Laws and sections by number or title, due dates, pages, and updates.
This master circular consolidates regulatory guidelines for point of sales products and point of sales persons in life insurance to govern distribution and product standards. The rules apply to life insurers, insurance intermediaries, and point of sales persons. Life insurers and intermediaries must ensure candidates complete fifteen hours of training and pass an examination before appointment. Insurers must issue policies within four working days and refund rejected proposals within seven days. Insurers must submit half-yearly business returns to the authority by thirty first October and thirtieth April.
What you must do
Key dates
Who is affected
Thresholds
If you do not comply
Ask about this circular
INSURANCE REGULATORY AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF INDIA
MASTER CIRCULAR
ON
POINT OF SALES PRODUCTS AND PERSONS – LIFE INSURANCE
IRDAI/LIFE/CIR/MISC/215/12/2019 2nd December, 2019 VER-01
भारतीय बीमा विनियामक और विकास प्राधिकरण INSURANCE REGULATORY AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF INDIA
2nd December, 2019
Master Circular on Point of Sales Products and Persons – Life Insurance
This Master Circular is a consolidation of the above two Guidelines and a few other Circulars issued by the Authority from time to time alongwith some additions/modifications and supersedes the Guidelines/Circulars placed in Annexure – I.
This Master Circular is issued in exercise of the powers vested with the Authority under Sections 14 (1), 14 (2) (c) and 14 (2) (e) of IRDA Act, 1999 and shall come into force with immediate effect.
Scope and Applicability:
This Master Circular shall apply to
5.1 "Act" means the Insurance Act, 1938. 5.2 "Authority" means Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India established under Section 3 of the IRDA Act, 1999. 5.3 "Point of Sales Person – Life Insurance" (herein after referred to as POSP – LI) means an individual who possesses the minimum qualifications, has undergone training and passed the examination as specified in this Master Circular and solicits and markets only such products as specified by the Authority. 5.4 "Point of Sales Product – Life Insurance" (hereinafter referred to as POS-Life Product) means the simple plain vanilla type of product wherein each and every benefit is predefined and disclosed upfront clearly at the time of sale itself and is very simple to understand.
1
सर्वे नं. 115/1, फाइनेंशियल डिस्ट्रिक्ट, नानकरामगुडा, हैदराबाद-500 032, भारत | Survey No. 115/1, Financial District, Nanakramguda, Hyderabad-500 032, India (T) : +91-40-2020 4000 वेबसाइट : www.irdai.gov.in (T) : +91-40-2020 4000 Website : www.irdai.gov.in
PART – I : Point of Sales – Life Insurance Products (POS – Life Products)
6.1 The Category / Nature of Products offered under POS –Life Products shall be as given hereunder:
The parameters of the aforesaid categories of products shall be as shown in Annexure – II.
The condition/eligibility/parameters mentioned in the Annexure – II for different categories of POS – Life Products are given as lower/upper limits within which the Insurer has the flexibility to design the product.
Solicitation and marketing of these products is allowed to be done through
Life Insurers shall offer these products only as Non-Linked and Individual insurance products.
Unless explicitly exempted in this Master Circular / Annexure-II, the extant Regulatory provisions shall be applicable mutatis mutandis to these products.
The Chief Executive Officer and the Appointed Actuary shall attach a certificate of compliance to these Master Circular provisions along with product filing.
'Key Features Document (KFD) - cum - Proposal Form' Format:
13.1 There would be two parts of the 'Key Features Document cum Proposal Form', where the first part would be the KFD and second part would be the Proposal Form. Both the parts are joined by perforation so that the first part (KFD) can be easily separated and given to the proposer/ Life Assured for his/ her record and the second part (Proposal Form) is to be preserved by the insurer / representative for necessary processing.
2
13.2 Key Features Document (KFD) must contain all the key benefits under the plan including (a) Sum Assured on Death (b) Maturity Benefit (c) Surrender Value (d) Paid Up Value, if any (e) Exclusions (f) Registered name and address of the life insurer with logo etc.
13.3 In online mode, an explicit and exclusive consent shall be taken for KFD in a screen and a copy of such KFD has to be mailed to the proposer.
13.4 Every "Key Features Document cum Proposal form" should contain unique reference number on both parts.
The turnaround time for issuance of policy / acceptance of Risk and communication of Acceptance or otherwise to the customer of such policy should not be more than four (4) working days from the date of collection of proposal at the point of sale.
If the Proposal is not accepted for any reason whatsoever, the refund of payment should be done to the Proposer within seven (7) days from the date of the decision.
The existing (Non-POS) products which meet the parameters of the allowed categories of POS Life Insurance products may be applied enclosing KFD. Waiting Period clause shall be made part of proposal form as well as KFD. The application should also contain the certificate of CEO and Appointed Actuary of the Life Insurer certifying that the existing product meets the applicable parameters mentioned in the Annexure II to this Master Circular. Marketing of such product as POS-Life product shall be done only after filed application is approved by the Authority.
PART – II : Point of Sales Persons – Life Insurance (POSP – LI)
17.1 The proofs of identity acceptable for POSP-LI are
17.2 The POSP-LI shall be at least 18 years age completed and shall have educational qualification of 10th standard pass.
17.3 Life Insurer or Insurance Intermediary proposing to engage POSP-LI shall
3
17.4 The Model Syllabus for training of POSP-LI is herewith attached as Annexure – III which may include the features of various POS-Life Products designed by the Insurer from time to time and may be modified and developed according to the changing need of the insurer and intermediaries.
