Ramanisblog

Tag: Insurance

  • Insurance Malpractices LIC Withdraws 34 Policies

    I have seen people, in the middle of an Insurance Agents sales talk, inform him/her, to set some parameters like safe,good returns Policy.

    Merrily the Sales person obliges.

    Insurance policies change.
    Changes in Insurance Policies.

    What happens next is that you are sold a Policy on which the Agent gets a hefty commission.

    Though the commissions are said to be uniform some policies do attract a better commission than the others because of the high risks to the insured and better returns to the insurer.

    Many simply sign on the dotted lines, asking the agent to fill in the necessary details, and hand him over the originals even for photocopying.

    As it is there is fine print, where your risks are mentioned in such a corner and in such a font type you can not read it, even if you read you can hardly understand it, such is the jargon.

    The Agent if asked to explain will normally say it is just for the records and you will get your returns or use further confusing arguments.

    So much so the complaints against Insurance mal practices, forgery have increased, as disclosed by IRDA.

    Insurance complaints,
    Insurance Complaints received by IRDA.

    Now LIC has decided to stop selling 34 Policies from January 2014.

    One big lie currently doing the rounds is that some of the best-selling plans from LIC are going to be discontinued after the new Irda guidelines come into effect. From 1 January 2014, claim the rumours, policies will become costlier because you will have to pay service tax as well. In the following pages, we separate the facts from the fiction.

     Agents have effectively used these half-truths to make people rush to buy insurance before the guidelines come into force. In September, the LIC sold new policies worth Rs 8,434 crore. This was 55% higher than the premium from new plans sold in September 2012. Sources reveal that Rs 2,000 crore of this amount was collected in the last two days of the month. Private insurance companies, too, were not far behind. They sold policies worth Rs 2,785 crore, up 29% from the previous year.

    The original deadline of 30 September has now been extended till 31 December. This has given a lease of life to insurance companies. In fact, the Life Insurance Council says it may seek a further extension if companies are not able to launch new products that comply with the revised guidelines. The period from January to March is considered the festive season for insurance in India and no insurer wants to miss the party…

    Soon, these good plans will not be available.

    Some of the most widely sold endowment policies and money-back plans will soon go off the shelves. However, if you buy them before 31 December, you can enjoy their benefits. The first statement is true. The second is only partially true. While many insurance policies will be discontinued, they will be replaced by better, more customer-friendly plans. Irda’s new guidelines for traditional plans have not only enhanced the surrender value of a policy, but also lay stress on longer terms and higher covers.

    LIC to withdraw 34 Policies.

    Insurance giant Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has decided to stop selling as many as 34 policies, including Jeevan Anand, Jeevan Madhur and Jeevan Saral, to comply with new regulatory guidelines. 

    These policies are withdrawn in December as they are not in conformity with the provisions of new regulations on non-linked insurance products, linked insurance products and health insurance products, a senior LIC official said. 

    Of the 34 products, LIC will stop sale of Jeevan Am .. 

    Of the 34 products, LIC will stop sale of Jeevan Amrit from December 7, Jeevan Surabhi from December 14 while two other schemes from December 21 and December 28 respectively. 

    Remaining 28 policies will go off LIC’s shelves from December 31. 

    Last month, LIC had withdrawn 14 policies including Convertible Term Assurance, Children Deferred Endowment Assurance. 

    These policies are being discontinued as part of regulatory compliance. 

    The Insurance Regulatory and .. 

    Related Articles

  • ‘Business’ Is People

    One of the reasons I read  more than five times the Godfather by Mario Puzo is the gems he throws on Life in such a story.

    One is, as Vito Corleone lay dying he opens his eyes and says ‘Life is Beautiful‘ before he breathes his last.

    If one can say this, in an ordinary lives , how great it would be!

    It is the accepted norm of the Mafia for any action if it is unpleasant , or even Murder, ‘ it is business, nothing personal’, even if the affected party is a blood relative.

    But Vito Corleone says . nothing in the world is Business, every thing is personal’

    How true!

    I was reminded of this when I watched a wonderful film “Immanuel‘ in Malayalam, starring Mammotty.

    The film revolves around the shenanigans and corrupt practices of the Corporate.

    I recommend this film for the sensitive and the socially conscious,

    Those who do not know the language ,watch it with sub titles.

    Now on to the post.

    Today success is Money and Money is profit.

    Profit runs the world Governments and Corporate.

    Men and women are driven by this.

    Ambition not in proportion with talents or disposition has replaced values.

    The word professionalism has come to mean insensitivity and inhuman behavior towards people, while mouthing inane words to the contrary.

    Employees are Colleagues, peon, Junior executives and CEO are all equal for they are working in a Parallel hierarchy, they say.

    Employees are advised to call even the CEO by  name because it is informal and the Company is a Family!

