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<br /> Its good news for <keyword id="35450" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="insurance">insurance</keyword> agents! One of the largest insurance players, Reliance Life Insurance Company (<keyword id="361239" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="RLIC">RLIC</keyword>) plans to hire an additional 20,000 agents across India in this fiscal year as part of its expansion plans.<br />
	<br /> "We are the agency company. We strongly believe that agents are our backbone and we invest in them. We have planned to increase our agency force by 20 per cent, which now stands at one lakh agents. Thus, we will be adding another 20,000 agents in this financial year," RLIC's Chief Agency Officer <keyword id="2891044" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Manoranjan-Sahoo">Manoranjan Sahoo</keyword> said in an ET report.<br />
	<br />
	Sahoo made the announcement at the sidelines of the launch of RLIC's new child plan, called as 'Reliance Education Plan'. He also added that Gujarat generates nearly 10% of their insurance business.<br />
	<br />
	"Gujarat has been our favourite state in terms of business. 10 per cent of our business comes from here. We are having a strong agency presence here. We are having 56 branches having more than 8,500 agents working with us" he added.<br />
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	<em>Image Credit: Indiatimes.com</em>

Job galore! Reliance’s insurance arm to hire 20,000 insurance agent in
FY16<b></b>

With hundreds of insurance policies available in the market today it becomes an increasingly difficult task to pick and choose an insurance policy that best meets your needs. Buying an insurance policy is a daunting process even for someone with a lot of knowledge about insurance.<br />
<br />
When you find yourself stuck on things like premiums, tax-saving benefits, etc. you look to your insurance agent for help. When you’re confused your go-to person is the agent.<br />
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Don’t forget that agents are critical to the insurance buying process because they simplify jargons for you and take you through the policy benefits in detail.<br />
<br />
Any questions that you probably wanted to ask before making a purchase you can ask your agent.<br />
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Today catching up with the e-commerce wave, life insurance plans are also available online which makes buying insurance convenient.<br />
But what if you needed assistance? Whom can you rely on before making one of the most important decisions of your life; after all, you don’t buy life insurance every year. You buy a plan and stick with it; upgrading, when you need to increase the cover amount.<br />
<br />
Good news, your insurance agent is also online.<br />
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If you want to analyse which plan is perfect for you and your family then you can easily use innovative insurance calculators like this one from <a href="http://www.hdfclife.com/financial-tools-calculators/click-to-insure?source=M_Zirca-BI_C2Insure_Art_Oct16&amp;utm_source=M_Zirca-BI&amp;utm_campaign=M_Zirca-BI_C2Insure_Art_Oct16&amp;utm_medium=C2Insure_Art_Oct16">HDFC Life</a>. These calculators help you choose a plan that fits your specific need thus giving you a targeted solution.<br />
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For any assistance during the research or buying process E-agents are available on chat and call for any clarification regarding the plan and additional benefits like riders.<br />
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A few insurers also provide a co-browsing facility where the E-agent fills up your form as per the details advised by you. Insurers like <a href="http://www.hdfclife.com/financial-tools-calculators/click-to-insure?source=M_Zirca-BI_C2Insure_Art_Oct16&amp;utm_source=M_Zirca-BI&amp;utm_campaign=M_Zirca-BI_C2Insure_Art_Oct16&amp;utm_medium=C2Insure_Art_Oct16">HDFC Life</a> also let you track your policy details online.<br />
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Also post purchase, all your policy servicing needs like paying premium, policy modification , and even filing a claim can be fulfilled online (with or without assistance).<br />
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And the best part is that you can do all of this without going to an insurer branch or scheduling a meeting with an agent.<br />
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If you are still debating buying insurance online, here are 5 takeaways from my experience -<br />
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1. Simple policy comparisons: When you buy an insurance plan online, you have several choices. You can always compare different policies and choose the one that fits your requirement.<br />
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2. Tracking: All the information you need is available at your fingertips. You don’t have to make frantic calls to your agent during emergencies. When you buy a policy online, there is transparency and accountability.<br />
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3. Less paperwork: Having an insurance policy involves a lot of paperwork and you have to maintain past records of the premium paid. With online, everything is stored and you don’t have to maintain any receipts.<br />
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4. Lower premiums: Online policies have lower premiums than offline ones.<br />
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5. You can trust your online agent – You can enjoy the same, seamless customer experience when buying an insurance plan online. With anytime access to your agent, buying a plan online is a breeze.<br />
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Insurers like <a href="http://www.hdfclife.com/financial-tools-calculators/click-to-insure?source=M_Zirca-BI_C2Insure_Art_Oct16&amp;utm_source=M_Zirca-BI&amp;utm_campaign=M_Zirca-BI_C2Insure_Art_Oct16&amp;utm_medium=C2Insure_Art_Oct16">HDFC Life</a> have realised the importance of incorporating new technologies into their insurance buying process making it more streamlined and convenient for the customer.<br />
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Why I can trust online insurance

