A SUMMER TRAINING REPORT

ON

RECRUITMENT OF
ADVISORS

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT OF

BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (BBA)
GURU JAMBHESHWAR UNIVERSITY, HISAR

TRAINING SUPERVISOR SUBMITTED B

Mr. Ranjeet Kr. Singh
Branch Manager Enrollment

SESSION 2006-2009

GURU JAMBHESHWAR UNIVERSITY

HISASR
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I wish to express my gratitude to my organizational guide and project in charge

Mr. Ranjit Kr. Singh for his valuable guidance and providing me an opportunity to do
this project. This project was a great source of learning and a good experience as it has
made me aware of the professional culture and conducts that exists in an organization.

I express my deep sense of gratitude to our faculty of marketing. His experience helped
me a lot in completing this project successfully in time.

I would like to express my innate sense of gratitude to my parents and friends who
encouraged me a lot during the project and without their assistance and affection this
project would not have been completed. It thanks them for being there.

The help provided to me by the entire sales division of RELIANCE LIFE also obliges
me.
 PREFACE

Today in the Insurance sector every nationalized or private are striving to reach the
pinnacle. Though in the national scenario the Govt./Nationalized /Pvt. Insurance
company are leading in the urban & rural areas the private Insurance company are
leading both in business as well as service.

RELIANCE LIFE has built its leadership by making itself as one on the world’s leading
emerging Insurance company. In the present scenario when it has become difficult to
survive in such a cut throat competition, RELIANCE LIFE is able to not only survive but
to hold top position in the Pvt. Insurance Company. The Insurance provides services to
national and multinational clients in trade finance, Security etc.

This project was done to know the marketing strategy RELIANCE LIFE of and to know
how to make customer satisfy. During this period I have visited several organizations to
know realities of the market.
 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Title of the project: Study RECRUITMENT OF ADVISORS in current market

scenario/ Study customer response towards.

Objectives:

 Study the assement centre.

 SWOT analysis of the product.

 Comparative study of the competition.

 Study the documentation & operational needs.

 Designing motivational scheme through contests.

 Market interface

 Analyzing distribution network with the competition.

Organization to be studied:

 Life insurance corporation

 Reliance life

 Tata Aig

 Aviva

 HDFC Stan Life

 Birla Sun Life

  Bajaj Allianz

 Kotak

Research methodology: Primary data collected by personally visiting these leading

insurance players. Eg: LIC, Max New York Life Insurance, Bajaj Alliance, Aviva, Birla
Sunlife, HDFC Standard life.

Data Collection:

 Primary data collected through Market survey, ATM Survey

 My market 100

 Secondary database of subscribers of India Today

 Data of employees of GE, CITIBANK & HCL

Action Plan:

First and foremost, collecting information from newspapers (Economic Times, Times Of
India), Journals, Magazines, and Internet.

Secondly, taking a sample size (about 100) and doing a market survey by filling up
questionnaires from customers to find out what different companies are offering in the
RECRUITMENT OF ADVISORS IN THE INSURANCE SECTOR section and how
are they similar/different from icici prudential products. Also keeping a track and taking
down the feedback regarding perception, attitude, taste and preferences of the customer.

Thirdly, analyzing the data collected. Comparing the STUDY THE PROCESS OF
RECRUITMENT OF ADVISORS IN THE INSURANCE SECTOR products offered
by other insurance players.

Critical analysis of consumer perception; their choice and preferences.

Eventually, deciding on how to familiarize STUDY THE RECRUITMENT OF
ADVISORS IN THE INSURANCE SECTOR products in the market and what all
safeguards need to be taken while approaching the customers.
 CONTENTS

Acknowledgement
Executive Summary

Chapter 1.0
INTRODUCTION

Chapter 2.0
OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY

Chapter 3.0
DATA ANALYSIS

Chapter 4.0
FINDING AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Chapter 5.0
Limitation

Chapter 6.0
CONCLUSION

Chapter 7.0
RECOMMENDATION

ANNEXURES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
 INTRODUCTION

What is Insurance: -

Insurance in which the risk insured against is the death of a particular person, the insured,
upon whose death while the policy is in force, the insurance company agrees to pay a
stated sum or income to the beneficiary.

