Mumbai, January 12: Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has made it mandatory for annual life insurance premiums that are Rs 10,000 and above to open an electronic insurance account (e-IA) came into force from October 1, 2016.
What is e-Insurance Account (eIA)?
E-IA is the portfolio of insurance policies of a proposer or policyholder held in an electronic form with an insurance repository which can access to their life insurance portfolio at a few clicks.
The initiative was aimed to de-materialise insurance policies as well as consolidating insurance portfolio and also making the claim process easier.This electronic platform would benefit insurers, distributors and policyholders. Policyholders need not to worry about the physical policy documents as all subsequent transactions from renewal to claim settlement will be done through e-IA.
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Some of the benefits of using e-IA are, no risk of loss or damage of a policy as may happen with paper policies. It is safe and e-IA can easily accessed when needed. One can keep all policies from multiple insurers in a single e-IA. For instance, if the policyholder has four life insurance policies and wants to change the nominee or bank account or address one can be updated through the repository and not to each life insurer. Opening an e- IA is free for a customer. E-IA account holder can submit electronic policies All at any of the repository’s service points. One can access at any time by logging on to the online portal of repositories and premium can be paid online. It makes easier to buy new insurance policy.
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According to IRDAI, at present, there are total 39.58 lakh eIA created and a total of 36.04 lakh policies converted into electronic mode since 2011. There are total 23.58 lakh eIA created and a total of 35.65 lakh policies converted into electronic mode since 2018-19. There are total 311 active approved person associated with insurance repositories.
One can open the electronic account by directly approaching the repository, or through any insurer. Once the account is created all the insurance policies will be available at one place. One can access their insurance policies at any time.
IRDAI has granted four entities to act as insurance repositories that are authorized to open e-IA, NSDL Database Management Limited, Central Insurance Repository Limited, Karvy Insurance Repository Limited and CAMS Repository Services Limited.
One can reap the benefit of e-IA by converting the physical policy document into electronic form. This will make it easier to keep track of all the insurance policies and maintain.
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