Top 10 Insurance Companies in India

In today's world where everything is uncertain and is, full of risk, each of us needs a solution to deal with such a problem. The risk that we are talking about does not have any specific type but there are some of them we usually face like theft, financial bankruptcy, life security, and many more. For facing all these difficult times there are many companies that offer insurance.

Talking about the Insurance sector in India currently, there are over 57 insurance companies that are actively providing their services in India of which 24 companies are involved in the business of life insurance, and the remaining 33 companies provided non-life Insurance.

Among all these insurance companies LIC - Life Insurance Corporation which we all have heard about is the biggest sole public sector company which is a life insurer, Also in the non-life insurance segment, there are six public sector insurers. Along with them, there is also a sole National Reinsurer, which is named 'General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC- Re).

Looking at the total general market size of this Insurance sector it has to be around US$ 250 billion as per the reported survey done in 2020. Since the liberalization policy, the Insurance sector in India has shown consistent rapid growth year by year and effectively contributing to making the life of Indian people easy to go.

What do you mean by Insurance?

The meaning is similar to its name we all know, what insurance means but the thing that we have to learn is how insurance work.

It's the kind of policy that we usually take as a sense of security for our family or ourselves such as medical insurance that pays our medical expenses when we are ill. We also take insurance for artificial things like precious ornaments, property, vehicles, and several other things.

How can we take insurance?

Usually, for making yourself and your things secure, you have to pay a certain amount of money on a monthly or yearly basis as per the deed, and in return that insurance company avails you of the facility of insurance. Here is the list of the Top 10 Insurance companies in India

1. Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC)

Thinking about insurance the first name that came to everyone's mind is LIC, and there is no second thought about it, as we all know how trusted it is. LIC is a central public sector undertaking company that is governed or owned by the ministry of finance of India. The head office of the company is located in the financial capital of the country Mumbai, Maharashtra.

History

Life Insurance Corporation of India popularly known as LIC was established in the year 1956 on 1 September after passing a Life insurance act of India in parliament which nationalize the insurance industry of India. Under this act, around 245 insurance companies and some provident societies were combined.

Surendranath Tagore a Bengali author is credited as the founder of LIC as he was the one who started the Hindustan Insurance Society, which was later renamed as present-day Life Insurance Corporation of India.

The major growth and profit were earned by LIC after the liberalization of the insurance sector by the Indian government because of that the gates for the private sector were opened and in 2013 LIC reported the first year premium compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.53% while total life premium CAGR of around 19.28 %.

2. Max Life Insurance Company

Max Life Insurance Company is a joint venture between Axis Bank and Max Financial Services Ltd. Currently; Max Life Insurance is the biggest non-banking life insurance provider company in India.

History

Max Life Insurance company was founded in the year 2000 just after the introduction of liberalization policy by the Indian government in the Insurance sector and begin its operation in 2001. Initially, it was Max New York Life Insurance Company Limited later in 2012 this name was replaced with Max Life Insurance Company.

Product and Services

Max Life insurance company is known for making customer services easy by creating the transaction channel both online and offline. They can buy policies through any of these channels safely and securely.

Talking about the products offered by Max life insurance are in multiples as along with the life insurance they also provide health and pension safety including several types of growth plans and investment strategies.

3. HDFC Life Insurance Company

HDFC Life Insurance Company is formed after a joint venture between Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd and Standard Aberdeen; one of the biggest global investment companies. Similar to many other private Life Insurance companies HDFC Life Insurance was also established in the year 2000 just after the introduction of the liberalization policy by the government of India.

HDFC is known for providing long-term Life Insurance as individual and group insurance. The company headquarter is located in Mumbai.

History

HDFC Life Insurance Company is registered under the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India, currently, HDFC life has over 421 branches in 929 cities of India, which are managed by a staff of over 16000 employees.

Products and Services

The channel of distribution adopted by HDFC life insurance is way better than many other insurance companies as it has a multi-channel network that includes Insurance agents, Bancassurance partners (HDFC Bank, Saraswat Bank, RBL Bank), and also a direct channel that includes insurance brokers and Micro Finance Institutions and small banks.

Also, they have an online insurance providing platform which also provides financial services like general insurance, asset management, education loan, and many more.

4. Aditya Birla Health Insurance Limited (ABHI)

Aditya Birla Health Insurance is a subsidiary company of Aditya Birla Capital Limited (ABCL), it is a joint venture started by a South African-based company MMI Holdings Ltd, and Aditya Birla group. It registered itself in the insurance sector in the year 2015 and started its operations in 2016.

Looking at the total assets aggregated by ABCL in the market is to be around 3,550 billion with a total active customer base count of 39 million.