Insurance on human lives including endowment benefits, additional benefits in event of

death or dismemberment by accident or accidental means, additional benefits for
disability, and annuities.

Why Life Insurance?

Buying Insurance cannot be compared with any other form of investment. Insurance
gives one a life long benefit and the returns will definitely come but only when one needs
it the most i.e. at the right time.

Insurance is not about how much more it can offer you when the stock market is at its
peak. It may not be an attractive investment option. But weigh the pros and cons and
consider how much more it offers at a small price.

Most important of all it provides you with that unique sense of security that no other form
of investment provides. It gives you a sense of financial support especially during that
time of crisis irrespective of the fluctuations in the stock market. Insurance provides for
career goals right from childhood years.

If the earning member of the family is no more child's educational needs will not suffer.
In fact his higher education too will be provided for. One need not spend sleepless nights
thinking about how to save for his child's marriage. Life Insurance will take care of that
typical once-in-a-life-time spending on marriages.

8
An accident or a disability may be devastating but an insurance policy can be of utmost
support for the family during such times too. Besides it provides for additional benefits
such as bonuses. One need not worry about your retirement years. The rising prices,
taxes, and your lifestyle will be taken care of easily. And you can relax and spend your
old age in comfort and peace.

Life insurance today plays a major role in ones life at various stages. Considering the
benefits it offers one cannot but give a thought to buying an insurance policy at the
earliest.

People invest in life insurance owing to a few key reasons, mainly

 Insurance creates financial provisions for the deceased's dependants.

 Insurance provides for the policyholder's old age after his earning power
diminishes. After all, interest rates may fall and invested holdings may lose value
and stop gaining dividends, but the value of an insurance policy once set, never
reduces.

 Insurance also provide a legally authorized way to reduce the incidence of Income
Tax.

Insurance as Investment

Agreed, insurance may not be the best place to invest your hard-earned money. But there
are sufficient reasons for one to believe that it can be a highly lucrative avenue to
facilitate savings. People often talk about yield on investment and tend to compare their
values with those available on various insurance schemes. This is particularly typical
within the Indian sub-continent where one conveniently forgets the element of risk
covered by life insurance.

9
It is extremely unfair to compare the performance of insurance against other investments
without considering the core features of insurance. The very essence of insurance is to
protect your family from the uncertainty of your life. Hence it proves very logical to
evaluate the costs involved towards this feature.

One must accept that out of the total amount paid by one for his life insurance, a certain
amount is used for providing the risk cover and only the balance can be utilized as
savings. In other words, the total premium one pays minus the amount evaluated, as the
cost of insurance must be considered as the amount invested to get the maturity amount.

What does life insurance have to offer?

Life insurance is many different things to many different people. For some, it is a
premium to be paid on time. For others it offers liquidity since cash can be borrowed
when needed. For the investment-minded, it denotes a constantly growing capital account
and numerous other benefits.

Life insurance is nothing but the creation of capital funds on an installment basis. Only
here, the results are guaranteed. Life insurance is basically a property that is bought under
a contract, accompanied by contractual guarantees that ensure large sums of money at the
death of the insured.

The contractual guarantee is the promise to pay, backed by one of the oldest and most
stably regulated financial industry operating in the Indian sub-continent today.

1. Insurance Buys Time and Money: People like to refer to life insurance as time
insurance, the reason being that life insurance proceeds are paid to the insured's
beneficiaries in case of death. The money proffered by life insurance helps buy time to
adjust to the change of circumstances. Insurance provides large amounts of cash that will
keep the lifestyle for the survivors the way it was before the insured's death.

10
2. Insurance Offers Peace of Mind: For the person who buys an insurance policy, it
offers absolute and complete peace of mind. He or she knows that the decision made by
him will provide sound benefits in the future, whether or not the individual may live to
see it. The life insurance policy will subsequently prove this in the future if and when
funds are needed. This is the guarantee of the insurance contract.