    Watch the Family rallying around you when they  push you beyond what you can.sack you for nor no reason.

    Try addressing the higher officials by first name a couple of times and watch his attitude towards you.

    Again the Customer is King, in theory, for fooling the public and the employees alike.

    See how they are lied to misled, cheated or even listen to after they pay up .

    There are Vision statements and Mission statements, mostly written by an ad agency; no body cares or no body knows what it is all about.

    What drives, in the name of professionalism, efficiency, dedication, commitment.. all a sham, nothing but plain Greed for money.

    Career planning and advancement is the Motto.

    The casualties-Humaneness,Concern for others, disrespect , arrogance, lying, (called sales strategy and customer management) for others all in the name of Professionalism.

    Career advancement, more money, working 24×7, food play social activity hypothetical to a nameless entity called Money.

    Look at the misleading ads for consumers, corrupt departments taking a cut in Life threatening situations, Doctors accepting Cash from Corporate, Pharma , Insurance companies for inserting a technical word in a Medical report for Insurance.

    The last one will come to know when one goes for medical claim.

    The list of inhuman actions is endless,

    Of what use money is or Career is when you can not spend your time with your family and friends, without helping others when you can?

    In this mad rush , you forget, and realize after  you are forty that you have money but, no people for you.

    The honchos who parrot Corporate and Business as their vital breath, pause, Business is for People, in fact -Business is People.

  • Aviva Sacks 1300 ‘Accidentally’

    Till about a decade back we had Purchase,Administration,Sales and Accounts in a Sales Organisation.

    In the case of a Manufacturing Unit,Despatch/Loading,Production and Inventory were added.

    Now for  selling a Product, we have Marketing,Sales Front office,Back office,Brand Management,Product Management,Advertising,Customer Care,HR, Administration,Accounts,Warehousing,Logistics …..endless.

    Most of the functions are duplicated.

    Productivity…?

    More departments , less involvement in the total picture and total chaos.

    Aviva Building.
    Aviva Building.

    A blundering Aviva Investors worker accidentally ‘sacked’ 1,300 staff by email after forwarding a ‘goodbye’ email to everyone.

    The message, sent out by the company‘s human resources department on Friday, was supposed to go to one worker who was leaving that day.

    It told all staff: ‘I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and wish you all the best for the future.’

    Within minutes bosses realised what had happened and 25 minutes later the email was recalled.

    A second email was sent to all staff apologising for the mistake.

    Aviva Investors are the investment arm of Aviva insurers and have an office in London.

    The email was a standard message sent to people leaving the company, covering things such as handing back company equipment and confidentiality rules.

    A spokesman said the message did not tell people that they were fired.

    Aviva is the world’s sixth-largest insurance group and the investment arm manages assets of more than £262 billion.

    It said in January it would shed around 160 jobs, about 12 percent of its global workforce.

    Aviva Investors spokesman Paul Lockstone said: ‘An email which was intended for a member of staff who was leaving today was accidentally sent to all Aviva Investors staff worldwide,’ Lockstone said.

    ‘People were pretty quickly aware of the fact that this was a mistake … I don’t believe any of our staff would have seen it really as anything other than the mistake that it was.’

    Mr Lockstone said he did not know why the intended recipient of the email was leaving the company.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2134100/Blundering-Aviva-accidentally-sack-1-300-staff-forwarding-email-meant-worker-everyone.html#ixzz1sxS09iPf

  • How Google makes Money?

    chart showing how Google made money
    How dis Google make money?

    ”

    The Top 10 Industries That Spent Big On Google AdWords In 2011

    1. Finance & Insurance – $4.0 Billion (example keywords in this industry include: “self employed health insurance”, “cheap car insurance”, “credit cards for bad credit”)
    2. Retailers & General Merchandise – $2.8 Billion (example keywords in this industry include “zumba dance dvd”, “proform treadmill”, “weber grill accessories”)
    3. Travel & Tourism – $2.4 Billion (e.g. “new york hotels”, “plane tickets”, “rental car deals”)
    4. Jobs & Education – $2.2 Billion (e.g. “accredited online college degrees”, “online certificate programs”, “unemployment benefits”)
    5. Home & Garden— $2.1 Billion (e.g. “replacement windows cost”, “appliance repair”, “cabinet refacing”)
    6. Computer & Consumer Electronics – $2.0 Billion (“ink cartridges discount”, “pc memory”, “online video conferencing software”)
    7. Vehicles – $2.0 Billion (e.g “cheap hybrid cars”, “certified used cars”, “bridgestone tires”)
    8. Internet & Telecommunications – $1.7 Billion (“pre paid cell phones”, “domain registration”, “cable internet providers”)
    9. Business & Industrial – $1.6 Billion (“custom business cards”, “cheap office supplies”, “foam packing”)
    10. Occasions & Gifts – $1.2 Billion (“funeral flowers arrangements”, “flower delivery”, “wedding gift registry”)

    Advertising revenues from these 10 industries accounted for 60% of Google’s 2011 revenues. The remaining $14.4 billion in advertiser revenues came from other industries. (Just 4% of Google’s revenues came from non-advertising-related sources.)