<ul><li>ACKO Launches new brand campaign ‘Car Insurance Ke Tedhe Games.’</li><li>The campaign highlights the challenges of buying insurance today &amp; how <keyword id="6568790" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="acko-insurance">ACKO Insurance</keyword> simplifies the experience.</li></ul>ACKO Insurance has launched a marketing campaign - ‘Car insurance ke tedhe games’ that will remind you of Takeshi’s Castle. <br /><br />Conceptualised and created by Leo Burnett Orchard, the campaign’s creative depicts the current car insurance journey as a complex and absurd game, and showcases ACKO as a direct-to-consumer insurance that helps save both time and money. The narration in the campaign is by popular Indian actor and comedian, Javed Jaffrey. This is an integrated 360 degree campaign across television, digital, social media and will be amplified across radio and out-of-home in the coming weeks.<br /><br />Insurance in India has suffered from a trust deficit due to the perceived complexity of the product offerings, the purchase and claims journey. This directly reflects in how underserved the Indian insurance market is. Today, the typical insurance purchase to claim journey is a complicated, multi-step process that involves a lot of paperwork and services of third party agents and middlemen that inflate the price. ACKO provides frictionless insurance through an intuitive purchase experience, zero-paperwork and stress-free claims process. Being a digital and direct to consumer brand, ACKO has transformed the entire insurance process that makes it simple and transparent. By eschewing the agent/broker channel, there are no hidden charges or agent commissions. <br /><br />ACKO’s new campaign depicts the challenges that consumers have to navigate to buy car insurance today, in a ‘gameworld format’. Featuring contestants competing on an obstacle course, the films highlight issues such as insurance agents that chase you, commissions that inflate premiums, drawn out claim processes and sub-standard service experience The campaign informs users on the advantages of buying car insurance from ACKO, by ‘knocking out’ each one of these challenges. <br /><br /><div type="Youtube" id="aKS6auMwdCw" title="Car Insurance Ke Tedhe Games | Commission Ka Attack | ACKO" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/aKS6auMwdCw/mqdefault.jpg"></div><br />Ashish Mishra, EVP Marketing said, “With this marketing campaign, we really wanted to highlight how ACKO Car Insurance can be beneficial to customers. We know that buying car insurance can often be expensive, complicated and time consuming for most consumers. They also end up paying the same amount despite differences in their car usage. ACKO Car and Bike Insurance products are designed to overcome these challenges, using advanced technology and consumer data to arrive at the best pricing unique to each consumer. ACKO sells direct to consumers, which has removed commissions and hidden charges, making ACKO's insurance cheaper than other policies in most cases. So far ACKO has successfully insured 60Million Indians across 550 cities”.<br /><br />“We are very excited to launch this new campaign informing the consumers about these benefits in a fun and entertaining manner. Our agency partners, LBO and Wavemaker, have helped us in developing a clutter breaking creative campaign and a robust media strategy that will definitely help in driving awareness,” he added.<br /><br />Vikram Pandey - National Creative Director, <keyword id="261687" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Leo-Burnett-India">Leo Burnett India</keyword>, said,“Car insurance is boring and car insurance ads even more so. So we created ads that don’t look like ads, they look like snippets out of Japanese Game Shows. The costumes, sets, edit pattern, even <keyword id="127390" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Javed-Jaffery">Javed Jaffery</keyword>’s compering, were designed accordingly. We used the ‘Tedhe Games’ format to show what people go through while purchasing or claiming car insurance, and how car insurance from ACKO is a better choice. ‘Paperwork ka Mayajaal’, ‘Commision ka Attack’ and ‘Repair Run’, each ad illustrates the current category grievances and how ACKO is a solve for it all.”<br />

ACKO's new campaign 'Car Insurance Ke Tedhe Games' will make you miss Takeshi's Castle

New Delhi, Dec 31 () Insurance regulator Irdai has slapped a fine of Rs 2.18 crore on Hero Insurance Broking India for violating norms on motor insurance service providers, forcing customers to buy policies from their panel and discriminating policyholders, among others.
<p> Irdai said it received complaints from policyholders that some of the motor insurance service providers (MISPs) sponsored by insurers, and insurance intermediaries were forcing customers to buy motor insurance policies of the insurers who are on their panel.
</p><p> In its order against Hero Insurance Broking India Ltd (HIBIL), Irdai said it received complaints from some general insurance agents association of the apparent conflict of interest in the role of MISPs in selling insurance policies and servicing and repairing motor vehicles under the insurance policies sold by it, high claims ratio under the MISP channel, extra payments made to MISP by insurers, and disparity of treatment to agents, among others.
</p><p> "The Authority also received complaints from insurers that insurance intermediaries have created panel of insurers which is in violation of Guidelines on Motor lnsurance Service Providers," the regulator said in an order.
</p><p> Irdai, in its order, clarified that neither the insurance broker nor the MISP can create such a panel of insurers for selling motor insurance policies. It also added that no MISP or the insurance intermediary can enter into an agreement with an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) which has an influence or bearing on the sale of motor insurance policies.
</p><p> The levy of penalties on the insurance broker has come after off-site inspection and giving the broker chance for personal hearing.
</p><p> "Based on above decisions in charge... Hero Insurance Broking India Pvt Ltd., is hereby directed to pay a penalty of Rs 2,18,00,000," the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) said in its order.
</p><p> Hero Insurance Broking is one of the biggest insurance brokers covering 2-wheeler in the country and, therefore, is a leader in this field, Irdai observed.
</p><p> "This places tremendous responsibility on HIBIL as it is held as the torch bearer of the broking profession. ln light of such expectations, HIBIL was expected to act diligently and with utmost care and responsibility. Unfortunately, HIBIL failed in complying with the MISP guidelines which had been created to protect the interest of the policyholders and other stakeholders," Irdai said.
</p> It further asked the broker to dismantle the panel of insurers and empanel all insurers on its platform, redesign current system of seeking customer consent for purchasing insurance policy so that the customer can exercise choice of selecting the insurer, among others, and asked it to submit a report to Irdai.   KPM HRS

