Insurance as an investment tool with regards to ULIP at Birla Sunlife Insurance

A
SUMMER INTERNSHIP PROJECT
ON
“INSURANCE AS AN INVESTMENT TOOL WITH
REGARDS TO ULIP”
Submitted to
S.R. LUTHRA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENT OF THE AWARD FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
In
Gujarat Technological University
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF
Faculty Guide: Company Guide:
Ms. Jayshree Siddhpuria Mr. Rajat Gupta
Assistant Professor Branch Manager Surat.
Submitted by
Mr. BHAVESH N. KUNDNANI
[Batch No. 2016-18, Enrollment No.167500592044]
MBA SEMESTER III
S.R. LUTHRA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT – 750
MBA PROGRAMME
Affiliated to Gujarat Technological University
Ahmedabad
August, 2017

Students’ Declaration
I, Mr. Bhavesh N. Kundnani, hereby declare that the report for Summer
Internship Project entitled “Insurance as an investment tool with regards to
ULIP” is a result of my own work and my indebtedness to other work
publications, references, if any, have been duly acknowledged.
Place: Surat
Date: _____________
__________________
(Bhavesh N. Kundnani)

Institute’s Certificate
Certified that this Summer Internship Project Report Titled “Insurance as an
investment tool with regards to ULIP” is the bonafide work of Mr. Bhavesh N.
Kundnani (Enrollment No.167500592044), who has carried out the research
under my supervision. I also certify further, that to the best of my knowledge
the work reported herein does not form part of any other project report or
dissertation on the basis of which a degree or award was conferred on an
earlier occasion on this or any other candidate.
Place: Surat
Date: ________________
___________________
(Ms. Jayshree Siddhpuria)
Assistant Professor
___________________
(J. M. Kapadia)
Director

PREFACE
As a part of the MBA Curriculum and in order to gain practical Knowledge in
the field of management, we are required to make a report so my project is on
“Insurance as an investment tool with regards to ULIP” which I saw, felt
and experienced while the training in the organization.
I select this topic because I want to know about how Unit Linked Insurance
Plans works.
I have observed as the people are becoming more and more and aware of
their Life Style and Income level. They need a plan, which has an optimum
balance between their Investment and Savings. They require an integrated
financial plan for investment. The customer requires those investment options,
which provide them with flexibility and Liquidity and tax benefit.
I have conducted the Summer Internship Report for six weeks. The main
objective of my project is to study customer awareness and preference
towards the ULIP and to know the factor that influence the investor while
selecting the a ULIP.
For that sample of 200 respondents are considered. Primary data is collected
from survey through the questionnaire. Data analysis is done in IBM SPSS
Statistics Software version 21.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I have taken efforts in this project. However, it would not have been possible
without the kind support and help of many individuals and organizations. I
would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of them.
I would like to thank Gujarat Technological University for giving me a
chance to brighten my academic qualification that provides me the opportunity
to have practical knowledge about relevant field. I would like to thank My
Institute S. R. Luthra Institute of Management for giving me the opportunity
to undergo Summer Internship Project (SIP).
It is my privilege to express deep sense of gratitude to my Institute Director
Dr. Jimmy Kapadia for giving me this opportunity.
I deeply acknowledge support of my faculty guide, Assistant professor Ms.
Jayshree Siddhpuria for giving me the constant and humble guidance
throughout the project work. I am very thankful to our Institute Professors for
giving me guidelines regarding the Summer Internship Project.
I am highly obliged about the experience and the support given by all of the
executive members of Birla Sun Life Insurance Company Limited. I am
heartily thankful to Branch Manager of Birla Sun Life Insurance Company Ltd.
Mr. Rajat Gupta who’s Co-operations, guidance and support from the initial
level to enable me for developing and understanding of the Project work.
Last but not the least; I would like to thank Almighty, my parents, my friends
and seniors for their support encouragements that helped me in successfully
completing the Summer Internship Project.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The project on "Insurance as a investment tool with regards to ULIP” aims to
identify the awareness level of investors about Unit Link Insurance Plan
(ULIP).
First chapter of the report consists of the detailed description of research topic
and need of research to be done.
Second chapter of the report explains the in-depth current status of Insurance
industry at global and national level. Apart from that the external factors like
political, economical, social and technological which affects Insurance
industry and the brief explanation about currents trends and major players of
insurance industry.
Further the report consist the structure, market position and SWOT analysis of
Birla Sun Life Insurance Company Ltd., the current offerings and services are
also explained.
Final section of the report includes the most vital element of the study i.e.
research methodology which includes the problem statement of the study,
research design, data analysis, and interpretations and findings and
conclusions.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
o Company’s Certificate
o Students’ Declaration
o Institute’s Certificate
o Preface
o Acknowledgement
o Executive Summary
Sr.
No.
Particulars Page
No.
1. Introduction 1-16
2. Industry Profile 17-35
2.1 Insurance Industry
2.2Global Level Scenario
2.3National Level Scenario
2.4State Level Scenario
2.5PESTEL of Insurance Industry
2.6Current trends
2.7Major Players
2.8 Major Offerings
17
19
22
24
26
30
32
33
3. Company Profile 36-45
3.1Company Profile
3.2Organogram
3.3SWOT
3.4Market Position
36
41
44
45
4. Review of Literature 46-59
5. Research Methodology 60-61
5.1Problem Statement
5.2Research Objective
5.3Scope of the Study
5.4Research Design
5.4.1 Type of Design
5.4.2 Sampling Technique
60
60
60
60
60
60

5.4.3 Sample size
5.4.4 Data Collection
5.4.5 Tools for Analysis
5.4.6 Limitations of the Study
60
61
61
61
6. Data Analysis & Interpretation 62-79
7. Findings 80
8. Conclusions 81-82
9. Recommendations 83
Bibliography 84-87
Annexure 88-91

LIST OF TABLES
Sr.
No. Particulars
Table
No.
Page
No.
1 Funds available in BSLI 1.1 13
2 Management team of Birla Sun Life Insurance 3.2.1 43
3 Demographic Profile of Respondents 6.1 62
4
Frequency of respondents as per Important while
choosing the life insurance
6.2 63
5
Frequency of respondents as per in which they have
invested
6.3 64
6
Frequency of respondents as per source of
information about life insurance
6.4 65
7 Frequency of respondents as per aware of ULIP 6.5 66
8
Frequency of respondents as per factors consider
while making the ULIP
6.6 67
9
Frequency of respondents as per premium payment
method
6.7 68
10
Frequency of respondents as per risk involved in
ULIP.
6.8 69
11
Frequency of respondents as per satisfied with
performance ULIP.
6.9 70
12 Frequency of respondents as per reason for not
taking ULIP
6.10 71
13 Frequency of respondents as per prefer to invest
their money
6.11 72

14
Frequency of respondents as per Percentage of
income to invest
6.12 73
15
Crosstabulation of Age and Important while choosing
the life insurance
6.13 74
16
Crosstabulation of Age and Factors consider while
making the ULIP
6.14 75
17
Crosstabulation of Annual Income and Premium you
are paying per annum
6.15 76
18
Crosstabulation of Income group & preferred
investment option
6.16 77
19 Hypothesis Test Summary 6.17 79
20
Crosstabulation of Income group & percentage of
annual income want to invest
6.18 79

LIST OF FIGURES
Sr.
No.
Particulars
Graph
No.
Page
No.
1. Organogram of Birla Sun Life Insurance 3.2 40
2. Important while choosing the life insurance 6.1 63
3. n which company you have invested 6.2 64
4.
How did you come to know the life
insurance
6.3 65
5. ware of ULIP 6.4 66
6. Factors consider while making the ULIP 6.5 67
7. Premium payment method 6.6 68
8. Risk involved in ULIP 6.7 69
9. Satisfied with the performance of the ULIP 6.8 70
10. Reason For not taking ULIP 6.9 71
11. Where do you prefer to invest your money 6.10 72
12. Percentage of annual income to invest 6.11 73

1
INSURANCE AS AN INVESTMENT TOOL WITH REGARDS
TO ULIP
With the development of the insurance market, investors now have more choice. One
option is unit linked insurance policies, which are slightly different from other policies.
Unit linked insurance products act like an insurance cover with the benefits of a mutual
funds. Benefits are expressed in terms of number of units and units price. Customer can
buy as many units through their premium as they wish. As in a mutual fund, the net asset
value is known on a daily basis.
The product have a higher transparency in terms of returns. While the market link gets a
policy-holder a better return ,the insurance aspect attached to each unit gets the holder a
tax exemption on premium paid up to 10,000 under Sec.80d.
Here, the virtues of asset allocation hold good too. If you want less risk, choose a debt
plan. Liquid funds are generally less risky and growth funds, which allot substantial sums
to equities, carry the highest risk reward ration.
Most insurance companies have turned out a good performance since 2002. While debt
funds recorded an average return of 8 percent equity funds earned a phenomenal 60
percent on returns.
Investors must understand that a unit linked plan work on a minimum premium basis and
not on a sum assured one .like a mutual fund, one can fix an amount of contribution or a
minimum premium .
In short, if you can choose on the market and increase your investment, you can
maximise your return. On an average , the annual growth rate is pegged at 8 percent but
this is not guaranteed .however cumulative bonuses, ranging from 13 to 15 percent
annum, on an average is added to the sum assured for every claim free year.
Many plan allow a reduction in premium if it has been paid regularly for a certain period
or the unit fund achieves a certain valuation. Your premium would depend on the age and

2
term of the policy An investor has to pay some charges since the fund also involves
management of assets. Apart from the regular charges for cancellation of units, risk cover
and charges relate to policy specifics, these is a cost attached to fund management. Which
is normally in the range of 0.8 percent of the fund value per annum. Also ,under ULIP.
one will have to pay a certain amount for the cancellation of a policy before paying a
regular premium for three years.
However, there is a benefits for holding on for three years one can withdrawals without
any penalty. In the case of a fatality, the insured will receive the sum assured and then the
maturity value.
To put in to simply, ULIP attempt to fulfill investment need of an investors with
protection/insurance need of an insurance seeker. ULIPs work on the premise that there is
class of investors who regularly invest their savings in products like fixed deposits,
coupon-bearing bonds, debt fund, diversified equity fund and stock. There is a another
class of individuals who take insurance to provide for their family in case of anevetuality.
so typically both these categories of of individual have portfolio of investment as well as
life insurance. ULIP as a product combines both these products( investment and life
insurance) into single product. This save the investors/ insurance seeker the hassles of
managing and tracking a portfolio of products. According to the IRDA, a company
offering unit linked plan must give an option to choose among debt, balanced and equity
funds.
Five step to selecting the right ULIP
Unit linked insurance plan(ULIP) were seen s wonder product that simultaneously an
individual’s need for investment and insurance. here are 5 step to select the right ULIP.
1) Understand the concept of ULIP:
Try to do as much homework as possible before investing in an ULIP. This way you
will kwon that you are getting into and won’t be faced with unpleasant surprises at later
stage. Gather the information on ULIPs the various options available and understand
their working. Read the literature available on ULIP on the websites and broachers
circulated by insurance companies.

