The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) in its latest report has found that Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has a better record of
paying death claims than private life insurers.
While LIC is the only state-run life insurance company, there are about two dozen companies in the
private sector which provide life cover.
"The
claim settlement ratio of LIC appeared to be better than that of the private life insurers," says Irda's annual report 2011-12.
According to the report, LIC has settled 97.42 per cent cases relating to death claims during 2011-12 compared to 89.34 per cent by private sector companies. The industry average worked out to be 96.26 per cent.
"
Settlement ratio of LIC increased to 97.42 per cent during the year 2011-12 when compared to 97.03 per cent during the previous year," Irda's report said, adding that private insurers repudiated higher number of claims as compared to LIC.
On the positive side, settlement ratio of private insurers improved during the year to 89.34 per cent from 86.04 per cent in the previous year.
As far as industry is concerned, the settlement ratio increased marginally to 96.26 per cent in 2011-12 from 95.58 per cent a year ago.
LIC had 70 per cent market share in 2011-12 in the life insurance industry, while the rest is with 23 private sector players.
With inputs from PTI 
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