Life gets tough for insurers

KOLKATA: The mandatory training and examination system for licensing insurance agents will be revised and made more stringent than it is in its present form. In an effort to bring about discipline among life advisors, the Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority (IRDA) has decided to revise the mandatory training and examination system currently being followed. This will also help churn out quality agents, curb unhealthy practices and arrest the trend of selling wrong insurance products.

The IRDA has entrusted the job to the Life Insurance Council — a representative body formed by the life insurers. The Council has recently formed a committee christened Intermediary Education Committee (IEC), that will suggest changes required for the present mandatory training and examination system new agents.

“We also plan to introduce a special capsule in the mandatory 100-hour training programme for agents selling unit linked products (ULIPs). Advisors will have to mandatorily complete this portion or they would be barred from selling ULIPs,” SV Mony, secretary general of the Council told ET.

Industry experts said IRDA has asked insurers to impart special training on ULIPs to their existing set of agents, but there aren’t any separate modules for these in the 100-hours mandatory course for licensing agents. The council plans to introduce one now.

The Committee will shortly meet members of the industry, IRDA officials and the Insurance Institute of India (III) to discuss and prepare a draft for the revised training and examination system. III institute conducts qualifying examinations for the insurance sector, IRDA-exams for agents and imparts sales training.

“The idea is to create a healthy distribution-driven insurance market, stop mis-selling and bring about discipline among agents. The aim of this exercise would be to attract the right people and control the quality of licensed agents. There has been instances where agents have resorted to unhealthy practices.

The new system will control these aspects,” Mr Mony said. “We will prepare a draft on the basis of interactions with different stake holders in the industry including the life insurers, III, and IRDA. This would be followed by the final set to guidelines on the examination and training systems,” he added. The guidelines are likely to be ready in the next few months.