Why insurance is mandatory for motor vehicles?

Motor vehicle insurance has been made mandatory as Common Law provides right to every citizen to conduct in such a manner so that other persons rights are not infringed while using roads where public has access, to their detriment.

If a vehicle is being used in a public place in a careless and negligent manner causing accidental injuries or death to a Third party using road ( the third party is a person out side the vehicle, some persons on vehicle have been mandatory included like passengers using vehicle for hire or reward; driver, conductor, labour necessarily required on vehicle; owner of goods or his representative travelling on goods carrying vehicle ); the person causing injury or property damage of third party will be legally liable to compensate that third party adequately. 

The Motor Vehicle Act 1988; Sec 146 mandates that no person will drive or cause other person to drive a motor vehicle in a public place or a place where public has access on a private property with out a valid third party insurance cover which in India is a unlimited liability cover; so that the third party in case of disability or his legal heirs in case of death are compensated adequately to the extent of the financial status maintained by the deceased in the society.

Driver, cleaner, conductor, labour on vehicle, owner of good or his representative are not third party technically, as they are using vehicle on their own; but law separately provides compensation for them too.

Motor insurance covers legal liability of Registered owner of vehicle by virtue of ‘Certificate of Insurance’ issued by Insurer in compliance to Motor Vehicle Act 1988.

Currently Motor Insurance also covers “No Fault liability” as a humanitarian good will gesture, adjusting the amount so released as interim payment, in final liability compensation awarded by MACT to mitigate immediate need of deceased’s family.

It is estimated that on an average, in one hour, around 55 road accidents occur in our country. What if the cost is too high to be borne by one person? Who will take the responsibility for the damage?

This is where motor insurance comes into the picture. Those who have a valid insurance policy can approach their insurer. The insurer will pay for the damage. However, no one will cover the people who do not buy insurance. And if they cause an accident, they will have to bear the cost from their pocket and their own expenses.

Apart from paying for the damage and medical treatments for injuries, the drivers at fault could face serious legal liabilities. This is exactly why it is a law in India to buy Motor Insurance. Under Chapter 11 (Section 145 to 164) of The Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, it is compulsory to buy at least a Third-party Motor Insurance Policy in India.

Advantages of Buying Motor Insurance

There are two types of Motor insurance policies, Third-party Motor Insurance and Comprehensive Motor Insurance. As mentioned earlier, a third-party policy is compulsory for every motor owner. However, it does not provide adequate coverage to the owners themselves.

Coverage

Depending on the type of coverage, you can get a vehicle insurance online policy which will insure you for damages caused to the third-party and for own damage. Own damage includes cost of treating injuries of owner-driver and cost of repairing damages.

No Claim Bonus

During an active policy year if no claim has been raised, you will be entitled for a No Claim Bonus i.e. a discount on the amount of motor insurance premium.

Peace of Mind

Motor insurance offers complete peace of mind. One does not have to worry about a sudden financial crunch which may occur if the motor is stolen or damaged.

Hope that helps!!

What are some good insurance companies in USA?

What are some good insurance companies in USA?

In practical terms, there neither is nor can there be a "best" auto insurance company. But I WILL make a recommendation at the end of this response.

Part of the problem is deciding just what "best" means. Cheapest? Pay claims quickly? Strong financials? Least number of policyholder complaints? Or what? Whatever your criteria, the answer tells you what company is "best" for YOU.

But here some points to ponder:

One of the most important points is whether the company uses independent agents, or deals directly with the policyholder. 

The problem with "direct writers" is that their agents (called "captive" agents in the biz) are basically powerless to assist the policyholder when a dispute arises. 

The agent may make a great show of "being on your side," but the cookie just doesn't crumble that way. 

In fact, the best captive agents would rather be independent agents, IF they can find an agency whose skills and values match their own. The independent agent has a little more muscle with the company. 

If a company tightens up on underwriting or claims service, the independent agent can "move the book." 

This means switching (with the policyholder's approval, of course) ALL the insureds of one company to another company. On more than one occasion, this is exactly what I have done.

Whether the company is a direct writer, or relies on independents, the actual agent who handles your account is important. 

The agent for a direct writer generally has less incentive to be an expert on the subject, because the only thing they have to offer is what their company provides. 

The independent agent, by contrast, must be savvy about what a variety of companies offer and therefore has an incentive to understand the very subject of insurance, itself. 

You can, when talking with an agent of either type, discern something about their expertise, in the same way you develop an impression of anyone upon whom you rely for advice and service.

Don't be impressed by price. The insurance business -especially personal lines (auto, homeowner) is somewhat of a game, in which a company will seek to build a book quickly by offering prices they already know can't be sustained over time. Take Geico (please). They say you can save "up to 15%."