Irdai slaps Rs 2.18 cr fine on Hero Insurance Broking for violating norms

Inside the tawdry, drug-fueled, violent world of America's top life insurance salesmen

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Beck Diefenbach</span></p><p class="caption">Zenefits CEO David Sacks</p></div><p></p></div></div>Zenefits has just settled with the state of California <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-inside-story-of-zenefits-2016-3">after the company admitted earlier this year</a> that it was selling insurance without a license and that it may have dodged some of the legal requirements when training employees for their California insurance licenses.</p><p>California announced Zenefits would pay a $7 million fine.</p><p>This includes a $3 million penalty for licensing violations, including allowing unlicensed employees to sell insurance, a $4 million penalty for "subverting" the licensing education requirements and a $160,000 payment to reimburse the Department of Insurance for investigation and examination expenses, the California insurance commissioner said in a press release (posted in full below).</p><p><span>This is pocket change for the once high-flying startup, which raised $500 million in its first couple of years in business, based on its fantastically fast growth projections.</span></p><p>But the disclosures of its licensing issues led to the sudden resignation of its founder CEO Parker Conrad, replaced by investor, COO, and Valley executive A-lister David Sacks. Since then, Sacks has been negotiating with state regulators, many of who imposed far smaller fines.</p><p>Sacks also banned the practice of drinking alcohol at work, laid off workers, renegotiated with investors and reduced the valuation of the company by half to $2 billion. He offered the remaining workers a chance to walk with severance if they didn't want to stay, fired other executives involved in the licensing issues, reorganized leadership and launched a new version of the company's main product. Zenefits offers HR software that it offers for free to customers who buy insurance from it.</p><p>Resolving these issues with the state of California, the company's home state and biggest market, end the biggest noose hanging over the company's head. </p><p>Here's the full press release. </p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>Insurance commissioner's enforcement action against </strong><strong>Zenefits results in multi-million dollar penalty</strong></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">Zenefits agrees to comply with agent licensing and education regulations</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones today announced the enforcement action taken against Zenefits for multiple license violations has resulted in a $7 million penalty. Zenefits was charged with allowing unlicensed employees to transact insurance and circumventing insurance agent education requirements. This is the largest penalty assessed by any commissioner against Zenefits and one of the largest penalties for licensing violations ever assessed in the department's history.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">A 2013 start-up, Zenefits is a San Francisco based company whose business model was to provide online HR services to businesses and then encourage those same businesses to use Zenefits as an insurance broker.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">"Businesses and consumers should have confidence that anyone selling insurance to them in California is doing so in compliance with our consumer protection laws," said Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. "Our enforcement action has resulted in Zenefits paying substantial monetary penalties for their licensing violations and ensures Zenefits complies with all of California's insurance laws and regulations or they will face additional automatic penalties and sanctions."</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">The California Department of Insurance launched an investigation in 2015, after receiving complaints that Zenefits employees were transacting insurance without a license. Shortly after the investigation into Zenefits' business practices and compliance began, the company announced publicly that they were not complying with insurance laws and regulations, which was followed by the resignation of Zenefits' CEO, Parker Conrad.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">"In California, we value innovation and new business models, including Internet based start-ups, but we also insist that consumer protections laws are followed," said Jones. "Zenefits is an example of an Internet based start-up whose former leaders created a culture where important consumer protection laws were broken-a bad strategy that placed the company at risk and that other start-ups should not follow given our strong consumer protection laws and the Department of Insurance's rigorous enforcement of those laws."</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">The settlement agreement obtained by the insurance commissioner includes a $3 million penalty for licensing violations, including allowing unlicensed employees to transact insurance, a $4 million penalty for subverting the pre-licensing education and study-hour requirements for agent and broker licensing, and a $160,000 payment to reimburse the Department of Insurance for investigation and examination expenses.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">In recognition of the self-reporting and remedial actions already implemented by the company, including the replacement of the former CEO, retraining of all licensed producers, and implementation of an automated process to verify that only licensed individuals solicit and sell insurance products, the settlement provides that half of the total $7 million in monetary penalties are suspended. The suspended portion of the monetary penalty will be reinstated if Zenefits fails to confirm continued compliance with licensing and regulatory mandates based on an examination of the company's business practices to be conducted in 2018."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/psychology-lazy-productivity-strategy-2016-11">A psychologist reveals a trick to stop being lazy</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="VkbmljMjE63UwB_ueoQhbKIydZ5YtRgN" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Zenefits will pay $7 million to California to settle its most egregious legal issues