3. Multiple Applications: The future is uncertain for each and every one. No one knows
how long he or she will live. The investment benefit is paid to the insured's beneficiaries
after his death or it can be used during the life as well. Life insurance policy owners can
turn to the cash value of the policy in case of a financial emergency when all avenues are
either blocked or denied. They know that they can avail of loans based on their insurance
policies.

Insurance policy owners can use the cash value of their policies to meet their long-term
financial needs as well. They may have purposefully invested in insurance to use the cash
in the policy for their children's future marriage expenses or higher education fees.

4. Enduring Elasticity: Since life insurance is flexible enough to serve several needs, the
insured can keep several long-term goals in mind once he or she invests in the insurance
plan. The cash value of the policy can be allocated towards augmenting the monthly
income during the retirement years. Leisure years should be turned into pleasure years.
Permanent life insurance is designed on the concepts of long-term flexibility.

5. Financial Security: The insurance policy offers contractual guarantees to people

looking for peace of mind when they buy life insurance. Life insurance offers complete
financial security. The purchase of life insurance demonstrates concern for a family's
future financial well being.

6. Regard for Family: The purchase of life insurance clearly displays care and concern
for the people the policy owner loves.

11
7. Insurance is Safer: No financial institution can do what life insurance does. No
industry can back its products with reserves and surplus as sound as those of the
insurance industry.

The proof of strength and safety that insurance companies have ensured even under the
most adverse of conditions is a matter of pride for the entire insurance industry. For
generation after generation, life insurance has been acclaimed as the very benchmark of
security against which the other industries are measured.

12
 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

With the increasing competition customer has to become the king and the market
keeps on changing according to their needs and wants. Market potential of a product is
the demand of the product with the ever changing environment; company can measure
their market through market potential measurements. Here the companies’ look at the
factors that will bring up their market share and make the company stands in the market
place.

Each company decide as to where it is and where it wants to go. For this it has to
decide its mission and vision and in order to achieve these, it plans out its goal and its
goal and strategies on which it has to work. Overtime , mission tends to loose its
relevance because of changed market conditions. If this is the case then management
should renew its search for purpose vision is the dream of the company, which its wants
to achieve. The overall evaluation of the company’s strengths, weakness, opportunities
and threats is called SWOT analysis. Once the company has performed its SWOT
analysis it can proceed to develop specific goal for the planning. Goal is a short- term
specification. These indicate as to what the business units wants to achieve and strategy is
the game plan of how to get there. Every business must tailor a strategy for achieving its
goals.

A product is the solution to the needs and wants. A company might have a diverse
range of products in its product portfolio. For every product the company has to divide
the market in the different segments and choose its target customers. To target its
customer the company has to draft a marketing plan, which is based on research as to
what is the current market trend then decide how to go about it. Once it has decided its
marketing plan, it has to decide as to what tools to apply to market its product. These can
be advertising, sales promotion, publicity, direct marketing etc.

13
 Marketing research is the systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of
data and findings relevant to specific marketing situation facing the company. The
sources from which the data is collected for the research can be primary, secondary or
both. Questionnaire is the research tool for collecting primary data. It consists of a set of
questions presented to the respondents for their answers. Questionnaire need to be
carefully developed, tested and debugged before they are administered on a large scale.
Descriptive design is used for preliminary and exploratory studies. It produces accurate
descriptions of variables relevant to the decisions, thus only inferences are to be drawn
about causations.

After deciding on the research and instruments, a sampling plan must be designed.
Sampling plan calls for three decisions i.e. sampling unit(who is to be surveyed?), sample
size(how many people should be surveyed?) and sampling procedure(how should the
respondent be choose?). In the sampling procedure probabilistic or non- probabilistic
samples can be drawn. Non- probabilistic sample includes convenience sample judgment
samples or quota sample.