3
2) Focus on your requirement and risk profile
Identify a plan that is best suitable for you(in terms of allocation of money
between equity and debt instrument). Your risk appetite should play an important role
in the plan you choose. So if have a high risk a appetite, go in for a more aggressive
investment option.
3) Compare ULIPs of different insurance companies
Compare products of the leading insurance companies. Enquire about the premium
payments as ULIPs work on minimum premium basis as opposed to sum assured in the
case of conventional insurance policies. Check the fund’s performance over the past six
months. Find out how the debt and equity schemes are performing and how steady the
performance has been. Enquire about the charges you will have to pay. In ULIPs the cost
involved are a big deciding factor.
Ask about the top-up facility offered by ULIPs, additional lump sum investments
you can make to increase the saving portion of your policy. The companies give you the
option to increase the premium amount, there by providing you with the opportunity to
gainfully utilise surplus funds at your disposal.
Enquire about the number of time you can make free switches(change the asset
allocation of money in your ULIP account) from one investment plan to another. Some
insurance companies offer you free switches for a2 year period while other do so only for
1 year.
4) Go for an experienced insurance advisor:
Select an advisor who is not only professional and informed, but also independent and
unbiased. Also enquire whether he has serviced client like you. When your agent
recommends A ULIP of X Company ask him a few product related questions to test him
and also ask him why the other products should not be considered.
Insurance advice at all times must be unbiased and independent and your agent must be
willing to inform you about the pros and cons of buying a particular plan. His job should
not just being by filling the form and end after he deposits the cheque and give you the
receipt. He should keep a track of your plan and inform you on a regular basis. The key is
to go for an advisor who will offer you value added products

4
5) Dose your ULIP offer a minimum guarantee?
In market linked product if you investment’s downside can be protected, it would be a
huge advantage. Find out if the ULIP you are considering offers a minimum guarantee
and what cost have to be born for the same. This will enable you to make an informed
choice.
BASICS OF UNIT LINKED INSURTANCE PLANS
Basics of unit insurance Plans:
A Policy which provides for life insurance where the policy value at any time varies
according to the value of underlying assets at the time.
Unit Linked Insurance Plans (ULIP) is life insurance solution that provides the client with
the benefits of protection and flexibility in investment.
The investment is denoted as units and is represented by the value that it has attained
called as Net Assets Value (NAV).
Unit Units
Linked in Underlying
Insurance Fund
Policies
ULIP Came into play in the 1960s and became very popular in Western Europe and
Americans. The reason that is attributed to the wide spread popularity of ULIP is because
of the transparency and the flexibility which it offered to the clients.
In today’s times-ULIP provides solutions for all the needs of a client like insurance
planning, financial needs, financial planning for children’s future and retirement planning.
An ULIP structures looks like as follows

5
Less charge
Investment Life covers
Represented as units
FEATURES OF UNIT LINKED PLAN
ULIP distinguishes itself through the multiple benefits that it provides to the consumer.
The plan is a one stop solution providing.
1. Investment and savings
2. Life Protection
3. Flexibility
a. Adjustable Life cover
b. Investment Options
4. Transparency
5. Options to take additional cover against
a. Death due to accident
b. Disability
c. Critical illness
d. Surgeries
6. Liquidity
7. Tax planning
Now let us see each of the above in detail.
1. Investment and savings:
ULIP provides the client with the option of investing as per personal risk profile and get
return accordingly. There are options of funds where in the client can put money in
Contribution
Less Charges

6
1. Equity Markets
2. Debt Markets
3. balanced funds with a mix of the above two
4. Short-term debt market.
This also help the client in savings in accordance to the age as a younger person can
afford to take some risk however a senior citizen might not be in a position to make
investment in comparatively high risk instruments.
With the option of four funds to invest in the client always has the option to change shift
as the risk and return orientation changes.
Subsequent contributions and contribution can also be allocates in different funds.
Net Asset Value
The investment is denoted as NAV-Net Asset Value.
Net Asset Value is defined as the total value of the assets in the underlying fund minus
the expenses paid or to be paid divided by the number of units issued. The issue value of a
unit is usually 10/-.
The Net Asset Value of a fund is the indicator of the value of the fund.
In traditional Plans the policyholder is not aware of the value the policy is accruing.
In a Unit Linked plan—the investment, which is denoted through a NAV, is the real time
indicator of the value of the fund. Therefore a policyholder can easily find out that what is
the value that the policy has accrued as of now.
The NAV is listed on a daily basis in all the national newspapers.
Example
If 2, 00,000 - have been accumulated in the equity fund. And the number of units issued is
10,000/- then NAV of the equity fund is
2, 00,000/10,000=20/-
As the equity markets develop the fund grows from 2,00,000 to 2,20,000
Now the NAV is 2, 20,000/10,000=22/-.

7
fund.
2. Life Protection:
The life insurance needs keep changing through the life stage of an individual.
When we start working
When we start a family
When our children start a career
When we retire
This When mapped to life insurance needs gives us a graph:
`
Therefore as our responsibilities grow the need for life protection grows and when these
responsibilities are successfully executed the needs reduces.
ULIP allows a client to change the varying life protection needs that makes it.
 Easier for the client to manage
 Hassle free
 Economically effective
The death benefit is usually a multiple of the contribution being paid which ensures that
the contribution is adequate enough to provide life protection and savings.
In a ULIP the client usually pays yearly mortality charges, which makes it more cost
effective for the clients.
The charges deducted each year as per the age client therefore at the age of 30, mortality
for the age of 30 is charged and at the age of 31 mortality for age of 31 is charged.
3. Transparency:
ULIP are completely transparent and the client knows as how every paisa being charges
is allocated.
There are various kinds of expenses that are involved in any insurance plan. These
expenses may be related to the sales and distribution cost, or the operational costs, the

8
coasts related to the life insurance cover or the costs related to the management of
expenses. Since all unit-linked plans have a transparent structure, they have to exhibit all
the charges. It may be worthwhile to know about the various kind of expenses related to a
unit-linked plan.
The various kinds of expenses are detailed below
Contribution Related Charges
These are charges that are represented as a percentage of the regular or single contribution
paid. In case of regular contribution plan, it is usually high in the first year to pay for the
distribution cost. This charge pays for the issuance and for distribution commissions.
This is a charge to cover the running expenses of the policy. For single contribution plans
this is levied once at the start of the policy. For regular contribution plans this will be
charged on a regular uniform basis depending upon the frequency of payments.
Normally these charges are shown as percentage of the contribution. Allocation is
another terminolology used by the company in actually representing costs.
Allocations mathematically reverse of the charges. Thus mathematically;
Allocation=1-Charges. Thus for example if a product has a 70% allocations in the first
year, it means 1-.07=0.3% or 30% charge.
Administrative Charges:
These are charge that are levied for the administration of the policy and the related costs
of administration of the insurance company itself. These costs are different from the
issuance and the distribution related costs of the product. They are more related to their
costs like the IT, operational, etc cost of continuing the policy. There are few prominent
ways in which these costs are levied.
a) They can be levied as the percentage of the value of the investments (funds) in the
account of the policyholder. So for example, as BSLI levy a charge of 1.25% of
the fund for the administration of the policy, every year. These kinds of charges

9
get adjusted in the Unit Value (NAV), as the NAV is declared after adjusting these
costs.
b) They can be levied as flat charge with an option of increasing it by a certain
percentage over years. For example Birla levies a flat charge of Rs 28 per month
on its policy. HDFC SL unit linked plan levies Rs 180 annually as the
administration charges.
Fund management fee:
All unit linked plans have underlying funds, which the policyholders choose for their
investments. These funds constitute of various financial instruments such as equity,
bonds, and money market instruments.
These charges are expressed as a percentage of the Asset Under Management of the
insurance company. So for example, Birla in its creator fund charges 1.25% annually of
the AUM, HDFC charges 0.09% for its equity fund. Interesting thing to know here is the
factor on which the charges depend the main factor being the fund composition.
For example, the cost of managing a bond is lesser than the cost of managing equity. Thus
normally, the fund option, which has a higher percentage of equity, would have higher
charges comparatively to other funds.
Mortality charges:
This covers the cost of providing life protection for the insured and may be once at the
start of the policy or a recurrent manner (for example). This charges is levied to provide
the insurance cover under the plan.
Normally these charges are 1-year charges and keep changing as per the age of the
policyholder.
These are the normally expressed as per thousand of the sum assured and depend on the
age of the policy holder. For example one would have the mortality charges as Rs 1.50
per thousand for 30 years old and Rs 1.55 for the age of 35 years. This means that cost of
insurance of Rs 1000 at the age of 30 is 1.50, where the same insurance cover cost Rs
1.55 at the age of 35 year
Rider charges:

10
Rider charges are similar in nature to the mortality charges as they are levied to pay for
the other protection benefits that the policy holder has choose for critical illness benefits
or accident benefits.
Surrender charges:
When policy holder decides to surrender the policy or partially withdrawals some of the
units for cash a surrender charges may be apply. Usually surrender charges apply only in
the first few years after the units are invested and are usually on a decreasing scale.
Surrender by charges are used to cover the initial expenses that have been incurred by the
company but not yet recovered by the policy holder
These charges can either be expressed as a percentage of the value of the investment or
as fixed flat charges, on the structure of the product.
Transaction Specific charges:
These charges are levied when the client dose some specific transaction like changing
funds, topping up the investment component or withdrawals.
4) Extra protection:
Riders provide more protection to the policyholder and ULIP allows addition of
rider, at nominal cost.
The common riders that are attachable are
1. Death due to accident
2. Disability
3. Critical illness
4. Surgeries
5) Liquidity:
This facility makes the ULIP a very practical insurance in current time, most life
insurance plan do not provide the policy holder the facility of withdrawals money in case
the need arises.

