Communications- Performance Evaluation of Insurance Products- An Empirical Analysis with Reference to Lic of India

Abstract

In the life insurace market of India, plans offered by insurers can be classified under three categories- insurance products such as term plans; pure investment products such as pension and annuity plans and investment cum insurance products such as endowment, money back, whole life and linked insurance plans. However, LIC o f India products are a mix of all the categories. Its' products are classified in to three broad categories.The first category is individual, group insurance and group superannuation policies which satisfy the conditions of basic life insurance contract. The second category consists of pension and annuity plans which cover the risk of longevity unlike life insurance plan that cover the risk of death. The third category is unit linked life insurance plans which combine the benefit of investment with insurance. The only public sector life insurance company in India having occupied with 70 per cent of the market share, LIC is offering forty five combinations of insurance plans to its customers which are classified from three categories of its products. Hence, this paper attempts to evaluate the performance of the company products in the life insurance market of India. Fewer attempts were made to compare LIC products with private life insurance products because in spite of the similarities in the plans there is a mismatch in the categories of products offering by the life insurers