Latest IRDA Claim Settlement Ratio 2023

Latest IRDA Claim Settlement Ratio 2023 was released on 23rd December 2022. Which is the best Life Insurance Company in 2023 (based on the claim settlement ratio)? The majority of Life Insurance Companies nowadays lure buyers based on the IRDA Life Insurance Claim Settlement Ratio. However, is it the right data to look into?

What is the meaning of the Claim Settlement Ratio?

Claim Settlement Ratio is the indicator of how many death claims Life Insurance Company settled in any financial year. It is calculated as the total number of claims received against the total number of claims settled. Let us say, the Life Insurance Company received 100 claims and among those, it settled 98, then the claim settlement ratio is said to be 98%. The remaining 2% of claims the Life Insurance Company rejected.

Based on this, we can easily assume how customer-friendly they are in dealing with death claims. However, I warn you that this claim settlement ratio is raw data.

It will not give you a clear picture of what types of products they settled. They may be Endowment plans, ULIPs, or Term Insurance Plans. Hence, this is not the sole criterion in judging the performance of a life insurance company.

More than that we don’t know for what reasons the insurance company rejected the claims.

Latest IRDA Claim Settlement Ratio 2023

Below is the IRDA Claim Settlement Ratio 2021-22 or up to 31st March, 2022. Few points to notice from this Annual Report are as below.

# Death claims settled by LIC are far less if we compare to its volume of business. You can refer the below image for the same.

# In the case of individual life insurance businesses, the life industry’s death claim settlement ratio increased to 98.64% in 2021-22 from 98.39% in the previous year and the repudiation/rejection ratio decreased to 1.02% from 1.14%.

# Number of mis-selling complaints have reduced from 25,482 in 2020-21 to 23,110 in 2021-22. The incidence of mis-selling complaints per 10,000 policies sold has also reduced over the years. The below image will give you clarity of about the complaint types.

# Around 55% of the new business is still from the agents. Online or direct sale is still at 1%.

Let me now share with you the latest IRDA Claim Settlement Ratio 2023.

The above Google Sheet will give you the complete data of the latest IRDA claim settlement ratio 2023. The green-colored values are more than 98%. 98% to 97% is marked in red and below 97% in yellow.

Now if you look at the above data, you can easily draw a conclusion of how they are doing business. To highlight the claim settlement numbers with the amount, then we can draw the below chart.

Top 5 Best Life Insurance companies in India for 2023

Based on the IRDA Claim Settlement Ratio 2021-22, which are the Top and Best Life Insurance Companies in 2023? I select only five based on the above data. You may differ in my view and come up with a different set of ideas. But these are my choices.

1. LIC
2. HDFC Standard Life
3. ICICI Pru Life
4. Max Life
5. Aegon

Few important points before jumping into selecting of Life Insurance Companies

# Claim Settlement Ratio is raw data

As I pointed above, the claim settlement ratio is just raw data. It will not give us the specific data. Hence, never rely on this single data alone while shortlisting the insurance company.

# Concentrate on Product rather than a company

Choose the product which suits your requirement and premium affordability. Declare the facts properly. Never hide any material facts. If you do, then an insurance company will have to accept your claim. Never give a room of suspicion to you to reject the claim.

# Section 45 of the Insurance Act will guard YOU

According to Section 45 of the Insurance Act, “No policy of life insurance shall be called in question on any ground whatsoever after the expiry of three years from the date of the policy, i.e. from the date of issuance of the policy or the date of commencement of risk or the date of revival of the policy or the date of the rider to the policy, whichever is later”.

It says a lot. Even if you shared wrong information or hid some material facts, then also it is purely the life insurance Company’s responsibility to dig deep and find out faults WITHIN 3 YEARS ONLY. After 3 years, they cannot question. Note the period of 3 years, it is from the date of issuance of the policy, the date of commencement of risk or the date of revival of the policy, or the date of a rider to the policy, WHICHEVER IS LATER. So let us say you took the policy today and after a few years, the policy lapsed due to non-payment of the premium. However, you thought to renew it again and paid all dues. In such a situation, this 3-year period starts from such revival date, but not from the original policy issued to date.

Read the complete details about this IMPORTANT act of Life Insurance in my earlier post at “Term Insurance-Claim Settlement Ratio no more a big criteria”.

# Disclose the facts Properly

While buying Life Insurance products, you must fill the proposal form on your own. Never allow any agent or Life Insurance Company representative to fill it. Disclose the facts properly without hiding anything. This will really help you in a big way. Also, it will not give any room for insurers to reject your claim.

Do the things properly which are in your hand. Rest in HOPE for the best.