11
Unit linked plan provide you easy access to your money as and when you may require.
One can redeem the units after a particular period of time as defined by the plan, as per
the need .ULIP allow either partial or complete withdrawal, without penalizing the
policyholder.
6) Tax Planning:
Insurance is a very important of financial planning. It not only provides you and your
family with a comforting sense of security but some plans like the term assurance plan
can be easy on your pocket too
Working of a Unit Linked Plan
A client puts in a regular contribution of Rs 20,000/-. From this amount a percentage is
deducted as a contribution.
Therefore if the contribution related expenses is 20% - Rs 4,000 will be deducted as a
contribution related charges.
The amount that is now available is Rs 20,000– 4,000= 16,000/-
Now, if the client who is aged 30 years were to a life cover of 5,00,000/-, then
mortality 91.50/- per thousand at the age of 30 charges of Rs 750/- will be deducted.
This amount will provide life cover to the policy holder. The remaing amount of Rs
15250/- will be invested in any of the underlying funds i,e debt, equity or mix of both
the two. The client can invest in any one of them or all of them.
The investment as showed in terms of units. Thus if the client invested in debt fund
and NAV of the debt fund is 16/- (Market Price) then the number units that the client
is 15250 / 16 = 953.125 for this investment – fund management fee will be charged
and for maintaining the policy and administrative charge is levied.

12
Flow Chart of a Unit linked plan
Less 20%
20,000-4000=16000
16,000-750=15,250
for the age 30- mortality at 1.50
per thousand
15,250/- invested in debt fund
at a NAV of 16/-
953.1250units allocated
NAV of debt fund 16/- per unit
First and foremost, investors need to understand that a ULIP is a bundled product of their
investment of their investment and their insurance proceeds. So if you have a ULIP
invested in equities, you are exposing your life insurances monies as well as your
investable surplus to the vagaries of equity markets. While it is fine and even sensible to
let your invest able assets get an equity flavors, the same cannot be said about your life
Contribution
Contribution related
charges deducted
Mortality & Rider Charges
deucted
The client invests resultant
in funds as chosen
Units allocated
Represented as NAV
Life Protection
500,000
Investment in
Funds
Debt / Equity or
balanced

13
insurance monies, which to a large extent should be sacred. The volatility in equity
markets a can disturb the calmest of minds and the last thing you want to see is your nest
egg being eroded by the latest slide in equity markets. Abhishek Bhatia elaborates, ‘A
ULIP policyholder has the option to invest in a variety of funds, depending on his risk
profile. If one does not have the appetite to invest in equity, they can choose a debt or
balanced fund.’
However, the structure of a ULIP takes care of quite a bit of the uncertainty in the
markets. Insurance companies understand the need to give insurance – seekers the
flexibility to rethink their investment strategy in view of the market histrionics. There is
an option for the insurance – seeker to switch to another plan with a lower or zero equity
component to stem the loss in a falling equity market. The switch option allows customers
to switch between fund options, thereby making adjustments to any perceived risks.
‘BSLI allows policyholders to make this switch four times a year at no cost, with Rs 100
at every additional switch after that. However, for investors to make the right switch they
need to track markets actively and well – informed, which is actually the job of the
investment advisor/consultant. SO IF INSURANCE –SEEKERS / INVESTORS PLAY
THEIR CARDS RIGHT, THEY CAN MAKE THIS MARRIAGE WORK.
Funds available in BSLI
Table No.1.1: Funds available in BSLI
Plan Plan objective Risk Investment pattern
Maximiser
(Growth)
High growth and capital
appreciation over a long
terms
High
Equity and equity related
securities: Max 90%, Debt, money
market and cash : Min 10%
Balancer
(balanced)
Balance of capital
appreciation and study returns
over a long terms
Average
Equity and equity related
securities: Max 40%, Debt, money
market and cash : Min 60%
Preserver
Equal balance of capital
appreciation and study returns
over a long term
Low
Debt instrument: Max 50%
Money market and cash Min 50%
Protector
(Income)
Study returns over a long
term.
Moderate
Debt instrument: Max 100%
Money market and cash Max 25%

14
The various products under ULIPS that BSLI offers
1. BSLI Wealth Aspire Plan
In this policy, investment risk in investment portfolio is borne by the policyholder.
Linked insurance products do not offer any liquidity during the first five years of the
contract. The policyholder will not be able to withdraw/Surrender the monies invested in
Linked Insurance Products completely or partially till the end of the fifth year from
inception.
In the pace that the world is moving today, security of your loved one's is a big concern.
Your hard work is always directed towards accumulating sufficient wealth for them.
Hence, it is important to organize your efforts in a way that works the best for you. Birla
Sun Life Insurance Wealth Aspire Plan ensures that you fulfil your responsibilities
without any trouble by empowering you with a personalized wealth creation plan. It helps
you accumulate substantial financial corpus using its wealth features and allows you to
fulfil your duties by securing the future of your loved ones.
Key Features
1. Flexibility to choose from:
o Plan options
o Policy terms
o Premium paying terms
o 4 investment options
2. Flexibility to add top-ups in case of additional savings
3. Flexibility of partial withdrawals to meet any emergency fund requirements
2. BSLI Wealth Assure Plan
In this policy, investment risk in investment portfolio is borne by the policyholder.
Linked insurance products do not offer any liquidity during the first five years of the

15
contract. The policyholder will not be able to withdraw/Surrender the monies invested in
Linked Insurance Products completely or partially till the end of the fifth year from
inception.
You have worked hard for your money, and you should always make your money work
harder for you, driving its growth in high gear. Introducing, Birla Sun Life Insurance
Wealth Assure Plan, a protection and savings plan that enables your wealth to grow
steadily over time, giving you and your loved ones peace of mind, and providing you a
secure financial future to meet your needs at different stages of life.
Key Features
1. Investment cum Insurance plan providing financial security to your loved ones
and providing upside of market related returns while shielding your returns from
downside risks.
2. Flexibility to add top-ups whenever you have additional savings
4. Tax benefits under Section 80C and Section 10(10D) of the Income Tax Act, 1961
3. BSLI Wealth Secure Plan
In this policy, investment risk in investment portfolio is borne by the policyholder. Linked
Insurance Products do not offer any liquidity during the first five years of the contract.
The policyholder will not be able to withdraw/surrender the monies invested in Linked
Insurance Products completely or partially till the end of the fifth year from inception.
In order to build a better life and realise your dreams, you always need to plan ahead.
That's why you need a savings plan that helps you attain your goals with your changing
life stage and can be customised to match your needs while giving you peace of mind.
Introducing Birla Sun Life Insurance Wealth Secure Plan that combines long term savings
and whole life coverage specially designed for you to focus on your goals and maximise
savings for your future.

16
Key Features:
1. Pay premiums for a limited term and get life cover for whole life
4. Flexibility to choose from 3 investment options to suit your investment needs
4. Tax benefits under section 80C and section 10(10D) of the Income Tax Act, 1961(3)
4. BSLI Wealth Max Plan
In this policy, investment risk in investment portfolio is borne by the policyholder. Linked
Insurance Products do not offer any liquidity during the first five years of the contract.
The policyholder will not be able to withdraw/surrender the monies invested in Linked
Insurance Products completely or partially till the end of the fifth year from inception.
Have you often wondered about an investment vehicle, which provides financial
protection for your family and earns good returns for you? Wouldn't you want an
insurance plan which helps you realize your financial dreams? Introducing the BSLI
Wealth Max plan - a single premium unit linked insurance plan.
Key Features:
1. Pay once and reap the benefits of financial growth
4. Tax benefits under Section 80C and Section 10(10D) of the Income Tax Act,
1961(1)

17
2.1 INSURANCE INDUSTRY
Life Insurance
In 1818 the British established the first insurance company in India in Calcutta, the
Oriental Life Insurance Company. First attempts at regulation of the industry were made
with the introduction of the Indian Life Assurance Companies Act in 1912. A number of
amendments to this Act were made until the Insurance Act was drawn up in 1938.
Noteworthy features in the Act were the power given to the Government to collect
statistical information about the insured and the high level of protection the Act gave to
the public through regulation and control. When the Act was changed in 1950, this meant
far reaching changes in the industry. The extra requirements included a statutory
requirement of a certain level of equity capital, a ceiling on share holdings in such
companies to prevent dominant control (to protect the public from any adversarial
policies from one single party), stricter control on investments and, generally, much
tighter control. In 1956, the market contained 154 Indian and 16 foreign life insurance
companies. Business was heavily concentrated in urban areas and targeted the higher
echelons of society. “Unethical practices adopted by some of the players against the
interests of the consumers” then led the Indian government to nationalize the industry. In
September 1956, nationalization was completed, merging all these companies into the so-
called Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). It was felt that “nationalization has lent the
industry fairness, solidity, growth and reach.”
Some of the important milestones in the life insurance business in India are:
1912: The Indian Life Assurance Companies Act enacted as the first statute to regulate
the life insurance business.
1928: The Indian Insurance Companies Act enacted to enable the government to collect
statistical information about both life and non-life insurance businesses.
1938: Earlier legislation consolidated and amended to by the Insurance Act with the
objective of protecting the interests of the insuring public.
1956: The market contained 154 Indian and 16 foreign life insurance companies.

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General Insurance
The General Insurance industry in India dates back to the Industrial Revolution and the
subsequent increase in trade across the oceans in the 17th century. As for Life Insurance,
the British brought General Insurance to India, and a similar path was followed in the
development of this industry. A number of private companies were in existence for years
and years until, in 1971, the Indian Government decided that the public interest would be
served by nationalizing the industry, merging all the 107 companies into four companies,
depending on the sort of business transacted (Marine, Fire, Miscellaneous). These were
the National Insurance Company Ltd., the Oriental Insurance Company Ltd., the New
India Assurance Company Ltd., and the United India Insurance Company Ltd. located in
Calcutta, New Delhi, Bombay and Madras respectively. The General Insurance
Corporation (GIC) was set up in 1972 as a ‘holding’ company, having these four
companies as its subsidiaries.
Some of the important milestones in the general insurance business in India are:
1907: The Indian Mercantile Insurance Ltd. set up, the first company to transact all
classes of general insurance business.
1957: General Insurance Council, a wing of the Insurance Association of India, frames
a code of conduct for ensuring fair conduct and sound business practices.
1968: The Insurance Act amended to regulate investments and set minimum solvency
margins and the Tariff Advisory Committee set up.
1972: The General Insurance Business (Nationalization) Act, 1972 nationalize the general
insurance business in India with effect from 1st January 1973. 107 insurers amalgamated
and grouped into four companies viz. the National Insurance Company Ltd., the New
India Assurance Company Ltd., the Oriental Insurance Company Ltd. and the United
India Insurance Company Ltd. GIC incorporated as a company.