Marketing research is an upcoming profession and now also becoming a major

part of the marketing plan of a company. As this help the marketer to know the pulse of
the market, it facilitates him to handle the various problems that arises in the due course
of business. With the entrance of MNC’S the market is no more static rather moving at a
much faster pace than expected. Thus a market research conducted by a company speeds
up its strategy. Hence we can say that marketing research has a bright future.

14
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Objective

The project undertaken by me as a part of my BBA course is an effort made to study the
RECRUITMENT OF ADVISORS.

In this era of cut throat competition, any organization needs to select and retain the best
talent. People selected should have positive attitude, ability to inspire others and must be
dynamic.

The main objectives of this study are:

 Study the assement centre.

 Swot analysis .

 Comparative study with the competition.

 Study the documentation & operational needs.

 Market interface.

Research methodology: Primary data collected by personally visiting these leading

insurance players. Eg: LIC, Max New York Life Insurance, Bajaj Alliance, Aviva, Birla
Sunlife, HDFC Standard life.

Data Collection:

 Primary data collected through Market survey, ATM Survey

 My market 100

15
  Secondary database of subscribers of India Today

 Data of employees of GE, CITIBANK & HCL

Action Plan:

First and foremost, collecting information from newspapers (Economic Times, Times Of
India), Journals, Magazines, and Internet.

Secondly, taking a sample size (about 100) and doing a market survey by filling up
questionnaires from customers to find out what different companies are offering in the
RECRUITMENT OF ADVISORS IN THE INSURANCE SECTOR section and how
are they similar/different from icici prudential products. Also keeping a track and taking
down the feedback regarding perception, attitude, taste and preferences of the customer.

Thirdly, analyzing the data collected. Comparing the STUDY THE PROCESS OF
RECRUITMENT OF ADVISORS IN THE INSURANCE SECTOR products offered
by other insurance players.

Critical analysis of consumer perception; their choice and preferences.

Eventually, deciding on how to familiarize STUDY THE RECRUITMENT OF

ADVISORS IN THE INSURANCE SECTOR products in the market and what all
safeguards need to be taken while approaching the customers.

16
 COMPANY PROFILE

Reliance Life Insurance Company Limited is a part of Reliance Capital Ltd. of the
Reliance - Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. Reliance Capital is one of India’s leading
private sector financial services companies, and ranks among the top 3 private sector
financial services and banking companies, in terms of net worth. Reliance Capital has
interests in asset management and mutual funds, stock broking, life and general
insurance, proprietary investments, private equity and other activities in financial
services.

Reliance Capital Limited (RCL) is a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC)

registered with the Reserve Bank of India under section 45-IA of the Reserve Bank of
India Act, 1934.

Reliance Capital sees immense potential in the rapidly growing financial services sector
in India and aims to become a dominant player in this industry and offer fully integrated
financial services.

Reliance Life Insurance is another step forward for Reliance Capital Limited to offer
need based Life Insurance solutions to individuals and Corporates.

17
 RELIANCE LIFE INSURANCE

AN INTRODUCTION

Reliance life insurance is a sister concern of reliance capital, Anil Dhirubhai

AmbaniGroup(RADAG).owned company.

Earning millions out of selling insurance is not a miracle anymore. At least not with
Reliance Life. Here we give you the freedom to decide your own work schedule and even
your office location. You don’t just get an ideal work environment but also the right
motivation and training to become a world class professional financial advisors, even if
you have no prior sales experience.

Depending on the targets you achieve, you can even represent RELIANCE LIFE at the
Million Dollar Round Table, USA.

Reliance Life Insurance Company Limited is a part of Reliance Capital Ltd. of the
Reliance - Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. Reliance Capital is one of India’s leading
private sector financial services companies, and ranks among the top 3 private sector

18
financial services and banking companies, in terms of net worth. Reliance Capital has
interests in asset management and mutual funds, stock broking, life and general
insurance, proprietary investments, private equity and other activities in financial
services.

Reliance Capital Limited (RCL) is a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC)

registered with the Reserve Bank of India under section 45-IA of the Reserve Bank of
India Act, 1934.