    5 Things The Google Revenue Data Tells Us About The US Economy

    Because everyone uses Google, and 3 million businesses advertise on Google, we can learn a lot about the state of the US economy from these results. Here are some of my conclusions.

    Occupy Wall Street Was Right?

    Despite the recent financial meltdown, the finance and insurance industries were the biggest spenders of the year – and rest assured, finance companies wouldn’t be spending billions on Google advertising if they weren’t turning a profit from it. Insurance and loan companies were especially keen to acquire new customers through PPC – that’s because these industries make a killing off each new client.

    What Recession? Consumerism Still Rampant

    Despite a weak economy and high unemployment, Americans are still splurging on vacations and buying lots and lots of stuff (and we’re willing to refinance our homes and apply for new credit cards, despite bad credit, in order to get it). Amazon alone spent over $55 million on PPC ads in 2011, and that’s just what they spent on AdWords.

    High Unemployment Creates Opportunities for Education, Jobs and Training

    Unemployment hovered around 9% in 2011. Lots of people took this opportunity to seek out more education, and online degree programs are reaping the benefits. The University of Phoenix spent even more on AdWords than State Farm, the biggest spender in the Finance & Insurance industry.

    Home & Garden Crushes Real Estate

    A housing recovery is nowhere to be seen in Google’s 2011 revenues. Americans overwhelmingly spent more on fixing up the house or apartment they already owned rather than buying up.

    Businesses Are Holding Back

    Business and industrial spending was soft compared to other industries and relative to its overall share of the GDP. It seems that corporations are sitting on a lot of cash right now and are slow to invest.

    Overall, from what I can see, a billion people are doing a billion searches on Google every day, looking to buy stuff, financial products, or to improve their skills. So while I’m no economist, my own prediction is that the US economy will be OK in 2012.

    Google’s Top Revenue Sources: Survey Methodology

    I compiled these revenue estimates by using our own trillion-keyword database and the Google Keyword Tool to determine the top 10 million most popular search queries in 2011, as well as their average cost per click prices as paid by advertisers. I used WordStream PPC technologies to categorize the huge keyword list by industry, such as “Finance & Insurance,” then applied a model that weighed the relative percentages of each industry’s revenue (keyword volume * average cost per click) to Google’s 2011 revenues, excluding non-advertising revenues. The top five advertisers in each industry and their estimated spend was obtained by using data from SpyFu.com, then applying the same categorization analysis.

    http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2012/01/23/google-revenues?utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Google%20Investor&utm_campaign=GoogleInvestor_Newsletter_012412

  • Procedure for LIC Claims.

     

    LIC services have vastly improved now.

    Claims are settled with out squabbles, provided we submit all the Documents.

    In private Insurance companies. you are being asked(especially Reliance) to submit your copy of the Application form for signature verification.

    It is prudent to have your signature verified by your Bankers for hassle free settlement of claim settlement.

    Also have your change of address notified and confirmed as this would help avoid payment of Claims.

    Alterations In Policy
    There may be instances when you would like to make alterations in your policy like change of premium payment mode, reduction in premium paying term etc.
    Your applications may be given in writing to the branch that services your policy for our further action.

    There are different types of alterations that are allowed on our life insurance policies( Click here to know more about alterations)….

    If Your Policy Is Lost
    Kindly make a thorough search before concluding that you have lost the policy bond. Look for the same within your residence, among your investment papers, at your office and even with your agent to whom you might have entrusted the document for some reason.
    It could have been even pledged with LIC/any other financial institution for availing a loan by you. LIC retains the policy bond when you go in for a loan against the policy. Make sure that the document you are searching is not one that has already been assigned to LIC, or to another financial institution.

    If the policy bond is partially destroyed due to natural causes like, fire, flood, etc, the remaining portion may be returned as evidence of loss of policy to LIC, while applying for a duplicate policy.

    In case you are sure that the policy bond is untraceable due to unknown causes, there is a simple procedure to comply with while applying for the duplicate policy at the branch that services your policy (Click here to know about obtaining duplicate policies). ..

    Your Contact Address – Keep Us Posted Without Fail
    Your address is very important for us. Without your latest address we would not be in a position to contact you for any service offering. We would not like to keep any benefit that is due to you pending for want of this very important information. Whenever you shift residences, please inform the new address to us. Otherwise any communication we send to you, like premium notices, discharge vouchers for maturity and survival benefits etc., will get delayed in reaching you.