19
2.2 GLOBAL LEVEL
The international insurance industry is one of the largest sectors of finance. It ranges
from consumer to corporate and industrial insurance, and even reinsurance, or insurance
of insurance.
The major insurance markets of the world are obviously the US, Europe, Japan, and South
Korea. Emerging markets are found throughout Asia, specifically in India and China, and
are also in Latin America.
With the internet and other forms of high-speed communication, companies and
individuals are now able to purchase insurance and related financial products from almost
anywhere in the world. Increasing affluence, especially in developing countries, and a
rising understanding of the need to protect wealth and human capital has led to significant
growth in the insurance industry.
Given the evolving and growing socio-economic conditions worldwide, insurance
companies are increasingly reaching out across borders and are offering more competitive
and customized products than ever before.
Gross premiums increased in most countries in the life, non-life or both segments in 2015.
This growth may be a sign or a consequence of more favourable economic conditions,
leading individuals to purchase insurance products. In most countries, the relatively low
penetration of insurance (especially in Latin America and some Asian countries) shows
that the insurance sector still has significant room to expand. In some countries, gross
premiums declined where the continued low interest rates may have deterred individuals
from purchasing life insurance products with lower guarantees. The economic context can
directly impact the real developments of the life or the non-life sector as the example of
Brazil where the high inflation outpaced the nominal growth of non-life premiums shows
Gross claims payments, particularly in the non-life segment, can be impacted by natural
events. The relatively calm year in terms of severe catastrophic events in many countries
at risk led to moderate overall growth of gross claims payments and sometimes even a
decline in claims payments. The overall underwriting profit of the non-life segment was
positive in 2015, with a combined ratio lower than 100% in most countries. Insurance
companies in many countries have scope to further improve underwriting profitability

20
through better controls on operating expenses as insurance companies in these countries
faced relatively high expense ratios in 2015..
Increase In Premium:-
The performance of the insurance sector varied across countries: the insurance sector in
some countries (28 countries) achieved premium growth in both the life and non-life
sectors; in others, premiums grew in only one segment (8 countries experienced premium
growth in the life segment only, 11 countries in the non-life segment only); while in a few
countries (6 countries), real gross premiums declined in both segments.
The fastest increase in real gross premiums in the life sector occurred in Latin America,
particularly in Uruguay (19.3%), Chile (18.2%) and Argentina (14.0%). Real gross
premiums grew by more than 10% in Estonia (13.1%), Sweden (13.0%), Israel (11.8%),
Singapore (10.9%) and Honduras (10.4%) and by more than 5% in 12 countries,
including 4 from Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru). Real gross
premiums in the life sector in Singapore and Uruguay were already experiencing a strong
growth in 2013 and 2014.
By contrast, gross real life premiums decreased by more than 5% in real terms in nine
countries. The five largest declines were observed in European countries: Slovak
Republic (-8.7%), Czech Republic (-12.4%), Luxembourg (-14.0%), the Netherlands (-
16.4%) and Portugal (-17.6%). The large decline in Luxembourg and Portugal in 2015
follows a strong growth in 2014. In the case of the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic
and the Netherlands, gross real life premiums were already declining in 2014. In the
Netherlands, life premiums were falling even before 2014 and continue to fall in recent
years as the life business still suffers from a lack of consumer trust following issues
related to the sale of usury policies
Gross Net Payments
Insurance companies providing life insurance experienced differing trends in gross claims
payments across countries, ranging from -22.1% in Iceland to 26.1% in Russia (Figure 2).
The number of countries where gross claims payments increased was higher than the
number of countries where these payments declined. In 2015, gross claims payments
increased in the life segment in 32 out of the 50 reporting countries: 22 OECD countries,
5 non-OECD members in Latin America and 5 other jurisdictions. By contrast, gross
claims payments declined in real terms in 13 OECD countries, 4 non-OECD Latin

21
American countries and 1 other jurisdiction (see Figure 2). The largest increases in gross
claims payments in the life segment were observed in Russia (26.1%), followed by El
Salvador (22.6%) and Uruguay (18.7%). El Salvador also had a strong growth of gross
claims payments in 2014. The large increase in these payments corresponds with rapid
expansion of the life business in terms of premium growth. In the OECD area, gross
claims payments by life insurers increased by more than 5% in 14 countries in 2015 while
Estonia and Canada also saw increases of close to 5%. Policy surrenders may account for
part of this growth in some countries, such as Estonia or Portugal.

22
2.3 NATIONAL LEVEL
The insurance industry of India consists of 53 insurance companies of which 24 are in life
insurance business and 29 are non-life insurers. Among the life insurers, Life Insurance
Corporation (LIC) is the sole public sector company. Apart from that, among the non-life
insurers there are six public sector insurers. In addition to these, there is sole national re-
insurer, namely, General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC Re). Other stakeholders in
Indian Insurance market include agents (individual and corporate), brokers, surveyors and
third party administrators servicing health insurance claims.
Out of 29 non-life insurance companies, five private sector insurers are registered to
underwrite policies exclusively in health, personal accident and travel insurance
segments. They are Star Health and Allied Insurance Company Ltd, Apollo Munich
Health Insurance Company Ltd, Max Bupa Health Insurance Company Ltd, Religare
Health Insurance Company Ltd and Cigna TTK Health Insurance Company Ltd. There
are two more specialised insurers belonging to public sector, namely, Export Credit
Guarantee Corporation of India for Credit Insurance and Agriculture Insurance Company
Ltd for crop insurance.
The life insurance sector recorded a new premium income of Rs. 1.38 trillion in a year,
i.e. April 2015 to March 2016. This indicated a dramatic growth rate of 22.5% in the
premium income, whereas the general insurance sector centered on two-wheeler
insurance policy (particularly) recorded a 12% of growth by receiving a premium income
of Rs. 105.25 billion during the year, i.e. April 2016 to March 2017. The life insurance
sector offers about 360 million policies, which count to be the largest in the world. Still, it
is expected to cross compound annual growth rate of 12 to 15% in the next 5 years. It is
expected that the Indian insurance market will quadruple in size over the next 10 years
and the life insurance sector is expected to collect more than US $160 billion. There are a
lot of opportunities in the Indian insurance market. Currently, the general insurance
business in the Indian market accounts for more than Rs. 70,000 Crore premiums yearly,
and it is growing at a positive rate of 17% every year.
Despite being the second highly populous country in the world, Indian insurance market
accounts for less than 1.5% of the world’s total insurance premium.

23
As of 2016, life insurance sector has 29 private players in comparison to only four in
FY02, With 70.4 per cent share market share in FY16, LIC continues to be the market
leader, followed by SBI (5.1 per cent), ICICI (4.9 per cent) and HDFC (4.1 per cent).The
life insurance market grew from US$ 10.5 billion in FY02 to US$ 27.5 billion in FY16.
Over FY02–FY16, life insurance premiums expanded at a CAGR of 7.5 per cent. The life
insurance industry has the potential to grow 2-2.5 times by 2020 in spite of multiple
challenges supported by long-term trends and fundamentals underlying household
savings.

24
2.4 STATE LEVEL
Underlining the robust growth potential for the general insurance industry, industry
experts estimate premium business for the industry would cross Rs. 1.2 lakh crore in
fiscal 2016-17 from around Rs. 96,394 crore in the last fiscal.
The general insurance industry has been growing at around 16 per cent every year since
2006-2007, but with higher penetration the industry is expected to quadruple in size over
the next 10 years, industry players said.
They discussed current trends, challenges faced in insurance claims, client’s experience
from the claims perspective and innovations in claims management at the ‘Management
of Insurance Claims – Way Forward’, a seminar organised by the Federation of Indian
Chambers Of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), Gujarat State Council, in partnership with
Anar Insurance Brokers Ltd.
According to experts, during the first six months of fiscal 2016-17, the general insurance
industry has grown by more than 28 per cent.
Rajiv Vastupal, Chairman, FICCI Gujarat State Council said, "Penetration of general
insurance in India is very low at 0.70 per cent and Gujarat, in spite of being highly
industrialised, is no different at just 0.71 per cent. The low penetration is a major reason
for the losses of the industry players."
"The insurance industry will have to become more customer-centric in product
development, policy issuance as well as claims settlement to be prepared for the
challenges and opportunities in the coming time," he added.
Gujarat accounted for over 20 lakh claims in fiscal 2015-16, 7 per cent of the total 2.70
crore claims in India.
Management of claims and customer satisfaction are both important aspects for any
insurance company. Unfortunately, the general insurance industry has made pure
underwriting losses since 2007, which has increased in recent years due to the
deteriorating claims ratio in medical insurance.

25
India currently accounts for less than 1.5 per cent of the world’s total insurance premium
and about 2 per cent of the world’s life insurance premium despite being the second most
populous nation.
The country is the fifteenth largest insurance market in the world in terms of premium
volume, and has the potential to grow exponentially in the coming years.

26
2.5 PEST ANALYSIS OF LIFE INSURANCE INDUSTRY IN INDIA
POLITICAL FACTORS
1. INCREASED SERVICE TAX ON PREMIUM: The imposition of service tax
on the services provided by the insurers has been increased significantly over past
few years by the government.
2. ENDING OF GOVERNMENT MONOPOLY: A great revolution in the
insurance sector came in the year 1999 when IRDA passed the bill, lifting all entry
restrictions for private players and allowing foreign players to enter the market
with some limits on direct foreign ownership.
3. INCREASE IN FDI LIMIT: The hike in the insurance foreign direct investment
(FDI) limit to 49 per cent from 26 per cent has proved to be very beneficial for the
insurance industry in India. It has encouraged foreign investors to invest in Indian
insurance industry.
4. FAVOURABLE REGULATIONS FOR RURAL INSURANCE: To encourage
insurance sector to increase its spread in rural India, government has made
regulations more favorable for rural people by decreasing the amount of
premiums, introducing new group insurance plans and various other special plans
for farmers.
ECONOMIC FACTORS
1. INCREASE IN GROSS DOMESTIC SAVINGS: The gross domestic savings
of people in India have increased significantly, due to which they are moving
towards new ways of investing money for the future benefits including various
insurance plans. As compared to previous year i.e.2007, the insurance industry
thus expected to grow by about 40% during this fiscal year, i.e.2008.