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Ethos</span></p><p class="caption">Ethos cofounders, Lingke Wang and Peter Colis.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Three-year old San Francisco startup <a href="https://www.ethoslife.com/">Ethos</a> is upending the experience of buying life insurance.</li><li>The service offers plans to consumers almost instantly, without medical exams, and without pushy sales agents incentivized by commissions.</li><li>In a recent interview with Business Insider Ethos CEO Peter Coils said that most consumers can get coverage from his app in "ten minutes from their mobile devices while in line at Starbucks."</li><li>To help fund the budding endeavor, Ethos raised a $60 million Series C round in August led by Alphabet's investing arm GV, with participation from the likes of Sequoia, Goldman Sachs, and Accel.</li><li>In total, Ethos has raised over $100 million and is valued at nearly $500 million. </li><li>Below is the pitch deck that helped Ethos convince investors that the life insurance market is ready for a new model.</li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prime?module=article&amp;area=summary">Click here for more BI Prime stories</a>.</strong></li></ul><p>Shortly after <a href="https://www.ethoslife.com/">Ethos</a> cofounder Lingke Wang graduated from college, he received a call from a life insurance agent who just happened to also be an alumnus of his college. Setting up a life insurance policy wasn't even on Wang's radar at the time. But after four calls and much persistence from the sales rep, Wang finally caved and signed up for a plan. </p><p>Years later, while attending Stanford Business School, Wang recounted the episode to his roommate, Peter Colis. After researching the industry further, the duo realized that the life insurance market was both massive in size (<a href="https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-industry-overview">$100+ billion per year</a> paid in premiums) and inefficient. The process to sign up was riddled with paperwork and medical exams, and could take months before a person's plan was finalized. There were also the predatory sales agents - like Wang encountered - that put people into expensive plans they didn't necessarily need. </p><p>In 2014, the two founded <a href="https://www.ovidlife.com/">Ovid</a>, a company that helps consumers get out of expensive, permanent life insurance contracts and receive a cash settlement. Ovid is still in operation today, but it was acquired by another company earlier this year for an undisclosed amount. </p><p>By 2016, Wang and Colis wanted to pursue another avenue of the industry - this time focusing on life insurance coverage itself. The new company was named Ethos and already, just three years in, it's turning heads across Silicon Valley. After its most recent funding round in August, Ethos' valuation was estimated to be <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/28/ethos-raises-series-c-funding-round-backed-by-google-goldman-sachs.html">nearly $500 million</a>. </p><p>In a recent interview with Ethos CEO Peter Colis, the thirty-year-old chief exec told Business Insider his company's strategy started with trying to completely rethink the experience of buying life insurance. That would mean being able to offer plans to consumers almost instantly, without medical exams, and without pushy sales agents incentivized by commissions.</p><p>"There's a saying in life insurance that life insurance is sold, not bought. The implication is, 'Oh, it's such a complex product that you need an agent to push it down someone's throat,'" Colis said. "Our thesis from the beginning was that we could build a product so good that it doesn't need to be hard sold."</p><h2>Fast enough to get coverage while waiting line at Starbucks</h2><p>So far, Colis said the company has been able to carry out its vision of a low-friction sign up process. With Ethos, most consumers can get coverage in "ten minutes from their mobile devices while in line at Starbucks," he said. </p><p>Much of the magic behind the experience lies in the data models the Ethos team has built to predict life expectancy, Colis said. Those predictions, in turn, allow the company to quickly recommend a coverage plan for consumers and establish fair pricing. Feeding those models, the chief exec said, is data like health records - which are made available to life insurance companies - and other public records, like how many speeding tickets a person has received.</p><p>Colis said - as suggested by its company name, Ethos - making sure consumers are offered the right plans at the right prices is core to the company's mission. </p><p>"There's an inside rule at the company - if you wouldn't design it, or build it, or sell it to Peter's mom, you don't sell it to our customers," Colis said. </p><p>And in a life insurance market that's plagued with subpar consumer experiences, putting the customer first has been a key to success for Ethos. In fact, Colis said, word of mouth is the company's biggest customer acquisition channel thus far. </p><p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lunchclub-pitch-deck-series-a-andreessen-horowitz-led-2019-9" data-analytics-position="2">The founders of Lunchclub, a startup for making better professional connections, used this pitchdeck to raise $4 million in funding</a></em></p><p>To help fund the budding endeavor - the company doesn't give exact revenue figures but says it's "insuring thousands of new families every month" - Ethos recently raised a $60 million Series C round led by Alphabet's investing arm GV. The funding round, which also included big-name investors like Sequoia, Goldman Sachs, and Accel, boosted Ethos' valuation to nearly $500 million. In total, the San Francisco-based startup has now raised more than $100 million. </p><p>As for general fundraising advice, Colis said he's found that being totally honest and transparent with would-be investors is the best approach, even if that means sharing your businesses' "warts." </p><p>"It shouldn't be a sales process. You should be honest about the pros and the cons of the business and then they'll make their own decision," Colis said. "If you're trying to spin them, they're going to see through it and then you're going to lose trust. So just focus on being super transparent like, 'Hey, here's the beauty and here are the warts. How excited are you about it?' If it's a compelling business, there's a lot of venture capitalists, one of them is going to get really excited." </p><p><strong>Here's the pitch deck that helped life insurance startup Ethos raise its recent $60 million Series C funding round (certain, sensitive numbers have been removed from the deck for business reasons): </strong></p>

