Irdai extends electronic customer consent for life insurers by 3 months

Facility has been allowed for pure risk products, is available till next March

Taking into account the difficulty of obtaining physical signatures of customers due to the on-going pandemic, the insurance regulator, has allowed life insurers to obtain customers consent by electronic means instead, in pure risk products till March 31, 2021.

The regulator had earlier allowed the life insurers to obtain customers' consent electronically (without requiring wet signature on the proposal form) till December 31, 2020.

“The suitability assessment, benefit illustration and the completed proposal form shall be sent to the proposer on his / her registered e-mail ID or mobile number in the form of an e-mail or a message with a link as the case may be,” the regulator said.

The regulator has also said life insurers can only market products presented on their website in a standardised form. A copy of such standardised presentations shall also be mailed by the insurer to the policyholder along with the policy document. The free-look cancellation period of 30 days will also be applicable.

Also, the insurer has to authorise specific individual agents for sale. It has also said the agent cannot solicit non-single premium unit-linked insurance policies for annualised premium exceeding Rs 50,000 or single premium unit-linked insurance policies exceeding Rs 1,00,000.

The insurance company has to verify atleast 3 per cent of the sales to ensure that all the provisions of the regulator is complied with and keep all the records for a period of not less than three years. And, the company has to train its sales agents to to ensure that the consent of the customer is obtained only after clear information has been provided to the proposer on the product being sold.