• Almost 3/4th of the respondents ranked Life Insurance among the top three most important financial instruments, followed by a Savings Bank Account

• 58% respondents living in the South believe that Life Insurance will help their families in-case of sudden demise while 57% believe that life insurance will help having extra income in-case of illness.

• The importance of Life Insurance as a financial security instrument largely remained the same across all age groups and among both males and females

Hyderabad : Life Insurance Council (LIC) recently conducted a survey across 40 cities with more than twelve thousand people to understand the Indian audience’s perception towards life insurance. The survey findings reiterate LIC’s new public awareness campaign “Sabse Pehle Life Insurance” which highlights life insurance as a top priority for the earning members of a family. This campaign represents the joint efforts of 24 Indian life insurance companies working towards a common goal of increasing life insurance awareness across the country, which is one of the most under-insured populations in the world.

The survey findings indicated high awareness, and that people of all age groups across India consider life insurance as an important financial instrument. Most of the respondents highlighted the following reasons why they believed it is necessary to purchase life insurance – Protection in an unforeseen event, financial security for the future and achieving collective financial goals of the family. Of the total respondents, 70% were willing to buy life insurance. In fact, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a significant increase has been witnessed among people opting for life insurance. However, there is still a gap and a need to raise awareness about the importance of purchasing life insurance. While 91% of the people consider it a necessity, only 70% are willing to invest in the same.

The southern belt in India has shown less interest in life insurance amongst all the cities surveyed with 64% attaching importance to life insurance as compared to 78% in the north. The reason for this could be the higher weightage given to other financial instruments such as post-office savings schemes. The south depicted a lower level of ownership of life insurance as well compared to health insurance or post office (PO) savings scheme where the ownership was higher in comparison to other regions.Markets in the south have shown a lower awareness and willingness to opt for life insurance as compared to the other regions in India. The mediums to purchase the same also differs across regions. Digital payments are widely used in the South with 60% of the total population using one or more digital wallets.

“We conducted this survey to primarily understand the perception, awareness and familiarity about life insurance among Indian audience. Our aim is to ensure that every earning member of an Indian family makes life insurance a top priority, to secure a safe and healthy future for his or her family. We understand that care and responsibility go together, and we wish to safeguard this mindset and educate Indians so that we can offer the best life insurance solutions” said Mr. SN Bhattacharya, Secretary General, Life Insurance Council.

Additionally, several interesting trends emerged from the findings indicating how people are much more aware about the importance of life insurance:

• Among all other the financial instruments – Life Insurance has near universal awareness levels with around 96% as compared to mutual funds (63%) or equity shares (39%)

• The importance of Life Insurance as a financial instrument largely remained the same across age groups and both males and females

• More people above the age group of 36 years own life insurance than youngsters

• Half of the respondents prefer buying Life Insurance from an Insurance Agent whilethree in 10 prefer banks

• Younger audiences prefer to purchase Life Insurance policies through online channels, which enables them to compare multiple offerings, benefits, and premiums

• Approximately half (47%) of the total respondents claimed that they or someone in their family holds a Life Insurance and know a lot about it.

The survey also revealed that Life Insurance investment has a perception of being long-term in nature as well as expensive – these are the top two barriers for adoption. The Life Insurance Council with this survey and its “Sabse Pehle Life Insurance” campaign aims to not only to educate towards the importance of life insurance but also to eradicate malpractices that misguide people about the category and products. It is critical that people perceive life insurance in the right light for a safer, better future for themselves and their families.