Career in Insurance Sector

Insurance is a growing sector since India has huge potential for its growth. India ’s GDP has shown a growth of 9% in 2007-08 where as in the insurance sector life Insurance has grown at a rate of 29 % and General insurance has grown at a rate of 11.72 % in this year. In the same year the life insurance premium procured by all 21 life insurance companies rose to Rs. 201351.41 crores where as total non-life insurance premium of 21 General insurance companies rose to Rs. 27823.74 crores.

Before liberalization in India in 1999 there was only one life insurance company LIC whereas now there are 22 life insurance companies.Similarily in 1999 there were only four non-life insurance companies where as now there are 21 General insurance companies.

Insurance Broker companies which were non existent in 1999 are there in the insurance market in 289 number .Similarly there were no TPA’s(Third Party Administrators) service providers for health insurance at the time of claims.Now there are 28 TPA’s. The concept of Corporate agent in the insurance sector has also been started after the liberalization and by the end of March 2008 there were 2415corporate agents for the marketing of insurance products. During the year of 2007-08 there were a total of 25.20 lakh insurance agents in India . Most of the banks whether in public or private sector, financial institutions, financial companies are now dealing in insurance products. Most of the private insurance companies are joint ventures with one of the multinational foreign partner. There are two stand alone health insurance companies and one stand alone credit guarantee insurance company, one stand alone agriculture insurance company in the insurance market. GIC (General Insurance Corporation of India ) with its corporate office at Mumbai is India ’s Reinsurance company in public sector.

Life insurance companies have invested an huge amount of Rs.762041 crores and non-life insurance companies have invested Rs.56280 crores by the end of March 2008.The total life insurance premium of India is 4 % of GDP, where as non-life premium is 0.6 % of GDP in 2007-08.

Despite the phenomenal growth in insurance sector since liberalization in 1999,the insurance sector has huge potential of growth in India in view of its most of the population still uninsured and under insured, increasing number of middle class population, persistent growth in GDP, people still unaware of importance of personal line insurances like health insurance, personal accident insurance, householders insurance, shopkeepers insurance, rural insurances. Motor insurance policy which is mandatory is also not renewed by many motor vehicle owners in view of ignorance regarding its mandatory nature through out the period of ownership of motor vehicle.

In view of above insurance sector offers immense opportunities of jobs at all levels especially for those having professional qualifications in insurance domain.

Some of the positions available in Insurance sector are:-

1. Administrative Officer: This is an entry level executive position in public sector insurance companies which offers good salary and perquisites with promotion opportunities. The advertisement of this post is given in the leading news papers and Employment News Weekly. The qualification required for Generalist officer is graduation and for specialist officer: BE, CA, MBA etc depending on the posts advertised.

2. Actuary: To be eligible to be appointed as an actuary in an insurance company, a person is required to be the Fellow of Actuarial Society of India. With the opening of insurance sector the requirements of Actuaries has increased.

3.Engineers: Engineers holding BE degree with mechanical or automobile engineering and other branches for inspection,risk assessment and inhouse surveys

4.Chartered Accountant: Chartered Accountants from ICAI for finance department in various offices

5. Surveyor and Loss assessor: Surveyor and loss assessors are not employees of insurance companies. They are the independent persons possessing professional qualifications who are licensed by IRDA and do the work of survey and loss assessment of non-life insurance claims and get the suitable fees and expenses from insurance companies for the survey work done by them. The qualifications required are a degree of a recognized University in any branch of engineering, or a fellow or associate member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India or the Institute of cost and Works Accountants of India, or possesses actuarial qualifications or holds a degree or diploma of any recognized University or institute in relation to insurance.

6. Agency Manager/Sales Manager/Sales Development Officer/Sales Executive: These are the posts available in private insurance companies for the marketing and development of insurance business either directly or through agency force. Basic qualification required is graduation preferably MBA with flair for marketing and/or marketing experience. Successful span of few years in these posts lead to a bright and rewarding career in insurance industry.

7. Bancassurance Executive: This position is same as above except that the post is available in banks for marketing of insurance products to the clientele of banks

8. Executive Underwriting: An executive who is responsible for scrutiny, assessment and acceptance of proposals for insurance. A graduate with an Associate diploma in relevant branch from Insurance Institute of India and some experience of insurance and training may prove to be a good underwriter in long run.

9. Executive Claim Settlement: An executive who deals and processes claim settlement in the insurance company. For this post also a graduate with Associate diploma from Insurance Institute of India in the relevant branch and training with guidance from experienced senior executives is required.

10. Insurance Agent/Consultant: To be an insurance agent, required basic qualification is a XII standard pass from a board in urban area and X standard pass from a board in rural area with the prescribed training of 50 hours for a period of 7 days in an IRDA approved training institute and then qualifying an examination conducted by Insurance Institute of India. After the training and qualifying this examination, IRDA grants license for a period of 3 years. For license in life and non-life insurance separate training and passing of the examination is required. An agent can work only for one insurance company of life or non-life stream. Insurance agents are insurance consultants and not employees of insurance companies.This is the best profession for self-employment where there is no age bar and the possibility of earnings are unlimited.