 But, compared to what? And you have already seen the advertising from companies who say something like, "of all those who switched to Auto Heaven Insurance, the average savings was over $350.00." 

But of course! We're only measuring those who switched. But what about those who requested a quote and did NOT switch? Give us that number.

Then there is Progressive, who seems fixated on the idea that insurance comes in cereal boxes sold by a comedian with greasy hair. They'll show you pricing from other companies, even if the premiums are LOWER.

 You BET they will, and that's because Progressive, like all other carriers, knows what kind of customers they want, and are happy to sluff off the ones they don't want to someone else. So, if they can't MAKE money, then at least they can make someone else LOSE money.

Price may also vary with coverage. Therefore it is important to be sure that quotes are "apples to apples." What are the apples? Just 3 things, basically: liability (usually required by law), physical damage to the vehicle (required by the lender if the car is financed) and coverage required by regulation (usually "no-fault" and "uninsured motorists"). 

Coverage is one thing, the AMOUNT of coverage is another. So, when soliciting quotes, be prepared to tell the agent EXACTLY what you want. But first, determine what it really IS that you want.

 In my opinion, the legally required minimums for liability insurance are way too low, thus asking for a quote on those limits makes no sense. 

Again, it is just my opinion, but the limit for liability insurance should be not less than the minimum required by the insurance company to support an "umbrella liability", policy, which adds a million (or much more) to the "underlying" coverage in the auto (and homeowners or renters) coverage.

 That number is probably 300 to 500 thousand per accident. 

Once you've determined the prudent limits, then ask for quotes based on those limits - certainly NOT on the legally required minimums.

This all presumes you actually care about what happens when you have a claim; if you don't care, then simply start dialing for dollars, to find the cheapest deal THIS year - and do the same with every renewal.

Otherwise, a perfectly valid question to ask the agent is, "Over the past 3 or 4 years, how much have your premiums changed, and do you have any reason at all to think the price for your coverage will increase dramatically over the next 2 or 3 years?" See how they handle those questions; look for the "tells."

Here is what an "honest" answer will sound like: "The company I have recommended for you has increased its premiums at an average of roughly 5 to 8% over the past 3 or 4 years. 

This reflects the market cost of litigation and settlements arising from liability claims, and the cost of auto repairs. 

Both of these are rising at more than the over-all rate of inflation, but the increases are reasonably predictable. 

I have no reason to think this will change in the near future. I could be wrong, of course, but that's what the record has shown, so far."

Here is what a dishonest answer will sound like: "We didn't get to be the fastest growing (most popular, etc.) insurance company by charging high prices. 

We deliver great product at a reasonable price and our reputation and number of policy holders are the evidence that we've been doing right by our customers."

With the above 2 examples in mind, see which way the needle moves when you chat with an agent.

So, who would I recommend for auto insurance? Although I represented many dozens of companies in my insurance career of nearly 25 years, I can't recommend any of them as "the best." The honor lies with someone else, but there is a catch. The company is USAA (usaa.com). 

I have encountered them numerous times in my career, as a competitor and as the organization which paid my damage claims against their policyholder. 

In every instance, I found them to be professional, expert, courteous and never contentious. The catch? You've got to be "military," or related to someone who is (or was). 

Their pricing is at least reasonable, and perhaps better. Your mileage will vary, of course, but if you have been or are in the armed services, or are an immediate family member of someone who is, or was, check them out.

Hope that helps.

How do insurance companies make money?

No one has given you a full answer but Mr. Enright is the closest thus far. People seem to be focused on premium vs. claims; however, this is pmost definitely NOT how insurance companies make money. 

Most insurers try to price their policies such that the total premiums collected each year are equal to the total amount of claims paid + expenses (we call this the combined ratio - claims+expenses:premium). 

A combined ratio of 1 is seen as ideal because it means they are not over or under pricing their policies; meaning that they are underwriting the risks they want as pricing models are designed to attract what a company identifies as their target market. 

With regard to automobile insurance, most insurers actually run a loss on premiums, normally paying just over a dollar for every dollar of premium (combined ratio >1); whereas, they normally run just under a 1 ratio on property insurance.

 Ultimately, very little, if any profit is made through underwriting (premiums) alone; rather, the reason for writing policies and collecting premiums is to build an investment pool.
 
When an insurer collects premiums they put that money into an investment pool. 

They use the premiums collected to fund investments (generally in guaranteed or low risk securities due to regulatory restrictions). 

When a claim is made money is then taken from that pool and put into a cash account to pay the claim once the adjustment of it is completed. 

