Pension is big business for life insurance companies

Pension has emerged as a big business for life insurance companies. Data released by the Life Insurance Council reveals that the total pension premium for the life insurance industry saw a growth of 159 per cent at Rs 22,268 crore for FY07 compared with Rs 8,568 crore in FY06. Of this, Life Insurance Corporation had a premium income of Rs 11282.58 crore from pension and group schemes. Pension fund assets grew by 20 per cent for FY07 at Rs 44,684 crore compared with Rs 37,264 crore in FY06. Pension fund assets for FY05 was Rs 12,024 crore.

Unit linked insurance plans were the favourite of insurance buyers in FY07. Data released by the Life Insurance Council for the year on year growth of Ulips and traditional business premium shows that regular premium from Ulips grew by 210 per cent for FY 07 at Rs 19,365 crore compared with Rs 6,248 crore in FY06. On the other hand, traditional regular premium business grew at a much lower rate of 36 per cent at Rs 18,512 crore in FY07 compared with Rs 13,610 crore in FY06.

Single premium unit linked plans grew by 140 per cent at Rs 22,296 crore for FY 07 compared with Rs 9,307 crore in FY06. Single premium traditional products declined 26 per cent at Rs 1,250 crore compared with Rs 1,692 crore in FY06.

The weighted received premium (WRP), which is calculated by taking into account 100 per cent regular premium in addition to 10 per cent single premium, showed that Ulips premium grew by 201 per cent at Rs 21,595 crore compared with Rs 7,179 crore in Fy 06.

The WRP for traditional policies grew by 35 per cent at Rs 18,637 crore compared to Rs 13,779 crore in FY06.

Unit-linked plans make up for 92 per cent of the single premium products.

The industry has recorded a growth of 20.5 per cent in terms of renewal premiums. The total renewal premium for FY 07 was Rs 76,502 crore compared with Rs 63,462 crore in FY06. Total number of policies in force grew by 15 per cent.

The total premium (which includes new business premium, renewal premium and pension premium) jumped 54 per cent in FY07 at Rs 1,53,000 crore compared with Rs 99,360 crore in FY06. Assets managed by life insurance companies grew by 9.2 per cent to Rs 6,00,130 crore compared to Rs 5,49,553.7 crore.