LIC crosses Rs 1,000 crore mark under new ULIP Plans

NEW DELHI: Country's largest insurer, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), today said it has crossed the Rs 1,000 crore-mark from its two new unit-linked plans, which were launched after the latest guidelines of the sectoral regulator IRDA took effect last month.

"Life Insurance Corporation of India has crossed the Rs 1,000 crore mark under the new ULIP plans, Pension Plus and Endowment Plus. The total premium income under these two plans as at October 18, 2010 was an awesome Rs 1,282 crore approximately," LIC said in a statement.

The new plans were introduced last month. Pension Plus was launched on September 2 and about Rs 150 crore of premium have been collected under it from more than 30,000 policies.

Endowment Plus plan was launched on September 20 and it was LIC's 16th linked product. Over Rs 1,000 crore has been garnered from Endowment Plus alone from over 2 lakh policies, in merely 29 days.

As per new guidelines, effective September 1, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), the commission paid to distributors and expenses charged by insurers will no longer be front-loaded. Instead, they will be distributed over the lock-in period of the schemes, which has been raised to five years from three years earlier.

Currently, ULIP products account for over 50 per cent of the total premium collected by the life insurance companies.