Ethos wants to make signing up for life insurance a pain-free process. Here's the pitch deck that convinced Alphabet's GV investing arm that it's worth $500 million.

In a big push to digital payment drive, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=LIC+&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">LIC</a> (<keyword id="6406875" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="life-insurance">Life Insurance</keyword> Corporation of India) is planning to provide <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Point+of+Sale+&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Point of Sale</a> (PoS) machines to its lakhs of agents who collect around Rs 1.5 lakh crore premium annually.<br />
<br /> "As part of the strategy for the less cash economy, <keyword id="6367143" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="LIC">LIC</keyword> is also gearing up for providing <keyword id="2520723" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="POS-machines">PoS machines</keyword> to its few lakhs active agents initially so that premium collection can be done in digitally," a senior official told ET.<br />
<br /> The state-owned <keyword id="35450" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="insurance">insurance</keyword> behemoth is also looking at initiating <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Aadhaar&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Aadhaar</a>-linked digital transactions, the official said, adding that this will help policy holders in the rural areas to avoid payment of premium in cash and cash handling burden of agents would come down significantly.<br />
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To begin with, LIC plans to provide PoS machines to about 1.5 lakh agents that would be ramped up in the future, the official added.<br />
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At the end of March 2016, there were 20.16 lakh agents of Life Insurance Corporation of India.<br />
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The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=finance+ministry&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Finance Ministry</a> has also asked LIC to set up a robust cyber security cell so that there cannot be any cyber fraud.<br />
<br /> <keyword id="25455" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="finance">Finance</keyword> Minister <keyword id="42575" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Arun-Jaitley">Arun Jaitley</keyword> had announced a raft of measures including discounts on online payments for insurance policies, rail tickets and highway toll charges as the government looked to promote digital cash post demonetisation.<br />
<br />
As much as 10 per cent and 8 per cent discount has been offered in case of general and life insurance for buying new policy or paying premium online via PSUs websites.<br />
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LIC posted a 12.81 per cent growth in total assets to Rs 24.42 lakh crore during 9 months ended on December 31, 2016, compared to Rs 21.64 lakh crore in the same period previous year.<br />
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It also posted a growth of 12.43 per cent in total premium income at Rs 1,45,031 crore during the nine months to December 2016 as against Rs 1,29,001 crore for the corresponding period a year earlier.<br />
<br />
With respect of new business premiums, LIC saw a 40.1 per cent growth for the 9-month period of the current fiscal, over the year-ago period. The insurer hopes to touch Rs 35,000 crore of new premiums by the end of March 2017.<br />
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<em>(Image Credits: Indiatimes)</em><br />
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Forget cash/cheques! LIC agents to get PoS machines for premium collection