Where insurers make their money is on the interest and return on investment earned from those premium dollars while they are in the investment pool. 

The ideal is to have enough premium coming in to keep the investment pool fully funded but the profit itself comes from the return on investment rather than a surplus in the premiums charged vs. claims and expenses paid.

 Let's look at State Farm Mutual for an example.... in 2011 State Farm collected $32,640,000,000 in premiums; they paid $22,794,000,000 in claims, $4,311,000,000 in claims expenses, $7,527,000,000 in administrative/service expenses; resulting in a LOSS of $1,993,000,000 on underwriting; however, they had investment income of $2.,901,000,000.

 So while they actually lost $1.9 Billion on premiums vs. claims and expenses (combined ratio of 1.06) they made $2.9 Billion on investement income. 

As you can see, insurers don't make money through premiums but through investment.

Which is better and why: term or whole life insurance?

 Look at the beauty of marketing by insurance companies. They can cherry pick words & make lousy products look beautiful. And these things sell also ! It is a wonder.

The difference between term insurance & whole life insurance is this :

One is Good , the other ranges from Bad to Ugly.

We shall come to the marketing later. Let us see this through the definitions first so that you get it in simple terms.

Term insurance is a fixed term contract between you & the company. So you enter into the policy at say 30 years & agree to pay a fixed premium per year for next 30 years (mostly flat per year).

Why do you pay ? If something unfortunate happens to you, your family gets the “sum assured” amount immediately on which they can sustain till the time the children become independent. Typical sum assured should be between 10 to 14 times your annual income. In mature markets like US, this multiple can be as high as 20 or 25% at very reasonable cost. So it’s simple. You pay for the risk of eventuality & know what your risk cover amount is. If you survive till 60, good for you. The contract ends. The policy gives you the peace of mind while you are earning without spending too much out of your savings(for premiums). That’s all you need for your dependents in your earning years. Right ? This is the GOOD product.

Now let's move to the whole life insurance also sold as permanent life insurance.

This is a category which has various forms (variable, universal and variable universal). It also takes the form of endowment plan, money back insurance, traditional plan, etc.

Notice the attractive use of catch phrases like “permanent” , “whole life” & “moneyback” v/s the very non glamourous “term insurance”.

These plans are nothing but savings plans mixed with insurance, complexity , high costs & commissions that are peddled through agents with aggressive (mis) selling & poor transparency. Obviously, who will buy the moment you show the product all open & make it simple to understand ?

All traditional/whole life/ Endowment plans are heady cocktails that are difficult to understand, very expensive & will give you a heavy hangover when you wake up after your “whole life” is in later phases & you need money the most.

And there is this marketing blitz. Lets us see how insurance companies market the bad & ugly with smarter words that beat logic.

The BAD & the UGLY explained:

Here are the selling propositions of whole life plans & the absurdity of logic explained from my perspective:

The Gimmick : Whole life insurance is a type of permanent life insurance, which stays in effect for as long as you pay the premiums. This means you never have to worry about un-insurability or losing your safety net as you get older.

The absurdity: You are collecting my money. Of course it is permanent as long as I pay. Why would you stop me? My money is income for you. Plus the “risk cover” in case of eventuality is very low, approx. 5% to 10% of what you get in term plans.

The Gimmick : How exactly the cash value works depends on the type of policy. For example, in a variable life policy, the cash value acts like a mutual fund, but, with whole life, it’s more similar to a simple savings account.

The absurdity: So you won’t tell me the details of charges & high expenses. “Depends” is the best I get. Mutual fund is thrown in to keep my imagination flying on returns but the “depends” eventually will kill me with the returns of a simple savings accounts with lots of costs, expenses & commissions deducted. Huh !

The Gimmick: Which plan would you pick from the table below?

Obviously the second plan is for “whole life”, has “guaranteed cash value” & earns interest. It is so obvious ! SOLD.

The absurdity: I need you to cover my risk with “high sum assured” for my family to survive on. Don’t open another savings account for me with poor risk cover. Guaranteed death benefit ? Amazing. I have deposited money all along. Of course, you will give me some part of my money back to my family. After deducting your profits & costs. Earns a predetermined interest ? I can get interest from a term deposit also at the bank. At least that will not have your expenses baked in. I need insurance to cover my life risk & provide me a peace of mind at low cost. Why the complexity ?

But why do these plans sell after all?

Because Insurance is never bought. It is always SOLD.

Never underestimate the selling authority of a person who is “known” to you, sitting face to face , motivated by high commission trails 7 is talking to people with limited financial literacy(that covers all of those who buy such plans).

