Aegon Religare is one of the most innovative ones among life insurance companies. They were the first life insurance company to launch an online term insurance plan. And the company created quite a stir in the market with the launch of this product. [more]
In October 2009 Aegon Religare launched the online term insurance plan named iTerm. The product was to be purchased online only and the company passed on the benefits of the lack of distribution costs to the consumer in terms of very low annual insurance premiums. The product was an instant hit and shook the market with its pricing and delivery mechanism. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company responded with its own online term insurance plan called iProtect. IPru too priced it competitively and this product too was well received.
Aegon Religare is now further considering changes in the iTerm plan to make it more competitive. The company also plans to introduce riders in the term insurance plan which was not available in the earlier avatar. They have plans of launching an online ULIP product also as part of increasing its online insurance bouquet. The company would look to target 10% of its overall business from the online medium. Currently, online sales contribute 4% of the total premium collection.
Increasingly insurance companies are moving to the online medium to cut costs and increase transparency in sales. General insurance companies already provide car insurance and health insurance policies which can be purchased online within 5 minutes. The mode cuts out the role of the intermediary and saves the company a lot of costs.
Good trend. Definitely good for the customer!