27
2. CONTRIBUTION TO COUNTRY’S G.D.P: According to government sources,
the insurance and banking services’ contribution to the country’s gross domestic
product is 7% out of which the gross premium collection by various insurance
companies forms a significant part.
3. ROLE IN GOVT. SECURITIES MARKET: Insurance companies are fest
emerging as one of the most prominent players in the govt. securities market. The
share of insurance companies in overall investment in the G-sec market has more
than doubled to 23% during 2007-08 from 9% during the previous fiscal year.
4. BIGGEST DOMESTIC PLAYER IN EQUITY MARKETS: According to
RBI’s annual report for 2007-08, the insurance companies invested Rs. 35880 crore in
the G-sec market, which is over 173.06% higher than the Rs.13880 crore they
invested in 2006-07. Thus insurers have emerged as the biggest domestic institutional
players in the equity markets.
SOCIAL FACTORS
1. LOW INSURANCE COVERAGE: In India insurance is considered as which is
pushed upon the customers to buy. People are unwilling to buy insurance due to
lack of awareness.
2. INCREASE IN LIFE SPAN AND RISE IN ELDERLY POPULATION: In
India life span has increased over past few years due to which the elderly
population in India is rising day by day. To live a happy and independent life,
more no. of educated peoples is moving towards investing in insurance to ensure a
respectful and independent life even in old age.
3. UNCERTAINITY ABOUT LIFE: Due to increasing no. of events of terrorist
attacks in various parts of the country, people have started viewing life as more
uncertain. It has developed a kind of fear factor in the minds of people leaving
them more worried about their family and kids. Due to this reason they are

28
moving more and more towards buying insurance policies in order to secure their
family’s future.
4. CHANGING INDIAN PERCEPTION: In India earlier people used to view
insurance as a tax saving device or as a method of investment. But, nowadays a
great change in the perception has come. People have started realizing the
importance of getting insured. Now more no. of people is viewing it as a transfer
of risk for a good future.
5. CHANGE IN FAMILY SYSTEM: Since past, joint family system was the most
prevalent in all the stratus of Indian society. At that time, in case of a man’s death,
there were other people in the family to take care of his wife and kids. But, with
the passage of time, a big change in our culture has come. More no. of people are
moving towards nuclear family system. In today’s scenario there is no one to help
a widow and her kids because everyone is busy with his/her family. In such a
situation more no. of people are opting for insurance to secure their spouse and
children’s future.
6. INCREASE IN LIFE STYLE DISEASES: Due to modernization, the life has
become very fast. Many changes have taken place in the life style of people, due
to which a large no. of new life style diseases have made their place in our
country. Thus, more no.of people is opting for health insurance etc to lead a better
and more secured life.
TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS
1. AUTOMATION OF PROCESSES: Nowadays, with advancement in technology
the whole process of insurance has become automated. Earlier it used to take
15days to 45days for the issuance of policy documents. But, nowadays the whole
process gets completed within 5 to 7 days.
2. INTERNET DRIVEN INFORMATION ERA: With an increase in internet
usage and its increasing spread, it has become easier for people to get informed
about everything at their home only. Now they don’t have to waste time in

29
gathering information before taking any financial step. Every information is now a
days is available on the net.
3. BUSINESS PROCESS MONITORING: It has become easier fo0r people to
track every event in a business process. It has resulted in more transparency in
every aspect of business processing.
4. E-BANKING FACILITY: More no. of people in urban sector are moving
towards e-banking and credit card facilities etc, which has made payment of
premium much easier, convenient and hassle free for customer.

30
2.6 CURRENT TRENDS IN INSURANCE SECTOR
The following are some of the major investments and developments in the Indian
insurance sector.
New York Life Insurance Company, the largest life insurance company in the US, has
invested INR 121 crore (US$ 18.15 million) in Max Ventures and Industries Ltd for a
22.52 per cent stake, which will be used by Max for investing in new focus areas of
education and real estate.
New York Life Investments, the global asset management division of New York Life,
along with other investors like Jacob Ballas, will own a significant minority ownership in
Centrum Capital by being one of the leading global investors in buying the available 30
per cent stake worth US$ 50 million of Centrum Capital.
Max Life Insurance Co Ltd and HDFC Life Insurance Co Ltd have signed a merger
agreement, which is expected to create India's largest private sector life insurance
company once the transaction is completed.
Aviva Plc, the UK-based Insurance company, has acquired an additional 23 per cent stake
in Aviva Life Insurance Company India from the joint venture (JV) partner Dabur Invest
Corporation for Rs 940 crore (US$ 141.3 million), thereby increasing their stake to 49 per
cent in the company.
Insurance firm AIA Group Ltd has decided to increase its stake in Tata AIA Life
Insurance Co Ltd, a joint venture owned by Tata Sons Ltd and AIA Group from 26 per
cent to 49 per cent.
Canada-based Sun Life Financial Inc plans to increase its stake from 26 per cent to 49 per
cent in Birla Sun Life Insurance Co Ltd, a joint venture with Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd,
through buying of shares worth Rs 1,664 crore (US$ 244.14 million).

31
Nippon Life Insurance, Japan’s second largest life insurance company, has signed
definitive agreements to invest Rs 2,265 crore (US$ 332.32 million) in order to increase
its stake in Reliance Life Insurance from 26 per cent to 49 per cent.
Bennett Coleman and Co. Ltd (BCCL), the media conglomerate with multiple
publications in several languages across India, is set to buy Religare Enterprises Ltd’s
entire 44 per cent stake in life insurance joint venture AegonReligare Life Insurance Co.
Ltd. The foreign partner Aegon is set to increase its stake in the joint venture from 26 per
cent to 49 per cent, following government’s reform measure allowing the increase in
stake holding by foreign companies in the insurance sector.
GIC Re and 11 other non-life insurers have jointly formed the India Nuclear Insurance
Pool with a capacity of Rs 1,500 crore (US$ 220.08 million) and will provide the risk
transfer mechanism to the operators and suppliers under the CLND Act.
State Bank of India has announced that BNP Paribas Cardiff is keen to increase its stake
in SBI Life Insurance from 26 per cent to 36 per cent. Once the foreign joint venture
partner increases its stake to 36 per cent, SBI’s stake in SBI Life will get diluted to 64 per
cent.

32
2.7 MAJOR LIFE INSURANCE COMPANIES IN INDIA
1. AEGON Life Insurance
2. General Insurance Corporation of India
3. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Ltd.
4. Max New York Life Insurance Co. Ltd.
5. IFFCO Tokio General Insurance Co. Ltd
6. Reliance General Insurance Company Ltd.
7. TATA AIG General Insurance Company Ltd.
8. AVIVA Life Insurance
9. Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance
10. Bharti AXA Life Insurance
11. Birla Sun Life Insurance
12. Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance
13. Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance
14. Exide Life Insurance
15. Future General India Life Insurance Company Ltd.
16. HDFC Standard Life Insurance
17. Reliance Life Insurance
18. MetLife Insurance
19. Sahara Life Insurance
20. SBI Life Insurance

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2.8 MAJOR OFFERINGS
1) Assure Fund
 Objective:
To provide Capital Protection, at a high level of safety and liquidity through
judicious investments in high quality short-term debt.
 STRATEGY:
Generate better return with low level of risk through investment into fixed interest
securities having short-term maturity profile.
2) Protector Fund
 Objective:
To generate persistence return through active management through active
management of fixed income portfolio and focus on creating long term equity
portfolio, which will enhance yield of composite portfolio with minimum risk
appetite.
 STRATEGY:
To invest in fixed income securities with marginal exposure to equity up to 10% at
low level of risk. This fund is suitable for those who want to protect their capital
and earn steady return on investment through higher exposure to debt securities.
3) Enhancer Fund
 Objective:
Helps you to grow your capital through enhanced returns over a medium to
long term period through investments in equity and debt instruments,
thereby providing a good balance between risk and return.
 Strategy:
To earn capital appreciation by maintaining diversified equity portfolio and seek
to earn regular return on fixed income portfolio by active management
resulting in wealth creation for policy holders.

34
4) Magnifier Fund
 Objective:
To maximize wealth by actively managing a diversified equity portfolio.
 Strategy:
To invest in high quality equity security to provide long term capital appreciation
with high level of risk. This fund is suitable for those who want to have wealth
maximization over long-term period with equity market dynamics.
5) Super 20 Fund
 Objective:
To generate long-term capital appreciation for policyholders by making
investments in fundamentally strong and liquid large cap companies.
 Strategy:
To build and manage a concentrated equity portfolio of 20 fundamentally
strong large cap stocks in terms of market capitalization by following an in
depth research-focused investment approach. The fund will attempt diversify
across sectors and will invest in companies having financial strength, robust,
efficient & visionary management & adequate market liquidity . It will
adopt a disciplined and flexible approach towards investing with a focus on
generating long-term capital appreciation. The non-equity portion of the fund
will be invested in highly rated money market instruments and fixed deposits.
6) Pure Equity
 Objective:
The objective of the fund is to provide long-term wealth creation by actively
managing portfolio through investment in selective businesses. Fund will not
invest in businesses that provide goods or services in gambling, lottery/contests,
animal produce, liquor , tobacco, entertainment like films or hotels, banks and
financial institutions.
 Strategy:
The equity investment strategy will revolve around building and actively
managing a well-diversified equity portfolio of value &growth driven
fundamentally strong companies by following a research-focused investment

35
approach. Equity investments will be made based on the following criteria:
Investment in companies will be made in strict compliance with the
objective of the fund, Fund will not invest in banks and financial
institutions and companies whose interest income exceeds 3% of total
revenues, Investing in leveraged-firms is restrained on the provision that
heavily indebted companies ought to serve a considerable amount of their
revenue in interest payments.
7) Platinum Premier Fund
 Objective:
To optimize the participation in an actively managed well-diversified equity
portfolio of fundamentally strong blue chip companies while using debt
instruments and derivatives to lock -in capital appreciations. The use of
derivatives will be for hedging purposes only and as approved by the IRDA.
 Strategy:
To dynamically manage the allocation between equities and fixed income
instruments, while using derivatives when necessary and for hedging purposes
only. The equity investment strategy will revolve around building and actively
managing a well-diversified equity portfolio of value& growth driven
fundamentally strong blue chip companies by following a research-focused
investment approach. On the fixed income side, investments will be made in
government securities, high rated corporate bonds and money market
instruments.