If you live in California, you can now buy car insurance with this Google tool

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table lead-image-large"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Nationwide</span></p><p class="caption">Jim Fowler is Nationwide's chief information officer.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Jim Fowler joined Nationwide as its chief information officer after the insurer had overhauled its IT department and upgraded its tech platforms. He was charged with figuring out how those new systems could add value to the organization. </li><li>Fowler spent the first 90 days talking to associates and customers, developing a strategy, and encouraging team members to pursue innovation. One way he did that was by sitting tech and operational teams together in the office. </li><li>Fowler also created a culture where it is OK to fail. To mitigate any massive disruption, he urged teams to test out new offerings in a single market. </li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prime?module=article&amp;area=summary">Click here for more BI Prime content</a>.</li></ul><p>Nationwide was in the "fourth quarter" of a digital modernization effort when Jim Fowler took the job of chief information officer at the insurer. </p><p>The company had already gone through the laborious tasks of <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterhigh/2019/04/15/jim-fowler-nationwide-is-a-technology-company-that-develops-insurance-products/#5e70449c2e78">modernizing many of its tech platforms</a> and overhauling its IT team. So Fowler had the task of figuring out how the upgraded systems could begin to add value to the organization.</p><p>"We knew we needed to be able to disrupt ourselves," he told Business Insider. "Our success is going to be in our ability to give the tools and technologies to the independent agents to meet members' needs more readily."</p><p>Among the platforms the company has rolled out since Fowler joined in 2018 is Nationwide Express, a tool that gives insurance agents a quote in less than 90 seconds. That allows the organization to compete against <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-insurtech-lemonade-series-d-funding-2019-4">digital upstarts like Lemonade</a>, which use <span style="background-color: #ffffff;">artificial intelligence-powered platforms to quickly provider customers price estimates.</span></p><p>"It's about ease of use and streamlining and providing a digital experience for agents to meet members, brokers to meet participants, with a product that's more and more personalized as people go through life," Fowler said.</p><p>A former CIO at General Electric, Fowler has over two decades of experience in IT-related issues. He shared the strategy used in the first 90 days as Nationwide's information chief. </p><h2>Taking a pulse-check of the organization and its customers</h2><p>When Fowler went out to talk to business partners and customers in his first 30 days - including agents who sell Nationwide products and those who own insurance plans from the company - many weren't accustomed to speaking to a chief information officer.</p><p>But instead of discussing highly technical topics that could alienate those without the proper background, Fowler talked about ways to use technology to change the processes at Nationwide. "That was probably new for them," he said.</p><p>First, he would ask how both Nationwide and the customer make money to learn more about how best to deliver value for those members. Fowler would then press individuals on what Nationwide should continue to do and what it can do better.</p><p>"You get some really interesting answers when you put it in those terms," he said.</p><p>Lastly, Fowler would ask: what can't fail in the next six months? The answer helped determine which areas were critical to the success of the company.</p><h2>Figuring out how tech capabilities can match the business needs</h2><p>After soliciting feedback, Fowler worked with his team to establish an overarching strategy. </p><p>Chief among the guiding principles was the need to launch products faster, as well as address concerns among independent agents - or those who sell products from more than one insurer - who felt sidelined in the digital transformation effort. Nationwide is aiming to <a href="https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2018/04/16/486552.htm">move entirely to an independent agent model</a> by 2002.</p><p>Lastly, employees wanted a less structured environment. When an associate would request a change to an internal system, for example, it often went through as many as nine different people before getting to the person who would actually implement it. Now, it's a more direct system. </p><p>"We very quickly identified ways that we could lean out our own processes to be more responsive," Fowler said. </p><p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mulesofts-founder-on-why-cios-could-be-the-next-ceos">'Everything is up for disruption': Why MuleSoft's founder thinks the digital revolution could lead more CIOs to become CEOs</a></em></p><h2>Driving the disruption by giving team members 'permission' to innovate</h2><p>Key to Fowler implementing his vision was giving the business and technology teams the "permission" to innovate. Prior to his arrival, much of the opportunity for closer collaboration was <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ibms-watson-head-outlines-model-for-successful-digital-overhaul-2019-10">squandered by barriers</a> between the teams. A first step was<span style="background-color: #ffffff;"> making the two sectors sit together in the office. </span></p><p>In one instance, Fowler relocated those who managed life insurance policies with the corresponding technology team. At the start of that move, it took 41 days to get a life insurance application through the approval process. Now, over 40 percent of submissions are finished in less than six hours.</p><p>"We're seeing huge increases in output and reductions in the cost of delivery," he said.</p><p>Fowler also sought to give those individuals closest to the customer the ability to make decisions quickly. To make sure it went into effect in practice, he made his team agree upon a strategy and write it down as a guiding principle. That helped avoid everyone walking away "with a different idea of what that meant and how we wanted to drive that."</p><h2><strong>'We're going to make some mistakes': Why it has to be OK to fail</strong></h2><p>Perhaps most importantly, however, Fowler made it OK to fail.</p><p>"We're an insurance company at our core. We don't take risks lightly," he said. "But don't mistake expeditious for reckless. There's a way to do it."</p><p>To prevent any widespread disruption with the experimentation, Fowler would make team members take steps like segmenting a new product or service to a single market. He even made an example out of himself. Fowler, for example, decided to move the help desk for agents to a self-service model. Overnight, wait times went up tenfold and he quickly put 20 individuals back on the desk.</p><p>"Even at the leadership team, we're going to make some mistakes and we're going to correct quickly and move on," Fowler said. "It's OK to make some mistakes as long as you did it non-recklessly in a way that you can recover."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sneaky-ways-credit-card-companies-make-you-spend-more-money-2019-9">Sneaky ways credit card companies get you to spend more money</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Nationwide's CIO on how to succeed in the first 90 days on the job, and why you shouldn't be afraid to make mistakes

