Bajaj Allianz Life to bring down Ulip portfolio

Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance plans to reduce its unit-linked insurance plan (Ulip) portfolio in two to three years, to level it with the traditional product portfolio.

Anuj Agarwal, managing director and chief executive, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance, said they would like a 50-50 mix of traditional and Ulip products. "The drop in the percentage of Ulips in the portfolio will help us grow further. At present, 60-65 per of our portfolio consists of Ulips, which we will bring down from this financial year."

The company was planning to also launch a differentiated term plan for the online space, he added. The life insurer posted a 4.2 per cent rise in new business premium at Rs 2,702 crore for FY15. Agarwal said this was due to a rise in their Ulip products.

Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance has seen more than 12 per cent growth in assets under management, at Rs 43,554 crore, compared with Rs 38,780 crore in FY14. However, there was a drop in profits, which he attributed to the nature of the insurance business.  Agarwal explained they had a massive Ulip portfolio from 2009-2011 and after the three year lock-in period, profits were down due to redemptions.

Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance also witnessed a growth in 13th month and 37th month persistency ratio in the last two years, which stood at 67.58 per cent and 41.50 per cent, respectively.

Agarwal said that persistency has been a key part of the KRA (key result area) for agents and it is put in into the system that higher persistency would mean better value for policyholders.

While public sector insurers are now an active part of the insurance schemes under the government's Jan Suraksha Yojana, private insurers are taking slow steps. Agarwal said that while there are pricing concerns with the Jeevan Jyoti Bima (life insurance), they would experiment at a small scale by offering it.