Reliance Capital sees immense potential in the rapidly growing financial services sector
in India and aims to become a dominant player in this industry and offer fully integrated
financial services.

Reliance Life Insurance is another step forward for Reliance Capital Limited to offer
need based Life Insurance solutions to individuals and Corporate

PRODUCTS OF RELIANCE LIFE INSURANCE

Reliance Endowment Plan

(formerly Divya Shree)

Reliance Special Endowment Plan

(formerly Subha Shree)

Reliance Cash Flow Plan

(formerly Dhana Shree)

Reliance Child Plan

(formerly Yuva Shree)

Reliance Term Plan

(formerly Raksha Shree)

Reliance Whole Life Plan

19
 (formerly Nithya Shree)

Reliance Market Return Plan

(formerly Kanaka Shree)

Reliance Golden Years Plan

(formerly BhagyaS Shree)

EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLAN.

1) Reliance group term assurance policy

2) Reliance EDLI scheme

3) Reliance group gratuity policy

4) Reliance group super annulations policy

TYPES OF INSURANCE

1) TERM INSURANCE- Life insurance under which the benefit is payable only if the
insured dies during a specified period.

20
SUBKIND OF TERM insurance,

a) Level term – a fixed amount of coverage with premium that are fixed over a
certain period of time , usually in 10 year increment.

b) increasing/ decreasing term- amount of coverage increases or decreases

throughout the term, premium remains the same.

c) Renewable term – includes a renewable provision that gives the policy owner the
right to renew the insurance coverage at the of the specified term without
submitting evidence of insurability.

d) Convertible term- gives the policy-holder the right to convert the term policy to
a permanent policy.

e) Permanent insurance-life insurance that provides coverage throughout the

insured lifetime & may include an element that builds cash value.

THE DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM.

Many people are not aware of life insurance products. very few people feel the need
for life insurance. They don’t even understand what is it & how it works. that’s why
it is said that life insurance is sold & not bought.

DEFINITION OF AGENT

According to Indian Contract act “an agent is a person employed to do any act for
another in dealing with third person

In short agents are the salesman or intermediaries between the insurer and the
public.

21
IN INDIAN CONTEXT

Insurance agent is defined by section 2(10), of the insurance act 1938,

“Insurance agent means an insurance agent licensed under section 42 of above

act who receives or agrees to receive payment by way of commission or other
remuneration in consideration of his soliciting or procuring insurance business including
business relating to continuance , renewal or revival of insurance policies.

WHO CAN BECOME AGENT

As per regulation of 2(i) the following can become Insurance agent

. Press advertisement

. References from other agent, staff. Clients

. College campus

. Employment agencies

. Members of the staff

The final selection is made by scrutinizing the written application, performance in

tests & finally interview by one or more persons.

STUDY THE ASSESSMENT CENTRE

Insurance is a financial agreement between two people or parties - the `insurer' and the
`insured', namely to protect the `insured' against certain risks. Until a few years ago, life
and general insurance were the exclusive domain of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC)
and General Insurance Company (GIC) with it subsidiaries called Oriental Insurance,

22
United India Insurance, New India Assurance and National Insurance. Thus, career
options were limited to these organizations only.

The opening up of the insurance sector, however, and the entry of private companies like
Reliance Life, Bajaj Allianz, Prudential ICICI, ICICI Lombard, Birla Sun Life, IFFCO -
Tokio, Max New York and Tata AIG, have led to an ever increasing demand for well-
qualified, trained and skilled professionals in the insurance industry.

WorkProfile
Insurance agent: A person who has taken up an agency for selling life insurance policies
after completion of his training. Minimum qualification is 10+2 to be eligible for training.

STANDARD INSTRUCTIONS AND GUIDELINES APPLICABLE FOR

APPROVAL/RENEWAL OF ON-LINE AGENTS TRAINING INSTITUTES
(PORTALS) APPROVED/TO BE APPROVED BY THE AUTHORITY.

