance

of both public and private life insurance industry. MS. BABITA YADAV et al.
(2014) Studied different factors which influence customers policy buying
decision and also analyse the preferences of customers while life policy
investment decisionmaking. LIC is the most accepted and popular brand in life
insurance. BINOD KUMAR SINGH (2010) studied the behavior of individual
or a group of people. The study of consumer behavior provides marketers to
understand and predict the future market behavior. Masood H. Siddiqui at el.
(2010) used confirmatory factor analyses, proposes a six-dimensional service
quality instrument consisting of „assurance‟, „personalized financial planning‟,
„competence‟, „corporate image‟, „tangibles‟ and „technology‟ in life
insurance. Ajay Suneja at el. (2010) Stated that with increasing competition,
customers have become very important for insurance companies in India.

Objectives of the Study

The present study made an attempt to examine the performance of life insurers
in Indian insurance industry.
 To measure the financial performance of selected life insurers during time
period taken under the study.
 To Check the awareness level of customers towards insurance Co.
 To check the level of Customer Satisfaction.
 To Study the Consumer Preferences Towards insurance company.

Research Methodology
1) Sampling Unit: It’s a descriptive study, so for my study I choose LIC as a
public company and other private companies.
2) Source of Data: Primary & Secondary
3) Sampling Technique: Non-probability sampling technique was used in this
researched.
4) Target Place: Bathinda
Conclusion
Insurance is very vital because it can turn around a worse situation for the
better. The health insurance industry ensures that people have access to health
care by providing protection in terms of covering for the cost of medical care.
The structure of the health insurance industry ensures that everyone has access
to cover irrespective the age, level of income or social background. The health

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insurance industry provides for both public programs, funded by the

government as well as private programs funded individually. The rate of
premiums charged as well as the claims varies depending on the age bracket of
an individual. As a person ages, the amount of premiums increase and the
amount of claims also increase. Among the most popular health insurance plans
is the HMO medical insurance plan, which provides an affordable manner to
have medical insurance covered at reduced costs. However, it is of paramount
importance for individuals to analyze the benefits and costs of all health
insurance options before making a choice on the best health insurance policy.
Limitation
 As the main objective of the present research was to study the public and
private life insurance sector in the Indian context, technical aspect of
electronic CRM technologies was not covered properly.
 The scope of the study in this particular field.
 The sample size of present study was relatively small to generalize the
results in the Indian context.
Recommendation
 People give a high priority to security of their investment, therefore the
promotion schemes should concentrate on educating the customers that
Private sector players have a strong financial backing like that of LIC.
 It is seen that till today a large portion of population is unaware of various
insurance plans, these include educated professionals also. Therefore, the
Private sector insurance companies should focus on improving awareness
and increase the understanding about insurance plans thus increasing their
scope of sale
 To introduce innovative products offering a right mix of
flexibility/risk/return depending, which will suite the requirement of the
customers.
References
 Indian Journal of Economics & Business, Vol. 9, No. 1, (2010)
 Journal of Contemporary Research in Management, July - December
2007  IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSRJBM)e-ISSN:
2278-487X. Volume 7, Issue 4 (Jan. -Feb. 2013), PP 45-52
 Yadav, Babita and Tiwari, Anshuja (2012). International Journal of
Marketing, Financial Services & Management Research, Vol.1 (7),
pp.106-123

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 Khurana, Sunayna (2008), Customer Preferences in Life Insurance

Industry in India,ICFAI University, Journal of Services Marketing, Vol.
6(3), pp. 60-68.  International Journal of Marketing, Financial Services
& Management ResearchVol.1 Issue 7, July 2012
 Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing (2010)18.
 Journal of Radix International Educational and Research Consortium
Volume 1, Issue 11(November 2012)
 Ray, Subhasis and Ali, Shahid (2008), "Gap Analysis Between
Customer's Expectation and Current Provisions of Indian Life Insurance
Industry", The Icfai University Journalof Consumer Behavior,Vol.
III,No.3, pp. 33-46.