What are the best online shopping hacks?

What are the best online shopping hacks?

A hack to buy value for every rupee you pay.

Every online shopper should know to "Catch em young" while shopping.

Every Indian consumer already knows that the products which they buy online from the likes of Flipkarts & amazons are not usually owned by these stores.

They are just marketplaces which lists the products of others.

The real seller of the stuff might as well be your neighbourhood store downstairs who might have listed it into the site.

Now the problem with these big players are that unless it is a commodity like a gadget of specific model with no differentiation, you can never compare it as is so often the case with stuff like clothes, shoes and such other things.

The trick then is to catch em young to avail of the best offers and value for money from lesser-known credible players.

Let me give you an example of how online stores work:

Neotonn an online store sells formal shirts to men and provides "Quick Suggestion" option which selects suitable shirts automatically on entering your physical features into it.

At present, it sells stuff directly and is not a marketplace similar to the likes of Flipkart & Amazons.

It gives them an unfair advantage in that the stuff they sell for Say Rs. 1000 can be of much better quality than the same priced stuff of flipkarts and all.

The reason is that the said price won't contain the profit margins of Wholesellers, Resellers, Any other middle man & Retailers.

These new players can afford to sell for Rs.1000 what the big players can afford only at Rs.3000.

Often it is an opportunity to get value for money.

What happens later is that in a bid to expand in a big way, these online stores are forced to give up on their manufacturing or direct buying business model and switch to marketplaces.

That is what happened with all the big players you know of. That will happen to all the future big players you will hear of.

Meanwhile you can take advantage of such smaller online stores when you find it just like someone took advantage of flipkart & snapdeal in their initial stages which was a win-win for both. Those big players (who were very small then) could provide higher quality by buying and then selling stuff during those days. Customers could get more value for money then compared to marketplaces which does not buy nor sells the said products.

Meanwhile, you may look out for such online stores which are in plenty while I look to have a booze

How to choose the best term insurance plan?

How to choose the best term insurance plan?

After, the long wait finally, the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India or IRDA has finally come up with the newest IRDA claim settlement ratio 2017-18 annual report. Now, the wait is over and today I have chosen to write a blog article on IRDA claim settlement ratio 2017-18 and the Best Term Insurance plans for 2019.

Yes, the IRDA does publish the annual performance report every year around in the month of January. This usually takes a lot of time due to the compilation of many aspects and numerous key parameters. So, the annual report for the F.Y 2017-18 has been published by them in the 2nd week of January 2019. I hope many questions have been answered that were asked by my blog readers in my last year's similar post where I used the annual report of F.Y 2016-17, about the old data that I used there. So, using this year's claim settlement ratio and other relevant data, I would analyse the best term insurance plans for 2019.

I reiterate that one should not consider the claim settlement ratio as the one and only crucial factor, it needs to be construed as one of the additional decisive factors. Most of us want to have the very best thing set up for us and for our family as well. Thus, we do for choosing the best term insurance plans. Before, starting off you may want to browse my previous year's blog post on Best Term Insurance Plans for 2018.

Why IRDA claim settlement ratio 2017-18 is so important?

Here, you need to know what's claim settlement ratio. This means how many insurance claims have been settled in a specific financial year against the number of claims filed before the insurance company. So, it's indeed very significant for one potential individual who is planning or looking for purchasing insurance, he must also look at the claim settlement ratio along with other facets too. Let us first learn why the IRDA claim settlement ratio 2017-18 is really important?

Therefore, claim settlement ratio refers to the number of claims settled against the claims lodged or filed before the insurance company in a particular period. For example, if ABC insurance company does settle 90 claims in F.Y 2017-18 against the total 100 claims filed, it would be said that the claim settlement ratio stands to 90%.

Thus, it is very important to understand that the more the claim settlement ratio is, the more there is a strong probability of settlement of maximum claims which may include a claim of yours as well. So, that is the significance of this claim settlement ratio. But this is not the sole decisive factor for deciding or choosing the best term insurance plans for 2019.

I always prefer plain vanilla term insurance plan over and above traditional life insurance plan. Since I just love to see insurance products as only insurance but not as an investment. Also, it is not prudent either to choose return of premium term life insurance products.

Now let's have a look at the important key element i.e. top 10 lists of highest claim settlement ratio companies for F.Y 2017-18.

List of Top 10 companies having highest IRDA Claim Settlement Ratio 2017-18

Serial No.

