The Demat Account of your Insurance: E-Insurance

I heaved a sigh of relief post learning that the Indian insurance industry is all set to welcome the digital technology of E-Insurance from October 1, 2016. India has moved towards digital platform for most of the sectors, it won’t any more be a head-breaking storm for you guys while buying your health, life, bike or car insurance policies. To avoid the hassles of paper transaction and enjoy the not-so-funny product Insurance, e-Insurance Account has been introduced.

Most of us have Demat accounts for buying and selling of shares. This has made things pretty easier and hassle-free for people who deal a lot in the share market. Likewise, retaining all your policies whether it be bike, car, health, travel, life or term insurance would now be easier with just one digital file i.e. the e-insurance Account (eIA)

Understand what E-Insurance Account is

E-Insurance or Electronic Insurance Account is similar to a Demat Account. In this account all your policy documents are held safely in an electronic format. The Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India (IRDA) has set guidelines for issuing the policy documents in a de-materialized form to avoid cost and ensure swift modifications. This was introduced from October 1, 2016. E-Insurance will also keep the fraudulent activities away.

How do you open E-Insurance account

While looking for car insurance, after you do a comparison of premiums across different insurers, you finally narrowed down your search and bought the plan that you liked. Bingo, this is the time when the e-insurance Account comes into picture. The IRDA has assigned 4 repositories currently like CDSL Insurance Repository Limited (CDSL IR), Karvy Insurance Repository Limited, National Insurance-policy Repository by NSDL Database Management Limited, and CAMS Repository Services Limited who would help you manage all your insurance policies data in an electronic format on behalf of the Insurer.

What next

Follow the below steps to open the E-Insurance account:

• Choose any one of the appointed repositories.
• Download the eIA form from the insurer’s website or the repository’s website.
• Fill the eIA form completely and submit along with the KYC documents like photo id , any valid address proof and your recent photograph to the Repository’s or the Insurer.
• The repository/insurer will then authenticate the eIA form and process the application.
• The repository will open your eIA and send the login id and password on the contact number and email id provided while filling the form.
• Your eIA will get activated within 7 business days and you can now link your existing insurance policies here.

The pay-backs of E-Insurance

IRDA has made it mandatory for all the insurance policy holders to open an eIA account effective from October 1, 2016. Each policyholder can have only one eIA. But don’t worry if you have multiple policies. You can still go ahead and link all the policies with just one account.

1. Completely free: The good news is that opening an eIA is absolutely free. You don’t have to spend any money for the same.
2. Care: You don’t have to worry about any loss or damage of your physical policy copies. They are safeguarded in an electronic format and can be thus accessed easily whenever and wherever needed.
3. No paperwork: You will now be tension free from submitting the KYC details time and again while buying or renewing your policies. Don’t forget, you have already provided all the KYC details while opening your e-Insurance Account.
4. Ease: You can now preserve and view all your insurance policies – be it life, health, car, bike, term or travel – under one roof.
5. Flexibility to pay: You can now make the payments of the premiums for your various insurance policies in a timely manner here.
6. Account statement: Just like your Bank sends the annual account statement to you, similarly the repository would be sending the statement of your e-Insurance Account to you.
7. Proficiency: Maintaining an e-Insurance Account will help in achieving transparency and more efficiency.
8. Modification: Altering personal details like contact number, address, nominee details can be now done easily.

This new technology of E-Insurance might take a little longer to reach the rural areas. But we would definitely recommend our readers to welcome the E-Insurance technology whole heartedly and make the most of it.