<p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wengs/2149079602/">WalkingGeek/Flickr</a></span></p><p class="caption">The coronavirus is making people think about life insurance coverage, and if they need it.</p> <ul class="summary-list"><li>As global health crisis Coronavirus spreads, some life insurance companies and agencies are seeing an uptick in applicants for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/recommend-term-life-insurance-to-anyone-reasons">life insurance coverage</a>.</li><li>It's not too late to sign up if you've been considering it. Nothing will change if you already have a policy. </li><li>Largely, the same rules apply that always have: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/life-insurance-shopping-saved-money-bestow-haven-policygenius">Shop around for a policy</a> before choosing one, and make sure you're being truthful on the application or you might void your coverage. </li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance?hprecirc-bullet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read more personal finance coverage »</a></li></ul><p>In a global health crisis, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/life-insurance-more-information-coverage-rates-policies">life insurance</a> can be confusing. Will it still cover you if anything happens? And, is it too late to sign up? </p><p>You're not the only one with life insurance on the brain.</p><p>Online life insurance agent <a href="https://meetfabric.com/https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=1404301&amp;u=1088116&amp;m=77846&amp;urllink=&amp;afftrack=" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Fabric</a> has seen a 50% increase in applications since February, Allison Kade, Fabric's head of organic growth, told Business Insider. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/advisor/2020/03/12/consumers-panic-shopping-for-life-insurance-in-the-face-of-coronavirus/#458912aa6a6f" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amy Danise of Forbes</a> reports that online life insurance agency LifeQuotes has seen a 29% increase in application since January 20.</p><p>While Kade says there's no certainty that the increase is tied to the virus, she suspects it's gotten people thinking about life insurance who would have normally put it off. "It's scary, but also a good excuse to do something that even when the panic abates, you'll be glad you'll have done," Kade said. </p><h2>1. If you already have life insurance, there's no need to worry</h2><p>Anyone who already has life insurance doesn't need to worry about their policy - it's already in place, and no virus could change that.</p><p>If anything should happen to you, your policy will cover it. Nothing will change, and so there's really no need to worry. Even if you're in an affected area, your policy and monthly premiums aren't likely to change - the rate you have is locked in for the entire term of your policy. </p><h2>2. Potential price fluctuation makes now a good time to apply</h2><p>Insurance prices are constantly fluctuating, due to many factors. While life insurance would certainly be impacted by an influx of fatalities, its prices can also vary based on the market and interest rates, which play a big role in how life insurance companies make money through investing.</p><p>Tim Zawaki writes for <a href="https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">S&amp;P Global's Market Intelligence</a> that record-low interest rates could pose a threat to the life insurance industry, affecting its investments and ultimately its profitability. But, he writes, it is still too early to say just how much it could jolt life insurance prices for consumers, if at all.</p><p>Kade expects prices to hold steady in the short term, without much change. "If you're a healthy young person and you're applying for life insurance, your rates shouldn't be changed due to this Coronavirus," she said. "The underwriting process is the same if you apply today as if you were to have applied two months ago."</p><p>In the long term, anything could happen. But, anyone concerned about a potential future price increase could benefit from applying now.</p><h2>3. If you're applying, don't lie</h2><p>Lying on your life insurance application could cost you, and it's not worth risking your policy's validity to save a few dollars. Lies about your health or medical conditions will likely be caught, as life insurers can check medical records, and can go as far as to cancel your coverage, according to <a href="https://policygenius.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=110&amp;aff_id=1592&amp;redirect_slug=blog/what-happens-if-you-lie-on-your-life-insurance-application/" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">Policygenius</a>.</p><p>While many online life insurance agents like <a href="https://meetfabric.com/https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=1404301&amp;u=1088116&amp;m=77846&amp;urllink=&amp;afftrack=" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Fabric</a> also request travel history, Kade says that it's not tied to the virus. "This question predates any of the Coronavirus concerns," she says. For Fabric, Kade says that answers to this question are more about the amount of risk posed by traveling, and that certain destinations that are higher risk than others. </p><p>Lying on the travel history portion, or on any other portion, of your application could constitute as fraud. You're better off telling the truth. </p><h2>4. If you're applying now, don't forget to shop around</h2><p>As always with life insurance, you'll want to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/life-insurance-shopping-saved-money-bestow-haven-policygenius" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shop around</a> and make sure you're getting the best possible deal. Each insurance company considers your information differently, and companies price your policy depending on your individual risk profile. </p><p>To avoid paying more than you should each month for your policy, get quotes from several different insurance companies or online life insurance agents. Compare them to find the most coverage for the least money, and you'll find the one that's the best deal for you. </p><h3><a href="https://meetfabric.com/https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=1404301&amp;u=1088116&amp;m=77846&amp;urllink=&amp;afftrack=" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Fabric offers term life insurance policies for parents. Get a free quote for coverage and see how affordable life insurance can be »</a></h3><p style="font-size:14px;"><em>Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the Personal Finance Insider team. We occasionally highlight financial products and services that can help you make smarter decisions with your money. We do not give investment advice or encourage you to adopt a certain investment strategy. What you decide to do with your money is up to you. If you take action based on one of our recommendations, we get a small share of the revenue from our commerce partners. This does not influence whether we feature a financial product or service. We operate independently from our advertising sales team.<em></em></em></p>            <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/student-loan-debt-strategies-save-money-2020-3">6 creative strategies to deal with student loan debt</a></h3>