Name

No. of Claims Lodged

No. of Claim settled

Claim Settlement Ratio(CSR) %

1

Max Life

10332

10152

98.26

2

LIC of India

739082

724598

98.04

3

Tata AIA

2850

2793

98.00

4

ICICI Prudential Life

11459

11216

97.88

5

HDFC Standard Life

12566

12289

97.80

6

Bharti Axa Life

888

860

96.85

7

Exide Life

3357

3250

96.81

8

SBI Life

18885

18274

96.76

9

DHFL Pramerica Life

592

572

96.62

10

Aditya Birla Sun Life

5491

5292

96.38

Thus, from the above chart you can see that out of the total 24 Life Insurance companies only 14 companies could manage to cross the Claim Settlement Ratio of 95% in 2017-18 as compared to 4 companies who crossed it over 95% in 2016-17.

This looks quite satisfactory that the more and more companies crossing the highest benchmark as compared to previous years. This may be due to the transparency that is being shown by the insured persons during the policy execution or buying and also the stringent regulations of IRDA and also many reporting standards set by the IRDA.

Just find below the details of total 24 companies at a glance for your ready reference.

To download the IRDA Claim Settlement Ratio 2017-18 just click here.

Best term insurance plans for 2019 on the basis of claim settlement ratio(C.S.R) 2017-18:

From the above table, the following companies have managed to retain the top 10 positions in the F.Y 2017-18 on the basis of CSR.

1. Max Life,LIC of India,Tata AIA,ICICI Prudential,HDFC Standard Life,Bharati AXA Life,Exide Life,SBI Life,DHFL Pramerica Life,Aditya Birla Sunlife.

How to choose Best Term Insurance plans for 2019?

Currently, there are 24 numbers of life insurance companies operating in India. All of them do sell Term Insurances in different variety of options covering all of our needs. Now, the question is comes to your mind that is all of them good or best suited for everyone. The answer is probably no. Now, take a look at the factors that you should consider before buying a term life insurance.

Determinant factors

While buying a term life insurance policy you should consider the following factors.

1. Claim settlement ratio;
2. Low premium with high-risk coverage;
3. Policy features;

Though from the above chart you would find that Tata AIA(CSR 98%) is retaining the top 3 positions out of the best top 10 positions but the total claims filed before them is only 2850 and they settled 2793 policies and rejected only 57 cases. This implies that their overall business in terms of total customers is yet to grow a lot. But they held top 3 positions due to their immaculate CSR. But they have really performed well in the F.Y to get number 3 positions as compared to the last position of number 8 in F.Y 2016-17.

Now, just take a look at the top positions in terms of average claims paid per customer in 2017-18.

IRDA Claim Settlement per customer for 2017-18 (Data Courtesy IRDA) - arthikdisha.com

Life Insurer

Average Claim settled amount per customer( ₹ Lakh)

Aegon Life

927736

Aviva Life

925000

ICICI Prudential Life

637580

Edelweiss Tokio Life

628333

Canara HSBC OBC Life

616437

Bharti Axa Life

493953

PNB Met Life

482018

Tata AIA Life

472037

Aditya Birla Sun Life

468934

IDBI Federal Life

422753

Kotak Mahindra Life

414787

DHFL Pramerica Life

411014

HDFC Standard Life

392855

Star Union Dai-ichi Life

379214

Max Life

348099

SBI Life

323044

Future Generali Life

284359

India First Life

282718

Shriram Life

276545

Exide Life

237723

Bajaj Allianz Life

236483

Reliance Nippon Life

174839

LIC of India

148324

Sahara Life

97302

Surprisingly, while you analyse in terms of average claims paid per customer during 2017-18, you would find that the previous top 10 positions changed drastically. This implies that here the top 10 companies managed to earn higher average premium per customer. This also may be due to higher risk coverage of the insured's life. Here the claim settlement ration 2017-18 did not work at all.

Now, let's just compare the top 10 lists of companies during 2017-18 and 2016-17 i.r.o Claim settlement ratio for choosing the best plans for you.

So, from the above table, you can see that more or less the following top 5 companies have been a consistent performer for the last couple of years. These are as follows.

1. Max Life;
2. ICICI Prudential;
3. HDFC Standard Life;
4. LIC of India;
5. Tata AIA Life;

Out of the above 5 best companies, you may research the best-suited plans for your needs which may be lighter on your pocket as well. Don't go for the traditional insurance plans as they are not cost effective and does not provide adequate life risk coverage. On the other hand, if you go for any of the above online term insurance plans even may be offline, it will not only cover you adequately but also would be very much cost effective and a prudent one. By doing so, you can maintain the sanctity of the term insurance products.

Disclaimer: I am neither directly nor indirectly associated with any of the company or products mentioned above. Readers are advised to go through the policy documents carefully before making any buying decision