27-11-2012, 06:05 PM
HDFC STANDARD LIFE INSURANCE Co.Ltd
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Introduction of Life Insurance
Life insurance is designed to protect life and to product family against financial uncertainties that may result due to unfortunate demise or illness. It can also view as a comprehensive financial instrument, as a part of the financial planning offering savings & investment facilities along with cover against financial loss. By choosing the right policy as per the needs. i.e. customized solutions, you will be able to plan for a secure future for yourself and your loved ones.
We all have different financial needs and objectives. But life insurance plays a fundamental role in most of our plans for financial security. That's because of the variety of life insurance plans available and the many ways they can be customized to meet unique needs at different periods of your life.
Statement of the problem
Insurance sector is a booming sector and the penetration in India is quiet low. So, all the private players are trying to increase the market share in the public. This study also involves creating awareness among the urban and rural consumer about the insurance sector and also the various policies involving various premium rates. Since the penetration of private companies and policies is low among the consumer, it is necessary to create awareness about life insurance policies and to know the satisfaction level among consumer. Hence the present studies entitled awareness about it among the consumer.
Insurance Industry
The business of insurance started with marine business. Traders, who used to gather in the Lloyd’s coffee house in London, agreed to share the losses to their goods while being carried by ships. The losses used to occur because of pirates who robbed on the high seas or because of bad weather spoiling the goods or sinking the ship. The first insurance policy was issued in 1583 in England. In India, insurance began in 1870 with life insurance being transacted by an English company, the European and the Albert. The first Indian insurance company was the Bombay Mutual Assurance Society Ltd, formed in 1870. This was followed by the Oriental Life Assurance Co. in 1874, the Bharat in 1896 and the Empire of India in 1897.
Later, the Hindustan Cooperative was formed in Calcutta, the United India in Madras, the Bombay life in Bombay, the National in Calcutta, the New India in Bombay, the Jupiter in Bombay and the Lakshmi in New Delhi. These were all Indian companies, started as a result of the swadeshi movement in the early 1900s. By the year 1956, when the life insurance was nationalized and the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) was formed on 1st September 1956, there were 170 companies and 75 provident fund societies transacting life insurance business in India. After the amendments to the relevant laws in 1999, the L.I.C. did not have the exclusive privilege of doing life insurance business in India. By 31.3.2002, eleven new insurers had been registered and has begun to transact life insurance business in India.
Need of Insurance
Assets are insured, because they are likely to be destroyed, through accidental occurrences. Such possible occurrences are called perils. Fire, floods, breakdowns, lightning, earthquakes, etc, are perils. If such perils can cause damage to the asset, we say that the asset is exposed to that risk. Perils are the events. Risks are the consequential losses or damages. The risk to an owner of a building, because of the peril of an earthquake, may be a few lakhs or a few crores of rupees, depending on the cost of the building and the contents in it.
The risk only means that there is a possibility of loss or damage. The damage may or may not happen. Insurance is done against the contingency that it may happen. There has to be an uncertainty about the risk. Insurance is relevant only if there are uncertainties. If there is no uncertainty about the occurrence of an event, it cannot be insured against. In the case of a human being, death is certain, but the time of death is uncertain. In the case of a person who is terminally ill, the time of death is not certain, though not exactly known. He cannot be insured.
Profile of HDFC STANDARD LIFE INSURANCE Co.Ltd
HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company Ltd. is one of India's leading private insurance companies, which offers a range of individual and group insurance solutions. It is a joint venture between Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited (HDFC Ltd.), India's leading housing finance institution and a Group Company of the Standard Life, UK.
HDFC Standard Life is one of the leading life insurance companies having a track record of declaring bonuses every year since inception. HDFC as on March 31, 2007 holds 81.9 per cent of equity in the joint venture.
INSURANCE IN INDIA
About 154 Indian insurance companies, 16 non-Indian companies and 75 provident were operating in India at the time of nationalization. Nationalization was accomplished in two stages; initially the management of the companies was taken over by means of an Ordinance, and later, the ownership too by means of a comprehensive bill. The Parliament of India passed the Life Insurance Corporation Act on the 19th of June 1956, and the Life Insurance Corporation of India was created on 1st September, 1956, with the objective of spreading life insurance much more widely and in particular to the rural areas with a view to reach all insurable persons in the country, providing them adequate financial cover at a reasonable cost.
LIC had 5 zonal offices, 33 divisional offices and 212 branch offices, apart from its corporate office in the year 1956. Since life insurance contracts are long term contracts and during the currency of the policy it requires a variety of services need was felt in the later years to expand the operations and place a branch office at each district headquarter. re-organization of LIC took place and large numbers of new branch offices were opened. As a result of re-organization servicing functions were transferred to the branches, and branches were made accounting units. It worked wonders with the performance of the corporation. It may be seen that from about 200.00 crores of New Business in 1957 the corporation crossed 1000.00 crores only in the year 1969-70, and it took another 10 years for LIC to cross 2000.00 crore mark of new business. But with re-organization happening in the early eighties, by 1985-86 LIC had already crossed 7000.00 crore Sum Assured on new policies
How Insurance Works
The mechanism of insurance is very simple. People who are exposed to the same risks come together and agree that, if any one of them suffers loss, the others will share the loss and make good to the person who lost. All people who send goods by ship are exposed to same risks, which are related to water damage, ship sinking, piracy, etc. Those owning factories are not exposed to these risks, but they are exposed to different kinds of risks like, firer, hailstorms, earthquakes, lightning, burglary, etc. Like this, different kinds of risks can be identified and separate groups made, including those exposed to such risks. By this method, the heavy loss that any one of them may suffer is divided into bearable small losses by all. In other words, the risk is spread among the community and the likely big impact on one is reduced smaller manageable impacts on all.
Insurance as a Security Tool
The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights 1948 provides that “Everyone has a right to standard of living adequate for the health and well being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, and housing and medical care and necessary social service and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability. Life insurance provides such an alternate arrangement. If this did not happen, another family will be pushed into the lower strata of society. The lower strata create a cost on society. Life insurance tends to reduce such a cost. In this sense, the life insurance business is complimentary to the states efforts in the social management.