36
3.1 COMPANY PROFILE
Birla Sun Life Insurance Company Limited (BSLI) is a joint venture between the Aditya
Birla Group and Sun Life Financial Inc., a leading international financial services
organization. The local knowledge of the Aditya Birla Group combined with the expertise
of Sun Life Financial Inc., offers a formidable value proposition to customers.
Sun Life Financial and its partners today have operations in key markets worldwide,
including India, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Philippines,
Japan, Indonesia, China and Bermuda. Sun Life Financial Inc. had assets under
management of over US$ 386.82 billion, as on 31 March 2007. Sun Life Financial Inc. is
a leading performer in the life insurance market in Canada.
BSLI in its five successful years of operations has contributed significantly to the growth
and development of the life insurance industry in India. It pioneered the launch of Unit
Linked Life Insurance plans amongst the private players in India. It was the first player in
the industry to sell its policies through the Bank assurance route and through the internet.
It was also the first private sector player to introduce a pure term plan in the Indian
market. This was supported by sales practices, which brought a degree of transparency
that was entirely new to the market. The process of getting sales illustrations signed by
customers, offering a free look period on all policies, which are now industry standards
were introduced by BSLI.
Being a customer centric company, BSLI has invested heavily in technology to build
world class processing capabilities. BSLI has covered more than one and a half million
lives since inception and its customer base is spread across 100 cities in India. All this has
assisted the company in cementing its place amongst the leaders in the industry in terms
of new business premium income. Birla Sun Life Insurance (BSLI), one of the leading
private life insurers in India today announced the inimitable achiever, cricketer Kapil Dev
as their corporate brand ambassador. The cricketing supremo will be endorsing BSLI in
all its marketing initiatives. Birla Sun Life Insurance is a value-driven brand which has a
national brand recall of 70 per cent. The objective of appointing a brand ambassador is to
grow its brand recall as it goes national in its distribution reach and fuel business growth.
As a brand ambassador, Kapil Dev will play a key role in the brand and product

37
marketing and promotional activities. BSLI has always used an integrated marketing
approach, which will be strengthened further.
Commenting on the association with Kapil Dev, Mr. S. K. Mitra, Director, Financial
Services, Aditya Birla Group and currently incharge of BSLI expressed, "The Birla Sun
Life Insurance business distribution network is national in nature covering more than
1000 points across the country .We have made our entry in several tier I and tier II towns.
It is therefore very important for the brand to connect at the grassroot level and create
trust. We believe that our association with Kapil Dev as our brand ambassador will help
us create this connect in a shorter period of time. We therefore now have two strong
connects — our parent brand Birla and our brand ambassador Kapil Dev".
Kapil Dev, also known as the Haryana Hurricane, was born on 6 January 1959 in
Chandigarh. He played his first competitive game of cricket at the age of 13 years and
made his test debut on 16 October 1978 at Faisalabad against Pakistan. Kapil Dev
remained India's top strike bowler for almost 15 years. His extraordinary test match
figures of more than 5000 runs and 434 wickets along with 64 catches show that he was a
world class cricketer and an all-rounder. He has raised the mantle of India to sporting
glory by winning us the World Cup.
In a study conducted by BSLI, Kapil Dev connected extremely well with the life
insurance category and had high acceptance by the masses. Our survey suggests that he is
seen as a very good fit for the BSLI brand. He is very much loved and respected by a vast
majority of the population.
On 26 November 2006, Birla Sun Life was host the annual golf tournament at the
Chembur Golf Club in Mumbai where Kapil Dev was participate.
VISION
To be a leader and role model in a broad based and integrated financial services business.
MISSION
To help people mitigate risks of life, accident, health, and money at all stages and under
all circumstances Enhance the financial future of our customers including enterprises.

38
About Birla Sun Life Insurance
Birla Sun Life Insurance Company Limited (BSLI) is a vertical of business of the Aditya
Birla Financial Services Group (ABFSG). It is a joint venture between the Aditya Birla
Nuvo Limited, a leading Indian conglomerate, and Sun Life Financial Inc., one of the
leading international financial services organisations from Canada. BSLI ranks 5th in
India among the private life insurers in terms of annual premium equivalent, with a
market share of 7.1%* for FY17. During 2016-17, it recorded a gross premium income of
Rs. 5,724 Crore, registering a y-o-y growth of 3% and posted a net profit of Rs. 123
Crore. Its assets under Management at Rs. 34, 523 Crore as on FY 17. BSLI has a nation-
wide distribution presence through 409 branches, 6 bancassurance partners, over 73,000
direct selling agents and more than 150 corporate agents and brokers. BSLI is meeting its
growth capital and solvency requirements through internal accruals and has not required
any capital infusion during past five years.
The company offers a complete range of protection solutions, children's future solutions,
wealth with protection solutions, health and wellness solutions, retirement solutions and
savings with protection solutions.
About Aditya Birla Financial Services Group
Aditya Birla Financial Services Group (ABFSG) ranks among the top 5 fund managers in
India (excluding LIC) with an AUM of INR 246,759 Crore as on March 31st, 2017 and
has a lending book of Rs 38,839 Crore. Having a strong presence across the life
insurance, asset management, private equity, corporate lending, structured finance,
general insurance broking, wealth management, equity/currency/commodity broking,
online personal finance, housing finance, pension fund management and health insurance
business, ABFSG is committed to serving the end-to-end financial services needs of its
retail and corporate customers.
As on March 31st, 2017, ABFSG reported aggregate revenue from businesses at Rs.
10,341 Crores and profit before tax from established businesses Rs. 1,374 Crore.
Anchored by about 12,000 employees and trusted by nearly 14 million customers,
ABFSG has a nationwide reach through over 1,300 points of presence and more than
142,000 agents / channel partners.

39
About Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd.
Aditya Birla Nuvo is a conglomerate having leadership position across its businesses. Its
Financial Services business (including NBFC, Housing Finance, Life Insurance, Asset
Management, Health Insurance, General Insurance Advisory, Private Equity, Broking,
Wealth Management and Online Money Management) ranks among the top 5 fund
managers in India. Its Telecom venture, Idea Cellular, ranks among the top 3 cellular
operators in India. It is a leading player in Linen, Agri, Rayon and Insulators businesses.
ABNL has recently ventured into the Solar Power business. ABNL has also received a
Payments Bank license from RBI, in joint venture with Idea Cellular, and is targeting to
launch operations in the second quarter of FY2017-18 post requisite approvals.
Aditya Birla Nuvo is a part of the Aditya Birla Group, a USD 41 billion Indian
multinational. The Aditya Birla Group is in the league of Fortune 500. Anchored by an
extraordinary force of over 120,000 employees, belonging to 42 nationalities, the Aditya
Birla Group operates in 36 countries across the globe. About 50 per cent of its revenues
flow from its overseas operations.
About Sun Life Financial Inc, Canada
Founded in Canada in 1865, Sun Life Financial has been a trusted name for generations –
150 years and counting. Sun Life Financial is a leading international financial services
organization providing a diverse range of protection and wealth products and services to
individuals and corporate customers. Sun Life Financial and its partners have operations
in a number of markets worldwide, including Canada, the United States, the United
Kingdom, Ireland, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, India, China, Australia,
Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Bermuda. As of December 31, 2016, the Sun Life
Financial group of companies had total assets under management of $903 billion.
Sun Life Financial Inc. trades on the Toronto (TSX), New York (NYSE) and Philippine
(PSE) stock exchanges under the ticker symbol SLF.

40
3.2 ORGANOGRAM OF BIRLA SUN LIFE INSURANCE
Graph:3.2 Organogram of Birla Sun Life Insurance
Senior Voice President
Voice President
ZM Manager
Regional Manager
Associate Regional Manager
Area Manager/Sales Manager
Sourcing structure
Business
Manager
CEO
Senior
Agency
Manager
Agency
Manager
Senior
business
Manager
Unit
Manager

41
KEY PEOPLES OF ORGANISATION
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
 Mr. Kumar M Birla
 Mr. Donald A Stewart
 Mr. Bishwanath N Puranmalka
 Mr. Gary M Comerford
 Mr. Ajay Srinivasan
 Mr. Suresh N Talwar
 Mr. Gian P Gupta
 His Highness Maharaja G Singh
 Mr. Stephan Rajotte
 Dr. Bharat K Singh
INVESTMENT COMMITTEE
 Mr. B. N. Puranmalk
 Mr. Eugene Lundrigan
 Mr. Ajay Srinivasan
 Mr. Vikram Mehmi
 Mr. Mayank Bathwal
 Mr. Fabien Jeudy
 Mr. Vikram Kotak
 Ms. Keerti Gupta

42
Management Team
Table No.3.2.1: Management team of Birla Sun Life Insurance
Mr. Vikram Mehmi
President & Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Mayank Bathwal
Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Mario Braganza
Chief Operating Officer
Mr. E.N. Goveia
Head - Direct Sales Force
Mr. Amit Punchhi
Senior Vice President - Third Party
Distribution
Mr. Bhavesh Sanghvi
Head - Group Life & Pensions
Mr. Snehal Shah
Senior Vice President - Operations
Ms. Anjana Grewal
Senior Vice President - Marketing &
Communications
Mr. Rajesh Bhojani
Senior Vice President - DSF Expansion
Mr. K.H. Venkatachalam
Vice President - Human Resource
Mr. Fabien Jeudy
Vice President, Chief & Appointed Actuary
Mr. Lalit Vermani
Vice President - Compliance
Mr. Melvyn D'souza
Vice President - Risk Management and
Internal Audit
Mr. Vikram Kotak
Vice President - Investments
Mr. Bhalachandra Nayak
Vice President - Strategy

43
3.3 SWOT ANALIYSIS
STRENGTH
 Multi-channel distribution and one of the largest distribution networks in India.
 Implementing Six-Sigma process.
 Customer centric products and services.
 Superior investment and risk management framework
 1 Million Policies sold within 3 and half years.
 Company has maximum number of MDRT as well as good number of HNI
advisors.
 Training process of the company is very strong.
 Different plan for different peoples
 According to the change in surrounding environment like changes in customer
requirement.
WEAKNESS
 COMPANY does not penetrate on the rural market at a time.
 There is no plan for the low income group.
 Fees for the advisor is high than the other company.
OPPORTUNITY
 Insurance market is very big, where company can expand its horizon in insurance
industry.
 Though good investment and insurance it is easy to top Indian customers.
 The huge insurance market (77%) is left so company has opportunity to expand
our products.
 To associate with the more number of HNI.
THREATS
 ‘OLD HABITS DIE HARD’ Its still difficult task to win the confidence of public
towards private company.