4 things to know about life insurance during a global health crisis

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Pavel Yavnik/Shutterstock</span></p><p class="caption">The author's wedding ring is not pictured.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>About a decade ago, I lost my wedding ring, which was covered under valuable personal property insurance that costs me about $5 a month. </strong></li><li><strong>When I went to file a claim, I realized the importance of getting personal property appraised from time to time: It was probably worth about $1,000 more when it was lost than the last time it had been appraised.</strong></li><li><a href="https://policygenius.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=120&amp;aff_id=1592&amp;redirect_slug=businessinsider-homeowners">Policygenius can help you compare renters and homeowners insurance policies to cover your home and most valuable belongings »</a></li></ul><p>About ten years ago, I lost my wedding ring. It was a horrible feeling. It was a symbol of love and commitment, and an expensive one at that. </p><p>When I realized what had happened, I looked everywhere. My home. My workplace. The carrier bag I used to transport materials back and forth between the two. I even scoured my car and checked an old office space I hadn't been inside for six months. </p><p>I turned up nothing.</p><p>Luckily, I had the ring covered under a valuable personal property policy. My insurance agent had suggested it when I added my husband to my auto insurance policy after our marriage. Valuable personal property policies are so cheap that by purchasing coverage for my ring and bundling it with my <a href="https://policygenius.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=70&amp;aff_id=1592&amp;redirect_slug=businessinsider-renters">renter's</a> and auto insurance policy, I was actually able to save a dollar on my premiums over the course of a six-month period. </p><p><strong><em><a href="https://policygenius.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=70&amp;aff_id=1592&amp;redirect_slug=businessinsider-renters">Compare renters insurance policies with Policygenius to find the best coverage for you and your valuables »</a></em></strong></p><p>Filing a claim was a fairly simple process. I did have to talk to an insurance agent over the phone to tell them what had happened. I was asked for a police report, but as far as I know there was no theft involved; I still don't know where the ring disappeared to. </p><p>Loss was covered under my policy, though. The agent then asked me for the date of my ring's last appraisal. I froze. </p><h2>It's a good idea to have your valuables appraised more than once</h2><p>What I learned that day is that it's a good idea to get your wedding and engagement rings appraised by a jeweler every once in a while - especially if the market recently tanked. </p><p>At an appraisal, the jeweler takes a look at your rings and then writes up a certificate to prove to your insurer the present value of your items. Because I had not gone through the appraisal process since the ring was purchased, the insurance company would only reimburse me for the amount that was listed on the receipt of purchase. </p><p><strong><em><a href="https://policygenius.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=120&amp;aff_id=1592&amp;redirect_slug=businessinsider-homeowners">Compare homeowners insurance policies with Policygenius to find the best coverage for you and your valuables »</a></em></strong></p><p>My husband had purchased the ring a couple years before the recession. When the economy is doing well, the price of gold typically deflates. Then, when the economy falls, the price of gold and other precious metals rise, as they're viewed to be more secure than the paper currency which they theoretically back. That means had I taken the ring in for an appraisal after the stock market fell, I would have gotten somewhere between $800 and $1,000 more when I went to file my claim. </p><h2>A wedding ring isn't the only thing you can insure</h2><p>Wedding rings aren't the only things covered by valuable personal property insurance. I've also had guitars, tech, and other items covered under such policies. My coverage has grown as my family has, so today, instead of saving a dollar over six months I pay about $4.50 a month for coverage. </p><p>Whatever item you're covering with your valuable personal property insurance, be sure to have it appraised periodically. You may not know it yourself, but something may have happened in the market in the past few years to up the value of your property. Without an appraisal, though, you stand to lose out on that appreciation should you ever need to file an insurance claim. </p><h3><a href="https://policygenius.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=70&amp;aff_id=1592&amp;redirect_slug=businessinsider-renters">Compare renters insurance policies with Policygenius to find the best coverage for you and your valuables »</a></h3><h3><a href="https://policygenius.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=120&amp;aff_id=1592&amp;redirect_slug=businessinsider-homeowners">Compare homeowners insurance policies with Policygenius to find the best coverage for you and your valuables »</a></h3><p class="tagline"><p style="font-size:14px;"><em>Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the Personal Finance Insider team. We occasionally highlight financial products and services that can help you make smarter decisions with your money. We do not give investment advice or encourage you to adopt a certain investment strategy. What you decide to do with your money is up to you. If you take action based on one of our recommendations, we get a small share of the revenue from our commerce partners. This does not influence whether we feature a financial product or service. We operate independently from our advertising sales team.<em></em></em></p></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-richest-person-net-worth-billions-2018-12">Jeff Bezos is worth over $160 billion - here's how the world's richest man makes and spends his money</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

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