Role of Agent

: INTRODUCTION :

An agent is a primary source for procurement of

Insurance business and as such his role is the corner
stone for building a solid edifice of any life insurance
organization. To effect a good quality of life insurance
sale.
ATTRIBUTES OF INSURANCE AGENTS-
He will possess excellent and proven salesmanship
skill.
He will have knowledge of human nature and
psychology.
He will have a sound knowledge of that product, his
institution, his competitors and entire financial
market.
He will have a regular and systematic business
production with a time- bound plan.
He will have an increasing and decent income
and increasing clients.
• He will derive enormous job
satisfaction.

•His public recognition in the institution will

also be enlightened by qualifying for special
honors like MDRT etc.
 
CONTRIBUTIONS OF AGENTS IN LIFE INSURANCE
CORPORATION (THE GIANT INSURANCE CO. IN INDIA):

In Life Insurance Corporation the year 2001-2002

recorded a phenomenal growth of 137% in first
premium income. The Sum Assured under new
policies sold registered a growth rate of 54% and the
number of policies sold grew by 16%. The ratio of
first insurance to total business completed for the year
2002-03 comes to 80.15% & 67.71% in respect of
NOP & SA respectively.
ROLE OF AGENTS UNDER IRDA REGULATION

Full information must be provided to the

proponent at the point of sale to enable him to
decide on the best cover or plan to minimize
instances of .cooling off. by the proponents.
•An agent should be well versed in all the plans,
the selling points and also be equipped to assess he
needs of the clients.
•Adherence to the prescribed Code of Conduct for
agents is of crucial importance. Agents must,
therefore, familiarize themselves with provisions of
the Code of Conduct.
 Agents must provide the office with the accurate
information about the prospect for a fair
assessment of the risk involved. The agents.
confidential report must, therefore, be completed
very carefully

• Agents must also possess adequate knowledge of

policy servicing and claim settlement procedures so
that the policyholders can be guided Correctly.
•Submission of proposal forms and proposal deposit
to the branch office immediately to avoid delays and
to enable the office to take timely decisions.
A leaflet or brochure containing relevant
features of the plan that is being sold should be
available with the agents.
 Rules and regulation for insurance
agent:-

Identify himself and the insurance company of

whom he is an insurance agent;
•disclose his licence to the prospect on demand;

•disseminate the requisite information in respect of

insurance products offered for sale by his insurer
and take into account the needs of the prospect
while recommending a specific insurance plan;
disclose the scales of commission in respect of
the insurance product offered for sale, if asked
by the prospect;
indicate the premium to be charged by the
insurer for the insurance product offered for
sale;
explain to the prospect the nature of
information required in the proposal form by
the insurer, and also the importance of
disclosure of material information in the
purchase of an insurance contract;
inform promptly the prospect about the
acceptance or rejection of the proposal by the
insurer;
obtain the requisite documents at the time of
filing the proposal form with the insurer; and
other documents subsequently asked for by the
insurer for completion of the proposal;
render necessary assistance to the
policyholders or claimants or beneficiaries in
complying with the requirements for settlement
of claims by the insurer;
 Some of the reasons why the insurance agents lie
to prospective customers are.

Insurance agents are only bothered about

commission that they will be getting once they
get the deal done.
They do not have the full knowledge of the
product that they are selling hence they end up
giving false information to the customer.
They are afraid of the awkward questions that
the customer can shoot at them While they are
explaining about the product to customer.

They are under the pressure of their boss and

are trying to reach the sales targets.
IRDA New Guidelines For Life Insurance
Agents
The rate of commissions to the agents should
also be unique in all insurance companies.

The trail commission is require because at

present in Unit Link Insurance Plans policies
are having surrender value of 96% after
payment of 3 years premium and many
customers opt for non paying the future
premiums.
There should be restriction on the expense
ratio of the Insurance Companies on the basis
of their fund size.
The other charges like policy administration
charges, fund management charges should also
be identical for all the companies.
Active insurance agents should be treated after
completing minimum 3 years agency business.
There should be certain criteria of Minimum
laps of policies for such agents
To encourage the full-time and regular insurance
agents they should be paid trail commissions on the
Assets under Management on regular basis at certain
percentage say @ 0.5% yearly, on the total Assets
under Management on monthly basis, to meet the
agency expenses.
The insurance business brought in by the outgoing
agents should be transferred to such full-time
insurance agents who will provide after sales services
to the existing customers and they should get renewal
commissions for their services and it should also be
treated as part of Asset Under Management for
calculation of trail commissions.