44
 The company is facing major threats from LIC -which is an only government
company.
 Plans for all income groups is not available which can create adverse effect later
on the market share of the company.

45
3.4 MARKET POSITION
The Company maintained its market share at 7.6% in FY 16 in terms of new business
premium. The Company recorded First year Premium of 2,220 Cr. (growth of 15% over
last year). BSLI ranked No. 4 among the private insurance players in terms of new
business premium.
It is one of the seven companies that represent Aditya Birla Financial Services Group
which is the financial arm of Aditya Birla Group. With a huge customer base of more
than 2.5 million, Birla Sun Life Insurance is ranked as one of the most innovative
companies and had set benchmarks in the industry. It was the pioneer in launching the
Unit Linked Life Insurance Plans.
Birla Sun Life Insurance offers various products offering children future solutions, wealth
with protection, retirement as well as health and wellness. Some of the best known plans
are Vision Star, Protector Plus, Wealth Max and Fortune Elite which are offered by the
company.
BSLI has its reach in over 500 cities with more than 600 branches, 10500 advisors and
around 150 partnerships with brokers, banks and corporate agents.
BLSI has plans for employees that increase their brand productivity and loyalty and has
been recognised for being the third most trusted Life Insurance in most trusted brands
conducted by AC Nielsen in 2016.

CHAPTER: 4
REVIEW OF
LITERATURE

46
(Muhammed Thayyib. K, April 2017) Researchers have done a research on: The
Importance of ULIP in Insurance Sector in India. This Research paper reviews the
potentials of ULIP insurance policy in India. Paper highlights the meaning and importance of
ULIP in insurance sector. The paper also mentions that whether the individual ULIP fund
scheme has outperformed or underperformed with the investment. It specify a comparison
among the ULIP fund schemes based on the risk bearing capacity and expected return of the
investor.1
(Dr. Mercia Selva Malar and Rajesh Pathiyil, November 2016) Researchers have done a
research on: A Study on The Returns of ULIP of BALIC and other Selected Private Life
Insurance Companies. ULIPs or unit linked insurance plans are which will give both the
benefit of insurance and investment The study aimed at comparing the returns of ULIP’s of
Bajaj Alliance Life Insurance company and selected private life insurance companies like
HDFC Life, Tata AIA, PNB Metlife and ICICI Prudential. Convenient sampling was done to
identify relevant data. The analysis of the relevant data was descriptive: mean, median, mode
and standard deviation. Pearson’s correlation was also used. BALIC’s Equity Plus Pension
Fund was found to be the highest at 19.13 percent, followed by PNB MetLife Accelerator
with a return of 18.69 percent. The poorest return was from HDFC Life’s Growth Fund at 10
per cent. In the category of debt ULIPs PNB MetLife group’s Gratuity Debt earned the
highest return of 15.5 percent, followed by HDFC Life Secure Managed Fund – Life I which
provided a return of 15 percent. The least return was from BALIC’s Debt Plus Fund at 11.45
percent. The asset manager of BALIC debt ULIP should be aggressive in building a high
return portfolio.2
(L.Prakash & M.Dinesh, 2016) Researchers have done a research on: An Analytical Study
on Icici Prudential Ulip Products With Special Reference To Life Time Scheme. This
Analytical study is undertaken to study the “ICICI Prudential ULIP products with special
reference to Lifetime scheme” ICICI is the leading Private Life Insurance Company in India,
which has started its operation in 2000. Within a short span, the company has reached the top
position among the private insurance companies. The important objective of this study is to
1
Muhammed Thayyib. K, April 2017, “The Importance of ULIP in Insurance Sector in India”, The Importance
of ULIP in Insurance Sector in India, ISSN 2249-1619 , Page 21-27
2
Dr. Mercia Selva Malar & Rajesh Pathiyil, November 2016, “A Study on The Returns of ULIP of BALIC and
other Selected Private Life Insurance Companies”, International Scientific Journal of Contemporary Research in
Engineering, ISSN : 2456–1134 Vol. 1, Issue 3, Pages : 31-53

47
compare the ULIP products of ICICI Prudential with their major competitors with respect to
their important factors like Net Asset Value, Benchmark Index. This paper also helps in
evaluating the performance of the funds based on market risk and to find the market growth.3
(Nazar Hussain, 2016) Researchers have done a research on: Determinants Of Investment
In Ulip Policy: A Sem Approach With Special Reference To Trichy District. It is a whole
new ULIP world today. The new regulations ensure that ULIPs are being promoted as a long-
term protection and savings tool. A ULIP is a life insurance policy which provides a
combination of risk cover and investment. ULIP is a hybrid, combining insurance with an
investment in a mutual fund. As mentioned earlier, it is closer to a mutual fund than a
traditional insurance product. In globalize business environment, ULIP as a part of their
investment portfolio. A smart investor gets the maximum benefit of capital guarantee along
with tax-free market-linked returns. Trichy, is the fourth largest city in Tamil Nadu after
Chennai, Madurai, and Coimbatore. The objective of this study is to analyse the determinants
of investment in ULIP policy with special reference to Trichy District. Sample of 120
respondents, Who have ULIP Policy were identified with the help of agents were selected
from Trichy District which were related to the sampled 5 companies.4
(Egbeonu Oliver, May 2016) Researchers have done a research on: Insurance Investment
Portfolio And Economic Development In Nigeria: A Co-Integration Analysis (1996 –
2013). The study empirically investigated the pattern of flow between insurance investment
portfolio and economic development in Nigeria; data was extracted from CBN statistical
bulletin and World Bank record 2013, various econometric tools were used to performed the
analysis; multiple regression analysis, unit root test, Engle – Granger co-integration and
Granger Causality. The individual coefficient result of OLS revealed positive and
significance relationship between bills of exchange, investment in stocks and bonds, while
inverse and insignificance relationship was found between investment in Government
securities; Granger causality result revealed that the pattern of relationship between insurance
3
L.Prakash & M.Dinesh, 2016,” An Analytical Study on Icici Prudential Ulip Products With Special Reference
To Life Time Scheme”, IJARIIE-ISSN(O)-2395-4396
4
Nazar Hussain, 2016, “Determinants Of Investment In Ulip Policy: A Sem Approach With Special Reference
To Trichy District.”, The international journal research publications research journals of social sciences, ISSN-
2251-1571

48
investment portfolio and economic development was demand following ( Economic
development → Insurance investment portfolio). It is therefore recommended that insurance
sector awareness be increase and encourage in the country.5
(D. Jogish, 2015) Researchers have done a research on: Performance of ULIP Schemes in
Indian Insurance Market. The Indian insurance industry is in the midst of a churn with the
government trying to pass through the Insurance amendment to raise the foreign direct
investment to 49%. The spotlight is again on the market related products popularly termed
ULIPs since it is combination of security and returns with the latter being given more
prominence due to its investments in highly risky securities market. This study aptly looks
into the returns generated by all the insurers with regard to their select ULIP schemes and
also whether the public sector behemoth LIC is doing well in this sphere. The study also
determines the returns generated per unit of total risk which is very important for the insured
as it should be able to justify his investment compared to the traditional products which are
risk averse. The suggestions are incorporated to make ULIPs popular since it is losing ground
steadily in the Indian insurance industry.6
(Dr. Vinod K. Bhatnagar, 2015) Researchers have done a research on: Factors Affecting
Investors’ Perceptions towards Investment in ULIP. Insurance may be described as a
social device to reduce or eliminate risk of life and property. Under the plan of insurance, a
large number of people associate themselves by sharing risk, attached to an individual. Unit
Linked Insurance Plan (ULIP) provides the life insurance where the policy value at any time
varies according to the value of the underlying assets at the time. ULIP is life insurance
solution that provides the benefits of protection and flexibility in investment. In today's times,
ULIP provides solutions for insurance planning, financial needs, financial planning for
children’s marriage planning etc., Unit Linked Insurance Plan is a financial product that
offers life insurance as well as an investment like a mutual fund. The objectives of the study
5
Egbeonu Oliver, May 2016, “Insurance Investment Portfolio And Economic Development In Nigeria: A Co-
Integration Analysis (1996 – 2013)”, International Journal of Advanced Academic Research Social &
Management Sciences, ISSN: 2488-9849. Vol. 2, Issue 5
6
D. Jogish, 2015, “Performance of ULIP Schemes in Indian Insurance Market”, The International Journal Of
Business & Management, ISSN 2321 – 8916

