Life Insurance Corporation of India, a premier financial conglomerate with footprints in 14 countries, entered the 66th year of its existence yesterday, September 1, 2021. True to the objective of nationalisation, LIC is committed to propagate the message of life insurance to reach all insurable people at a reasonable cost.
Starting with an initial capital of Rs five crores in 1956, today LIC has an asset base of Rs 38,04,610 crores, with life fund to the tune of Rs 34,36,686 crores. As per a survey report, released by Brand Finance Insurance 100, LIC is ranked as the third strongest and 10th most valuable brand in the world. Despite two decades of opening up of the insurance sector, the corporation continues to be a market leader by holding the majority of market share viz 66.18 per cent in the first year premium income and 74.58 per cent in the number of policies. During the year 2020-21, Life Insurance Corporation of India sold a little over two crores of new policies and registered a growth of 3.48 per cent in the new business in terms of the first year premium by collecting an amount of Rs 1.84 lakh crores as on March 31, 2021. LIC’s pension and group superannuation business vertical crossed the one trillion mark successively for two years in a row by collecting Rs 1,27,769 crores as new business premium income .
Through its eight zonal offices, 113 divisional offices, 74 customer zones, 2048 branch offices, 1546 satellite offices, more than 42,000 premium points and life plus offices, over one lakh employees, 13.53 lakh agents, customers are sure to be provided with our best services. Besides this, LIC has tied up with eight PSU banks, six private banks, 13 regional rural banks, 41 cooperative banks and one foreign bank to enhance productivity. LIC has a formidable distribution channel to bring about qualitative and quantitative improvement in business.
LIC has always been a frontrunner in the financial and infrastructure development of the nation since its inception in 1956 by deploying the funds to the best advantage of the policy holders as well as the community at large. National priorities and reasonable returns to the policyholders are the main criteria of the organisation’s investments. The total funds, invested for the benefit of the community, at large are Rs 36,76,170 crores as on March 31, 2021.
Today LIC offers a bouquet of 32 plans for sale under individual business, each catering to the needs of various segments of the society viz endowment, term assurance, children, pension, micro insurance, health insurance and unit linked products et al. Customers are offered with the best products as per their changing needs.
In 2020-21 LIC has settled 229.15 lakh claims amounting to Rs 1,47,754 crores. LIC has always been embracing technology for providing hassle free services to our customers and for making sales and services easy. Many customer-centric initiatives have been taken by LIC besides improving pricing and creating operational efficiencies.
LIC has leveraged various digital platforms for electronic premium payments to provide a seamless experience to customers which facilitate payment of premium anytime, anywhere. premiums can be paid by giving standing instructions to banks, through debit/credit cards, through netbanking, IMPS, wallets, prepaid cards, apps, through authorised premium collection centres apart from payment in branches and satellite offices. Premium can also be paid online using MyLIC app, downloadable on Android and Windows phones. PayTM, PhonePe, GooglePay, Amazon Pay, Mobikwik are some of the more recent app based modes that are available to customers for premium payment digitally (except ULIP, Health and e-term policies).
Renewal of premium collection transactions through the digital infrastructure have reached an all-time high of 74.8 per cent in terms of total amount collected. Online facility of loan repayment and loan interest repayment is available with or without logging through the customer portal. Online loan request through customer portal is available for premier service registered customers only.
LIC has now facilitated revival of policies in the satellite offices and submission of claim forms in any branch across the country. A special revival campaign has been launched by LIC from August 23, 2021 to October 23, 2021, to facilitate revival of lapsed policies.
Switching of fund type under ULIP Policy can now be done online by our Customers. LIC’s Chatbot, LIC Mitra, is capable of answering a variety of questions on the plans available for sale, servicing related queries and also premium payment enquiries. Digital learning platform has been provided to the employees and agents. Launch of Gyanpeeth for enhancing knowledge of employees of the corporation is a step in this direction. LIC has also launched a mobile app, ANANDA (Atma Nirbhar Agents New Business Digital mobile application) as a tool for the onboarding process for new policies through a paperless module.
LIC Golden Jubilee Foundation, established in the year 2006, caters to the community development initiative of the corporation and works on a large variety of projects focusing on relief of poverty or distress, advancement of education, medical relief and advancement of any other object of general public utility. Since inception, the Foundation has supported NGOs dedicated to the above causes by sponsoring through 589 projects.
Apart from being a leading Life Insurance Company, LIC is an internationally recognized financial conglomerate with its presence in fourteen countries. It has also ventured into other financial services through its subsidiaries and associates such as LIC HFL, LIC Pension Fund Ltd, LIC Mutual Fund and AMC Ltd, LIC Cards Services Ltd, IDBI Bank Ltd, LICHFL Care Homes Limited, LICHFL Financial Services Limited, and LICHFL Asset Management Company Limited.
LIC has won 19 awards in the insurance category in the year 2020-21; notable ones being the Golden Peacock Award for Corporate Governance and Readers Digest award for the Most Trusted Brand.
LIC has stood tall in challenging times of Covid-19 pandemic and has been able to provide seamless, unhindered, hassle free services to our esteemed policyholders.
On this anniversary, LIC thanks all policyholders and stakeholders for reposing their unflinching trust in the organisation. We rededicate ourselves to the welfare of our customers in the true spirit of our moto, “Yogakshemam vahamyaham” (thy welfare is our responsibility).