LIC Madurai division digitalisation to be completed soon’

Madurai, March 25 The Madurai division of LIC of India will be completing the digitalisation process of all its 25 branches along with 11 satellite offices by May-end. Two more satellite offices, one each at Vadipatti and Rameswaram – will be coming up soon, according to Mr S. Chandrasekar, Senior Divisional Manager, Madurai.

Referring to the market, the close-ended single premium product, Jeevan Astha, with guaranteed additions has helped to sustain the performance of the division, with a sale of 20,121 policies to the tune of Rs 73 crore in 45 days in the otherwise depressing market scenario, he told Business Line.

The sale of unit-linked insurance plans (ULIPs) has not picked up. “Even though the right time to enter the market is said to be on a lower NAV (net asset value), people are not going in for purchase of ULIP products. The recession has had its impact in the market,” he said. As against 88,745 policies of Market Plus sold last year, only 44,201 Market Plus1 policies have been sold.

Even, the new close-ended product, Jeevan Varsha, a money-back plan with guaranteed returns introduced on February 16, has not had the expected response.

So far, only 2,983 policies to the tune of Rs 1.98 crore have been sold, he said.

As elsewhere, the division is also experiencing a tough time. The growth is relatively low compared to last year, 13 per cent lower in terms of policies and 38 per cent in terms of premium.

To reach out to people, new initiatives have been taken. Agents have been empowered to collect premium and authorised to issue receipts in their own offices. Chief Life Insurance Advisors have been appointed who in turn have been permitted to appoint supervisory agents under them, he said.

Source:Businessline