49
is to design, develop & standardize the measures, to identify factors underlying as to form the
perception of customers towards ULIP and to measure perception.7
(Dr. V. Shanmugasundaram and E. Selvarathinam, July-2015) Researchers have done a
research on: Influence of Liquidity Factors Towards ULIP. Human life is a most
important asset and life insurance provides financial protection to a person and his family at
the time of uncertain risks or damage. Life insurance provides both safety and protection to
individuals and also encourages savings among people. The present descriptive based study
was selected with an objective to identify those liquidity factors which influence customers
policy buying decision and also analyze the preferences of customers while Unit linked life
insurance policy investment decision is made have been discussed in the paper.8
(Mrunal Chetan Joshi, 2014) Researchers have done a research on: The Study of Trends
in Life Insurance Sector and Growth of ULIPs in India. Recently continuous increasing in
the contribution of Service Sector in GDP of Indian Economy, Life Insurance Sector is one of
most important sector playing its role in the growth of Indian Economy. As Globalisation and
Liberalisation has open the doors for foreign companies to enter in to this sector in India, of
course through joint venture only, they have identified the potential of the Indian market.
Thus numbers of new private companies have started their business in Life Insurance Sector
and still numbers of companies are preparing to enter into this sector. IRDA is playing its
crucial role in managing all this efficiently in interest of general public. In this scenario, Life
Insurance sector has also faced down-ward growth rate as global melt down during year
2008-09. But now near about all problems have been settled in India and India's insurance
sector is zooming to show an unprecedented progressive growth of more than 200% by the
period of 2009-10. As Indian Stock market has also achieved stable growth in last more than
six months, investment avenues based on it are also performing well afterwards. ULIPs have
also shown its increased market-share, in the total insurance business. ULIPs are also well
managed by IRDA well, even in terms of ceiling of total charges charged by Insurance
companies. IRDA has established detailed guidelines with explanation of the terms used in it.
7
Dr. Vinod K. Bhatnagar, 2015, “Factors Affecting Investors’ Perceptions towards Investment in ULIP”, Sun
India Publications, New Delhi,,ISBN: 978-81-907387-05, Page-14-22
8
Dr. V. Shanmugasundaram and E. Selvarathinam, July-2015, “Influence of Liquidity Factors Towards ULIP”,
Bi-annual Refereed Research Journal from MEASI Institute of ManagementMEASI,Vol – 1, Issue – 2 , ISSN
2394 – 6997

50
Finally we can say about ULIPs that its performance can be identified by its NAV and its
growth, which could be the important variable for the investors for their investment decision.9
(SANDEEP BANSAL, June 2014) Researchers have done a research on: Investor’s
Perception Regarding Mutual Funds And Other Investment Tools. In the context of
growing importance of mutual funds in the developing countries like India, majority of the
investors prefer mutual funds as a good tool of investment. Mutual funds pool the savings of
small investors and made the investment in blue chip companies. Due to these reasons the
present study’s main objective are to analyze investor’s perception regarding the mutual fund
industry in India and other investment tools. Large number of new other investment tools
could have led to competition with the mutual funds for their existence. The study made a
comparative analysis of the mutual fund and other investment tools. The study aims to help
understand the investors behavior towards mutual fund and various other investment plan like
PPF, FD life insurance, equity etc. The study required design a questionnaire and to do a
primary survey on investor perception towards mutual Funds and other investment tools The
target respondents of the primary survey were walk in investors in ICICI bank and various
professional people. The data gathered from the primary survey and secondary survey and to
find various factors that affect an investor decisions while choosing Mutual Fund plan other
investment plan and risk factors which involve in mutual fund. The findings of the study
reveal that mostly investors are not aware about all investment tools and mostly see the
transparency in investment tools during invest in particular tools.10
(D. Joseph Charles Tamilmaran, June 2014) Researchers have done a research on: Life
Insurance - As tool for long term financial planning. Education on personal financial
planning, financial security, financial independence, financial freedom, etc is very essential.
Also, there are various financial instruments available in the market for the consumers to
choose leading them to financial freedom. But, there is one particular tool called as Life
insurance that is vital for a long term financial planning. Life insurance is the only tool that
empowers the family to achieve their financial goals even if the bread winner of the family
9
Mrunal Chetan Joshi, 2014, Indian Journal of Commerce & Management Studies, Page-1,2
10
Sandeep Bansal, June-2014, “Investor’s Perception Regarding Mutual Funds And Other Investment Tools.”,
JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC RESEARCH FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARY ,ISSN: 2320-
5083

51
expires or if he loses his job due to accident or permanent disability or affected by a critical
illness. Life insurance is the only instrument that talks about survival benefit (living long) and
death benefit (living short). It covers both the risk in living longer and the risk in living
shorter. This paper unveils the process of financial planning and it also assesses the
awareness level on personal financial planning, perception on life insurance and the
associated knowledge of the public in the City of Mumbai.It was found that the awareness
level is low on personal financial planning. Most of the respondents felt that life insurance is
essential for everyone. But, their motive behind investment in life insurance is predominantly
tax savings and investment. Life insurance has three main benefits, Life cover, Investments
and Tax savings. The awareness on personal financial planning and life insurance needs to be
provided properly so that the public will benefit and even the companies will benefit with the
increase in insurance penetration. 11
(Dr. Abhay Gupta & Anju Agrawal, August 2014) Researchers have done a research on:
A Comparative Study on Investors of Ulip and Mutual Fund Products in Indore City. A
mutual fund is the ideal investment vehicle for present scenario .Today each and every person
is fully aware of every kind of investment proposal .Everyone wants to invest money, which
entitled of low risk high return and easy redemption .so before investing in mutual fund, one
should be fully aware of each and every thing .At the same time ULIP as an investment
avenue is good for people who have interest in staying in longer period of time, that is around
5years and above. It is good for people who were investing in ULIP policies of insurance
companies as their investments earn them a better return than the other policies. ULIP
investors also have the flexibility to alter the premium amounts during the policy tenure ULIP
as an investment avenue are closest to mutual fund investor in ULIP is allotted units by the
insurance company and the net asset value is declared for the same on a daily basis. ULIP
investors have the many options of investing across various schemes.12
(Mahesh R Rajgopal, 2013) Researchers have done a research on: Is Life Insurance a
Social Security Tool or an Investment? Post Reforms Karnataka Experience. Life insurance
is regarded as an essential commodity in terms of social security, which reduces or eliminates
11
D. Joseph Charles Tamilmaran, June 2014,” Life Insurance - As tool for long term financial planning.”,
International Journal Of Informative & Futuristic Research, ISSN: 2347-1697
12
Dr. Abhay Gupta & Anju Agrawal, August 2014, “A Comparative Study on Investors of Ulip and Mutual
Fund Products in Indore City”, Indian Journal of Commerce & Management Studies

52
the risk of life and property. But delivering world class insurance products to the clientele has
been one of the priorities for the policy makers at the time of liberalizing the insurance
market in India. Hence, India has moved from the traditional insurance products that function
as social security to products that are linked to investments in stock market. The present study
attempts to know whether the Indian insurance buyers still perceive life insurance as a social
security tool or as an attractive investment option linked to equity after deregulation. Various
statistical analyses are carried out using tools such as Descriptive statistics, ANOVA,
Levene's Test for Equality of Variances, Tukey-HSD Multiple Comparisons to arrive at
concrete findings and based on which suggestions are offered.13
(Dr. Ganesh Dash, Tulika Sood, 2013) Researchers have done a research on: Why Should
One Invest In A Life Insurance Product? Life insurance as a product is always one of the
toughest to sell. Though one can argue about its benefits in the long term, in this modern
materialistic world, customers are getting very cautious about their investments and the
returns out of it. In this study, an attempt was made to make the customers aware of various
aspects of a life insurance product and their respective opinions regarding the policy. Various
demographic characteristics of the policy holders e.g. age, gender, income, education,
occupation etc. and their impact on the customers’ perceptions regarding the product were
explored. The various aspects involved in a life insurance product as per their importance to
the policy holders can be outlined as: A tax saving plan; a saving scheme with good return;
financial security for the family; Risk coverage; Save for green patch (Pension), to cover the
risk of living too long; and, to make black money in to white. The study focused on two life
insurers: LIC and HDFC Life Insurance operating in Rajasthan. A sample size of 215 life
insurance customers was planned.14
(Mr Kantesha Sanningammanavara, June-2013) Researchers have done a research on: A
Comparative Study on the Performance of ULIPs Offered by the Selected Insurance
Companies-A Study in Indian Capital Markets. The Indian Life Insurance industry has
grown tremendously in the last decade, with stringent regulatory framework protecting the
13
Mahesh R Rajgopal, 2013, “Is Life Insurance a Social Security Tool or an Investment?”, International Journal
of Banking, Risk and Insurance,ISSN-2351-1971
14
Dr. Ganesh Dash, Tulika Sood, 2013, “Why Should One Invest In A Life Insurance Product?”, Journal of
Arts, Science & Commerce

53
interests of the Investors. The main objective of the study is to compare the UPILs of
different insurance companies in India. The researcher used descriptive research. The sample
size was 5 viz, Reliance Life Insurance, SBI Life Insurance, Bajaj Allianze, MetLife and
ICICI Prudential. The performances of all the products were tested for their dependency on
the performance of stock market using the Hypothesis. ROR and Annualized ROR were used
as tools for Data Analysis and Correlation with t-Test for testing the Hypothesis. From the
study the researcher found that, The MetLife Insurance Product provides good returns to
investors compared to other products. It was observed that Reliance Life Insurance Product
did not depend on the performance of Stock market, which indicates the better selection of
portfolio for investment in share market for the Reliance Health + Wealth plan. Similar was
the case with PNB Met Smart.15
(Dr. G Nagarajan & Mr. A. Asif Ali, August 2013) Researchers have done a research on:
A Study On Performance Of Unit-Linked Insurance Plans (Ulip). Indian Insurance
Industry recorded several milestones in the past hundred years. Currently it has grown
tremendously, with stringent regulatory framework protecting the interests of the Investors.
Life Insurance Corporation of India is the Public Sector undertaking which is the market
Leader, in Life Insurance Sector. A descriptive study was conducted on Unit-Linked
Insurance Plans (ULIP) by selecting top five Private Insurance Companies in India. The
performances of all the products were tested for their dependency on the performance of
stock market using the Hypothesis. ROR and Annualized ROR were used as tools for Data
Analysis and Correlation with t-Test was used for testing the Hypothesis. From the study it
can be concluded that, Reliance Life has good returns for the Investors, and can be further
improved. At the same time, company has to understand the product of its competitor (PNB
Met Smart), which is performing better.16
(Ms. Babita Yadav & Dr. Anshuja Tiwari, July 2012) Researchers have done a research
on: A Study On Factors Affecting Customers Investment Towards Life Insurance
Policies. life insurance is an important form of insurance and essential for every individual.
15
Mr Kantesha Sanningammanavara, June-2013, “A Comparative Study on the Performance of ULIPs Offered
by the Selected Insurance Companies-A Study in Indian Capital Markets.”, ISSN-2320-5504
16
Dr. G Nagarajan & Mr. A. Asif Ali, August 2013, “A Study On Performance Of Unit-Linked Insurance Plans
(Ulip).”, Greenfield advanced research publishing house, ISSN: 2278-6236

Insurance as an investment tool with regards to ULIP at Birla Sunlife Insurance

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