Elephant Insurance Blogs

Most companies distribute the same through brokers and agents, while few companies sell insurance products directly to clients. To work as per convenience and the opportunity to create a massive difference in a person’s life working as an insurance broker offers more flexibility. It is the most rewarding career as it helps people to take care of children, build assets, plan for retirement, and pass wealth from one generation to the next.

Things that insurance brokers do:

Insurance brokers are majorly independent. They don’t have an agreement with particular insurers. They usually represent insurance buyers and take forward the applications to insurers on behalf of their clients. Ideally, after becoming an insurance broker, they are not appointed by insurers. Instead, they educate the clients about several insurance products from different insurance companies and help them choose the best among them.

The majority of the people wonder whether ‘Insurance Agents and Insurance Brokers – Are the same? 

What makes insurance brokers unique from insurance agents?

Insurance brokers choose from a variety of insurance products and help the clients to choose a policy that is adequate for their needs. In contrast, insurance agents work with one company and sell insurance products available in their company. You can determine the most appropriate products for them, unlike agents, they provide options, and it’s up to the clients to assess the products they need. Additionally, brokers typically charge payments that are higher than those authorized by an agent.

Who can apply for an insurance broker license?

When it comes to becoming an insurance broker, an Insurance broker license and their operations are issued as per IRDA regulations. The ones who can apply for an insurance broker license are:

• A company registered under the Companies Act, 2013 or any previous variant.
• A registered co-operative society is registered as per the provisions of the Co-operative Societies Act, 1912, or other similar laws.
•  An LLP registered under the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008.
•  Any person recognized by the authority.

Qualification and training details:

• Must have a bachelor’s/master’s degree or any equivalent qualification like being a fellow or an associate of the Insurance Institute of India/Insurance Institute of Risk Management/Insurance Brokers Association of India.
• The person must have undergone adequate hours of theoretical and practical training recognized by the Insurance Regulatory Authority of India.
• Once training is over, get passed the exam conducted by the National Insurance Academy.
• Retain a minimum capital as per regulations provided by the authority.
• Engage in any insurance consultancy or reinsurance activity for seven years from the date before the application is submitted. Otherwise, being a principal underwriter or manager in any nationalized company in India.

The license can be issued after the necessary conditions are satisfied. Unless the same is suspended by the regulations, it can be valid for 3 years from the issued date. Before the license gets expired, a broker may apply for license renewal within 30 days. Brokers carrying brochures and loads of policy documents to meet people are not a situation anymore.

Insurance is a big business today. All kinds of insurance, be it car insurance, home insurance, health insurance, have lots of customers. For those of you who are new to this concept, insurance is defined as the contract, in which a company or a person receives financial reimbursement or protection against losses, from an insurance firm. The insurance firm pools customers’ risks to make payments much more affordable for the entity which is being insured. In the olden days, insurance was purchased manually, by directly going to the companies or through their respective agents. The process was tedious and cumbersome.

At present times, the insurance market is dominated by purchasing all the policies online. Nearly every insurance firm such as Bajaj Allianz, Aviva, TATA AIG, and Life Insurance Corporation sells its policies online. The online insurance market is growing at a rate of thirty percent per year. Nearly every big company, that has an online presence, also helps customers to purchase car insurance online. Individuals looking for insurance for any kind of brands such as Maruti, Tata, Renault, Volkswagen, etc and any type of automobile like Small cars, big cars, or Smart Utility vehicles will be able to do it with just one click over the internet. Now, people must be wondering, why the online market is growing so fast. So, let us give the advantages of purchasing insurance online.

Benefits of online insurance purchase

1. Comparison

This is one of the biggest advantages of purchasing online insurance. The online aggregator assists customers in purchasing online policies. For example, if an individual desire to purchase car insurance, then he/she can go to the no1 site www.policybazaar.com, and check out his favourite policy and purchase it instantly. Using this tool, he will be able to compare Features, Exclusions, Benefits, Inclusions, Premiums, and Car Insurance Online prices of various policies from the site, using a click.

2. A lot of time is saved.

Since, in this era, where both husband and wife work, people have very little time, for going to the company’s insurance office, standing in queues, and purchasing their favourite policies. So, they turn to the internet, since it is extremely convenient, and there is very little paperwork. Another benefit is that customers get a hard copy instantly in PDF format, without having to wait weeks for the courier.

3. The duplicate policy is issued instantly

In the past, when policyholders lost their policy documents, they had to contact agents or spend hours and hours together in a queue, filling up forms, to get their duplicate policy issued. Now, thanks to the facility of online insurance, customers get a soft copy of the policy instantly and also a hard copy. This acts as a big incentive for them to purchase their policies online.

4. Customer support is 24*7.

Another big benefit of online car insurance is the presence of 24*7 customer support. Customers can clear doubts, or ask for new services and products from the insurance firms, by contacting their customer care services. Nearly, all the customer care services are available by phone, chat, Skype, Social Media, LinkedIn, etc.