    LIC provides for change of addresses, inclusion of telephone numbers, mobile numbers and email addresses in your contact addresses information. Kindly inform your servicing branch to incorporate the same in your policy records.

    …
    Admission Of Age
    Check your policy bond and see if your date of birth is correctly given therein.
    This is one of the factors on which the premiums you pay for your policy is arrived at.
    This would also form the basis of all future policies you might avail from us.
    In case your earlier policies do not have your date of birth incorporated and you do have a date of birth certificate issued by the competent authority, you may send an attested copy of the same to us, with a request to admit your age (Click here to find out the certificates of age that LIC accepts.)..

    Nomination
    Ensure that the nominees name is correctly incorporated in the policy bond.
    You may change the nomination in your policy any time during the lifetime of the policy
    In case you have not included the name of the nominee till now, please do not delay; inform us your nomination immediately. Kindly note that the change of nomination has to be done in the branch that services your policy.

    The nominee is the person to whom the insurance claim amounts would be payable, in case anything unfortunate within the purview of the policy conditions happens to you.
    The policy is usually taken by you to benefit your family – nominate the persons who’ll have the welfare of your family in your absence; the usual preferences being spouse and children.

    You may nominate even minors like your children, in which case you have to name another person who’ll have the welfare of the minor children, as an appointee( Click here to know more about nomination)..

    http://www.licindia.in/policy_guidelines.htm#2

    1. A copy of your LIC Policy
    2. Necessary information in case of a life event

    Steps

    1

    Maturity Claims:
    In case of Endowment type of Policies, amount is payable at the end of the policy period. The Branch Office which services the policy sends out a letter informing the date on which the policy monies are payable to the policyholder at least two months before the due date of payment. The policyholder is requested to return the Discharge Form duly completed along with the Policy Document. On receipt of these two documents post dated cheque is sent by post so as to reach the policyholder before the due date.

    2

    Some Plans like Money Back Policies provide for periodical payments to the policyholders provided premium due under the policies are paid up to the anniversary due for Survival Benefit. In these cases where amount payable is more than Rs.60,000/-, cheques are released after ,calling for the Discharge Receipt or Policy Document. These two requirements are insisted upon.

    Death Claims:

    The death claim amount is payable in case of policies where premiums are paid up-to-date or where the death occurs within the days of grace. On receipt of intimation of death of the Life Assured the Branch Office calls for the following requirements:

    1. Claim form A Claimant’s Statement giving details of the deceased and the claimant.
    2. Certified extract from Death Register
    3. Documentary proof of age, if age is not admitted
    4. Evidence of title to the deceased’s estate if the policy is not nominated, assigned or
    5. issued under M.W.P. Act.
    6. Original Policy Document

    The following additional forms are called for if death occurs within three years from the date of risk or from date of revival/reinstatement.

    1. Claim Form B Medical Attendant’s Certificate to be completed by the Medical Attendant of the deceased during his/her last illness
    2. Claim Form B1 if the life assured received treatment in a hospital
    3. Claim form B2 to be completed by the Medical Attendant who treated the and signed by a person of known character and responsibility
    4. Claim form E Certificate by Employer if the assured was employed person.
    5. Certified copies of the First Information Report, the Post-mortem report and Police Investigation Report if death was due to accident or unnatural cause.

    These additional forms are required to satisfy ourselves on the genuineness of the claim, i.e., no material information that would have affected our acceptance of proposal has been withheld by the deceased at the time of proposal. Further, these forms also help us at the time of investigation by the officials of the Corporation

    Double Accident Benefit Claims:
    Double Accident Benefit is provided as an inject to the life insurance cover. For this purpose an extra premium of Rs.1/- per Rs.1000/- S.A is charged. For claiming the benefits under the Accident Benefit the claimant has to produce the deceased life assured prior to his last illness.

    Claim Form C Certificate of Identity and burial or cremation to be completed proof to the satisfaction of the Corporation that the accident is defined as per the policy conditions. Normally for claiming this benefit documents like FIR, Post-mortem Report are insisted upon.

    Disability Benefit Claims:
    Disability benefit claims consist of waiver of future premiums under the policy and extended disability benefit consisting in addition of a monthly benefit payment as per policy conditions. The essential condition for claiming this benefit is that the disability is total and permanent so as to preclude him from earning any wage/compensation or profit as a result of the accident.

     Caution
    • Please do not hand over the claim papers or the policy documents to strangers who offer to help.
    • Do not give the papers even to the LIC agent unless he or she is very much known to you. Go along with them personally.
    • There are many occasions when the papers are handed over to the unknown agent or broker and the money is claimed by them and the family suffers.

    Links.

    LIC Website