NPS exit form to be treated as proposal to purchase annuity products: Irdai

Regulator eases rule for senior citizens taking annuity products from proceeds of National Pension Scheme

The insurance regulator on Tuesday eased the requirement of submitting separate proposal forms by senior citizens for taking immediate annuity products from the proceeds of National Pension Scheme (NPS). Henceforth, the exit form of NPS will be treated as a proposal form for purchasing annuity products.

Under the NPS, a subscriber who superannuates is required to purchase an immediate annuity (excluding the commuted value) from any life insurance company.

Currently, insurance companies collect proposals form NPS retirees to offer immediate annuity products. The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority of India (PFRDA) also collects exhaustive exit forms from the NPS retirees which captures necessary details which insurance companies require in the proposal form.

Given the duplication and to facilitate ease of doing business and on-boarding NPS retirees for immediate annuity products, the regulator has said that the exit form of NPS will be treated as a proposal form for purchasing annuity, thereby reducing the time and efforts of senior citizens as well as insurers.

“In order to increase the adoption of technology, insurers have been advised to adopt Adhaar based authentication for verification of life certificates, such as Jeevan Pramaan, a Government of India initiative on biometric enabled digital service,” said the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irdai).

“Since under annuity policies, the annuity amount is payable only as long as the annuitant survives, life insurance companies take an annual “survival certificate” from the annuitant. Irdai has now clarified that the signature to the “survival certificate” can be taken through biometric based digital means. Both the above clarifications are welcome steps intended to facilitate ease of servicing annuity policies purchased by annuitants,” said Conjeevaram Baradhwaj, executive vice president, Future Generali India Life Insurance.