Policyholders’ ₹15,167 crore lying unclaimed with 23 life insurers

NEW DELHI : As much as ₹15,167 crore amount of policyholders is lying unclaimed with 23 life insurers, according to Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) data.

Irdai has already asked insurers to take steps to identify the policyholders or beneficiaries and disburse the claims.

Board level committee for policyholder protection of every insurer is entrusted with the responsibility of monitoring the timely payout of the all dues to policyholders.

It also oversees the steps taken by the insurers to reduce unclaimed amounts as part of the standard procedures on customer service.

Out of the total unclaimed amount of ₹15,166.47 crore, as on March 31, 2018, insurance behemoth Life Insurance Corp. is sitting on ₹10,509 crore, while the 22 private sector insurers account for the remaining ₹4,657.45 crore.

Among the private insurers, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. has ₹807.4 crore of unclaimed insurance claims followed by Reliance Nippon Life Insurance (₹696.12 crore), SBI Life Insurance Co. (₹678.59 crore) and HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co. (₹659.3 crore).

Irdai had asked the life insurance companies to provide a search facility on their website to enable policyholders or beneficiaries or dependents to find out whether any unclaimed amounts due to them are lying with these companies.

Policyholders are required to enter the details like policy number, PAN, name, date of birth or Aadhaar number, in a window provided on the website of the insurer to find out the unclaimed amount.