Company Profile

The Insurance business in India was the monopoly of Government of India till IRDA Act was enacted in 1999. With introduction of IRDA Act, private insurance companies were given licence to transact both General Insurance as well as Life Insurance business. As on today there are twelve General Insurance Companies operating in the country, out of which eight are private companies.

In the Indian Insurance Market, Insurance Agents used to work as intermediaries between Insurance companies and Policy Holders. Insurance Agents are Agents of Insurance companies who help the Insurance companies in procurement of business. An Insurance Agent can work only for one Insurance company who has appointed him as Agent. In other words, an Agent sells the Insurance products of a single Insurance company for whom he works as an Agent.

After liberalisation of Insurance market in India, the Regulatory Authority - IRDA - felt the need of Insurance Broking Services which is very common in other countries. Accordingly, IRDA gazetted Brokers Regulations - 2002 on 16.10.02. As per Brokers Regulation, there are two main types of Brokers, viz. Direct Insurance Brokers and Re-insurance Brokers. The Broker who is authorised to do both the businesses, i.e. Re-insurance and Direct are known as Composite Insurance Broker. We are licensed as "Direct Insurance Broker" on 9th July, 2003 by IRDA. An Insurance Broker represents the policy holder and he is required to render varied insurance related services to his clients throughout the period. Insurance Broker is professionally responsible to the Policy holder whose interest he represents. Therefore, Insurance Brokers are required to take Professional Indemnity Policy to protect against their professional negligence.

The Brokers play a very important role in analysing the Insurance Portfolio of the Policy Holder and get proper Insurance Policies with minimum premium possible. Effective from January, 2007, the Non-life insurance industry is in tariff-free domain and as a result, the insurers are free to quote the rates of premium for insurance covers on the basis of their own experience. As per IRDA's plan of action, the insurers will be permitted to have full freedom to introduce new policies such as client-centric package covers, with different terms and conditions, diverse risk coverages and rating patterns as from 2008. Needless to say, all these developments will ultimately prove beneficial to the insuring public in the manner that they get comprehensive insurance covers at cheaper rate. But, to avail of the real benefits of market competition, the insured should have to maintain an effective system whereby he is kept informed of day-to-day developments in the market.

Hardly an insured can afford to maintain such a system in place as effectively as required because of the multiplicity of players involved and the wide rage of products and complexity of covers offered by them. Therefore, as is the practice in any other industry, the ideal alternative for any insurance buyer would be sourcing the services of professionals in the field. Here is the time when the role of Insurance Brokers as professionals who are licensed by IRDA assumes greater importance. Insurance Brokers are expected to be ever vigilant and well informed in order that they remain adequately equipped to render quality service to their clients, thus managing the clients' insurance portfolio to their optimum advantage. We at "INSUTECH" always remain committed to the cause of our patrons and constantly endeavor to fulfill our responsibility as insurance intermediaries to help in the task not only of efficient management of insurance portfolio but also of creating insurance awareness through continued interaction.

As per IRDA Regulations for Brokers, the minimum Capital required for obtaining Brokers' Licence for Direct Broking Business is Rs.50 Lacs. The Broking Firm is required to employ minimum three qualified Insurance personnel to obtain the Licence for Broking. It is the intention of IRDA that the Broker should have adequate Capital and also qualified personnel so that they will be able to render efficient services to Policy Holders. Another important aspect of Insurance Broking is that the Brokers provide services to Policy Holders and the Brokerage is paid by the Insurance Company. This is to say that the Policy Holder gets free services from the Brokers. It is, therefore in the interest of the Policy Holder to route their business through Insurance Brokers where he gets services free of cost.