A month after the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) asked insurers to pull out ‘actuarial-funded’ policies, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance has withdrawn Capital Unit Gain, its actuarial-funded Ulip, from the market. However, Aviva Life Insurance, which has all its Ulips under the actuarial-funded banner, is yet to file its new policies. “As of now it is business as usual,” said Aviva spokesperson.
The regulator has asked Bajaj to withdraw one policy and Aviva its entire range of Ulips, as they are actuarial-funded plans. However, it hasn’t stipulated a time period for the pull out. “We are not strict about the deadline, as the companies selling them will have to change their entire IT system and may require time,” IRDA chairman C S Rao said .
Bajaj, which had to phase out its most popular plan, has started training its agents to sell other policies: “We have pulled out Capital Unit Gain and are now running refresher courses to reorient our agents to sell other policies offered by us,” a Bajaj Allianz Life official said. The company has also filed a new policy for approval to replace Capital Unit Gain.
In order to ensure that these companies do not suffer huge losses, IRDA has said the new policies will be cleared as soon as possible. Rao explained, “We will clear the plans at the earliest. Till then, we have directed companies to get the illustrations of actuarial-funded Ulips attested by policyholders to acknowledge their understanding of the product.”
... contd.