Birla Sun Life raising team of women insurance advisors

Targets 10,000 direct sales personnel pan India, says 50% women advisors among top-100 performers

Private life insurer Birla Sun Life Insurance (BSLI) today announced it is developing a team of women insurance advisors across the country.

In the first phase, the company is targetting a network of almost 10,000 women direct sales personnel in all major cities during the current fiscal 2017-18, and will be focusing strongly on tier-II and III towns as well.

"A recent study conducted by our company showed women advisors are more productive than their male counterparts," Birla Sun Life chief actuarial officer Anil Kumar Singh told Business Standard.

He said nearly 50 per cent of the women advisors were among the top 100 in terms of business performance.

The company is in the process of engaging with dedicated self help groups and private organisations to reach out to prospective women in this regard, who would be selected, trained and employed as the front life sales force under its 'Swabhimaan' platform.

"In Uttar Pradesh, we would be covering all major towns including Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Meerut, Aligarh, Allahabad etc.," he informed.

Besides, other top cities in India such as Kolkata, Chandigarh, Guwahati, Patna etc would also be targetted to connect with prospective women insurance advisors.

Out of the total advisor base in Uttar Pradesh, Birla has around 23 per cent women advisors, who contribute 40 percent of premiums generated.

Meanwhile, the company clocked new premium income of about Rs 900 crore and Rs 1,800 in individual and group segments last fiscal, which totals to Rs 2,700 crore of consolidated new premium.

Besides, Birla registered total premium income of almost Rs 6,000 crore last fiscal, a growth of around 27 per cent.

"The company posted higher growth during post demonetisation months beginning from November 2016," he informed.