Star Union Dai-Ichi Life plans pension and child benefit products

Star Union Dai-Ichi Life Insurance Company Limited, a joint venture life insurance company promoted by Bank of India, Union Bank of India and Dai-Ichi Mutual Life Insurance Company, Japan, plans to introduce pension and child benefit products soon.

It has filed the proposal for these products with the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) and the approval is awaited. Both the pension and child benefit products are proposed to be unit linked plans (ULIPs). The company also plans to launch a traditional endowment plan combined with whole life cover for the policy holder.

“We have filed for these products with the IRDA and hope to get the approval in about 3 weeks time”, K Sahay, chief executive officer (CEO), Star Union Dai-Ichi Life Insurance said.

The company which started its operation in the country from 9 February this year, hopes to get Rs 45 to 50 crore new business premium during the current fiscal. Star Union Dai-Ichi Life Insurance has appointed 300 Bank Assurance Executives (BAE) who will assist the marketing teams of the partner banks in the growth of business.

It will leverage the existing 5600 branches of the Bank of India (BoI) and the Union Bank of India spread across the country and will recruit 300 BAE in next 6 months.

As part of it expansion, Star Union Dai-Ichi Life Insurance plans to set up 20 regional offices in different states including 4 metros. While the first two regional offices will come up at Mumbai and Chennai within a month, the Kolkata and Delhi regional office is expected to be functional within two months from now. All the regional offices will be functional by the end of 2009-10, Sahay added.

The company, being a technology driven company, will leverage technology to the maximum. It has already started the back office operations. It will focus on core insurance term insurance and group insurance for higher growth and this will be backed by a robust customer service. Once the company attains stability of operation, it may rope in other banks including the co-operatives as channel partners for selling the insurance products of the company.

Asked whether the company plans to infuse additional capital in the near future for expansion plans, he said, the existing authorised capital base of the company is Rs 250 crore which is sufficient for taking care of business for next two years. Star Union Dai-Ichi Life Insurance will focus on cutting cost and hopes to get return from the 4th year of operation. It expects to achieve breakeven in about 5 to 6 years.

On the distribution network, Sahay said, the company will move with bancassurance model for the first year of operation and may consider adopting the agency model after the first year.