Max New York Life plans new products

Max New York Life Insurance, the private insurance company, plans to launch 2 to 3 new insurance products soon.

It has filed for 5 to 6 products with the insurance regulatory and development authority (IRDA) and hopes to get the approval for a couple of products.

These products will be launched in the market after getting the approval of the insurance regulator, a senior executive of the company said.

“We have filed for 5 to 6 products with the IRDA and hope to get the approval for 2 to 3 products. These products will be launched after the approval is obtained”, Vikram Shivpuri, zonal vice-president- agency, east said. The products for which the company has filed for approval include health and retirement products. Shivpuri, who was here to launch the company’s latest product, ‘Smart express’ said, the company is continuously working on product innovation based on the customer need.

It conducted a study in association with AC Nielsen, which revealed that the customers want return and protection in an insurance policy. Based on this study, the company launched ‘Smart express’ for a smooth ride through the volatile markets.

He said, ‘Smart express’ is an Unit Linked Insurance Plan (ULIP) with net asset value (NAV) guarantee fund and systematic transfer plan.

It offers 8 fund options including the money market fund to ensure capital preservation and ensures guarantee protection of NAV irrespective of the date of entry, switches and re-direction. Stating that Max New York Life continues to out perform the industry with a growth rate of 38 percent in number of policies sold last fiscal, he said, about 3.6 million policies have been sold by the company so far.

The company, which claims a market share of 5.9 percent in the life insurance, achieved a growth of 21 percent in 2008-09 over the previous fiscal.

As a measure to sustain the growth achieved in the last fiscal, it intends to add about 17,000 agents during the current fiscal to take the total closer to 1 lakh. However, recruitment of additional agents will depend on the business requirement.

Under ‘mission everest’ expansion plan implemented Max New York Life, it has set a target of 3.5 lakh agents by 2011.About 250 offices were opened and 40,000 agents were recruited across the country during 2008-09. In Orissa, the company operates through 10 branches located at Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Balasore, Berhampur, Sambalpur, Rourkela, Keonjhar and Angul. It was able to sell 15,000 policies in the state last fiscal.