5. Bharti Axa General Insurance Company

Bharti Axa is a Non- government insurance company that was started in year 2005 as a public unlisted company. It was a jointure venture done between two leading business groups Bharti Enterprises and AXA Group. The headquarters of the company is in Paris, France.

The variety of insurance policies offered by Bharti Axa General Insurance is unmatchable as they have managed to cover most key aspects like education plan insurance for children, saving plans, term insurance plans, and also ULIP plans. Bharti Axa General Insurance Company is known for providing long-term value for its customers.

6. Care Health Insurance Company

Care Health Insurance is an Indian insurance company that was started in the year 2012, at first, it was named Religare Health Insurance Company Limited, and this name was taken from its founder Religare Group. Kedaara capital act as a co-promoter of the company.

Talking about its area of operation it is headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, and has around 158 offices in 100-plus cities across India.

The claim settlement ratio of the company is really good as per the data collected in 2021 the total claim settlement percentage was around 95.2% in these fiscal years.

Product and Services

Most of the products offered by care health insurance are in the retail segment like International Travel Insurance, Top-up Coverage, Personal Accident, and Health Insurance.

7. ICICI Prudential Life

ICICI Prudential Life is an India-based company known for providing a life insurance policy. It was started as a combined venture between ICICI Bank Ltd and Prudential Corporation Holdings Limited in the year just after the introduction of the Liberalisation policy by the Indian government in the insurance sector. Along with life insurance, ICICI prudential is also involved in the business of asset management.

Recently in 2016, ICICI Prudential Life became the first Indian insurance company to be registered in the domestic stock exchanges.

History

ICICI Prudential started its operation in the year 2001, and just in the next 10 years the total assets under management held by the company got increased from 100 crores to 50000 crores continuing with these in 2015 the total assets under management calculated of ICICI prudential was around 1 trillion dollars.

The company is registered in both the stock markets National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange.

8. Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Company

Similar to any other private insurance firm in India Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Company was also started as a combined venture between the Murugappa Group, which is from India, and the Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group of Japan. The range of Insurance products offered by this company includes insurance for health and education, vehicles, accident, property, rural insurance for individuals, and corporate insurance.

In the year 2012, Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Company was awarded as the Best claim settlement company in the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana scheme under the supervision of the Ministry of Labour & Employment.

Currently, the company has over 93 branches in various cities across the country. The company runs with the motto of Trust, Transparency, and Technology.

9. Exide Life Insurance

Exide Life Insurance is an India-based Insurance company; it is among the top most trusted insurance companies in India. It is known for the products and services it provides to its customers through multiple kinds of channels like corporate agency, broking, and Bancassurance. Exide life insurance also has a strong direct channel of distribution where all of their customers can connect with them.

Talking the total customer acquired by the company in the Indian market it is around 15 lakh, which is a very big number if we calculated it based on its total assets of 18000 crores.

History

EXIDE Life Insurance registered itself in the year 2001 just after the liberalization in the insurance sector because private companies can also take part in the Indian insurance market. The headquarters of the company is in Bangalore, Karnataka, and also has over 200 company offices across various cities in India.

Mainly Exide life insurance is known for having a long-term relationship with its customer by offering Life Insurance policies that are based on a long-term structure of Protection and Savings. HDFC Life acquired Exide life Insurance in 2022.

At first Exide life insurance started its operation in the insurance sector with the help of Vysya bank and established ING Vysya insurance company, in 2005. Exide owned 50% of the total stake but later due to the financial crisis in 2013 ING decided to exit from the Indian market and sold its remaining stake to Exide insurance.

Just after the exit of ING in 2014, the name of the company was changed from ING Vysya Insurance Company to Exide Life Insurance Company.

10. SBI Life Insurance Company

We all know SBI as a public bank. It also offers the insurance facility as SBI Life; an insurance company registered in the year 2001. It is a combined venture started by BNP Paribas Cardif financial institution based in France and the State bank of India (SBI). The major stake of the company is owned by SBI; 55% of the total issue share. In addition, there are several other investors, which hold equity shares in the SBI Life Company like Value Line Pte. Ltd. and McRitchie Investments Pte. Ltd., holding a 1.95% stake. Its total authorized capital in 2022 is around U.S. $250 Million.

About

SBI life is registered as a public limited company and has a head office in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Initially, SBI life adopted a bancassurance channel for selling their insurance policy but within a few years, SBI developed an agent network of over 10000 insurance advisors which reports in its 850-plus office across various cities in India.

In 2018 for expansion, SBI Life also joined with new kinds of distribution channels like direct sales through their banks and sales through corporate agents and brokers.