Irda allows saving electronic record of insurance policies
Under recent guidelines by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, you can soon have all your policies stored safely in an
electronic account.
Stocks, mutual funds and bonds are already allowed to be held in demat accounts. Irda has issued guidelines to form an insurance repository which will store the policies in electronic format. Like stock demat accounts, each insured person will have an insurance demat account where all his/her insurance policies- both life and general policies from all insurers-will be stored.
Dematerialisation of insurance policies is expected to make the transaction process fast, lower the costs and eliminate frauds. In case of change in address, you will have to just inform the repository instead of having to inform several insurers. It will also save you from having to go through the "Know Your Customer" procedure each time you buy a new policy.
E-insurance is also expected to make switching insurers easy as companies will have fast and easy access to applicant's claims history and other details. Health insurance becomes portable from July 1. Unlike demat accounts for stocks, insurance demat accounts will be free.
"No cost of e-insurance shall be collected from e-insurance account holders, either by an insurance repository or an insurer," Irda has said.
