In Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI’s) recent issuance of e-Insurance Policy Regulations, it has been declared that electronic insurance will become mandatory for annual life insurance premiums that are Rs. 10,000 and above. This new norm will come into force from October 1.
Electronic insurance policy is the policy document that would be the evidence of the contract issued and digitally signed by the insurer. Customers will have an e-insurance account that will be opened by a person with an insurance repository, where the portfolio of all insurance policies belonging to a policyholder are stored in electronic form.
IRDAI has instructed all insurance companies selling business through electronic mode to create an e-proposal form that is similar to the physical proposal form, approved by IRDAI. The objective is to capture information in electronic form for easy processing and servicing. The form will also record the electronic Insurance Account (eIA) number.
As per IRDAI, insurers can issue policies directly to the policy holder in electronic form or via insurance repositories. If they are doing it directly, they would also have to issue the physical form. If it is done through the insurance repository alone, then physical form need not be issued.
Apparently, the new norm is that policies will be issued in electronic format for all general policies, individual personal accident, individual foreign travel insurance, retail policies (except motor), and domestic travel policies with annual premium of Rs. 5000 and above. Micro-insurance policies won’t be following this rule.