These instructions / guidelines are applicable to all the on-line training institutes.

These guidelines will be effective May 25, 2005. Any violation, non-adherence and
breach of these instructions shall be treated as violation of provisions of IRDA Act,
Insurance Act and regulations made thereunder requiring practical training for the grant
of licence to an insurance agent and renewal thereof and met with penal provisions
including fine, suspension, and cancellation of the approval granted by the Authority
from time to time.

1. The applicant shall have to undergo atleast 100 hours’ training in life or general
insurance business and the time allotted for composite training shall atleast 150
hours’, where such applicant is seeking licence for the first time to act as an
insurance agent. However, time for revision test at the end of each chapter or at
the end of training shall not be counted in 100 or 150 hours. The approved on-line

23
 training institutes (portal) will cover the syllabus prescribed by the Authority
during this period.

2. The training duration should be minimum 18 days for 100 hours’ training and 27
days for 150 hours training with maximum 6 hrs per day. Similarly, the training
duration should be minimum 9 days for 50 hours training and 5 days for 25 hours
training at the time of renewal with maximum 6 hours per day. The maximum
time permissible for completion of training will be 30 days for 100 hours, 45 days
for 150 hours, 15 days for 50 hours and 8 days for 25 hours. The total hours per
chapter may be decided by the Institute according to the length of the chapter.

3. No product training/market survey should be included into this 150/100/50 hours’

training. However, revision examination may form part of the training. The
product training, if any, to be given by the insurance company should be over and
above the minimum training hours prescribed by the Authority.

4. The attendance record (login and logout time) of the trainees should be
maintained by the software (system) itself. After the training, the attendance
record should be available in hard copy as well as softcopy at the Institute for
inspection purpose.

5. Every Institute should have atleast one qualified permanent/Part time faculty who
is an Associate or Fellow from the Insurance Institute of India for each stream to
solve the on-line queries of the students.

6. The Training Institute should have adequate arrangement in place to incorporate

changes in the portal at short notice.

7. The employment details of the faculty/Web administrator whether full-time or

part-time with payment made should be available at the Institute.

24
8. The sponsorship letter must be available with the training institute at the time of
commencement of training session and thereafter kept for the record and
inspection purposes. The sponsorship letter should contain the photograph of the
applicant, his/her complete address and signature and the seal and signature of the
sponsoring insurance company.

9. Database should be maintained by the Web administrator at the training institute

giving details of candidates who have completed their training, name of the
faculty/administrator who solved the online user’s problem during the tenure of
the training. The record of test at the end of each chapter or at the end of the
training on the basis of question bank of the training provided must be recorded in
the database

10. The fresh accreditation will be given on need basis and depending upon the
availability of good infrastructure in the Institute for the purpose of hosting on-
line training portal.

11. The initial approval will be for a period of one year and consideration of further
renewal depends on the satisfactory compliance of requirements of accreditation
and the training conducted during the period of approval.

12. The training institute must display the certificate of accreditation to impart
training issued by the Authority at the training institute and also IRDA
Registration number should be made available in the home page of the portal.

13. No marketing fee/consultancy fee payment is permitted for getting the trainees.

14. It will be the responsibility of the Insurance Company to check the status of the
institute before sponsoring any candidates for training. If name of the training
institute is not displayed on IRDA web-site, no insurer should sponsor the
candidate for training to such an institute.

25
15. (i) The existing Institutes may convey their willingness to abide by these
instructions on a simple form. The information may include: Name & Address of
the Institute, Date of Accreditation of the Institute, Expiry date of validity of the
Accreditation, Accreditation granted for Life/General or both, Name of the In-
charge of the Institute.

(ii) The above information must reach the Authority within 15 days from the date of
issuance of these guidelines. The consolidated list of approved training institutes
will then be placed and updated from time to time on our web-site so that
Insurance Companies can approach them for conduct of training.

16. Prior approval of the Authority must be obtained if the Training Institute intends
to change any of the particulars, details or provisions already approved by the
Authority. All such changes would be simultaneously incorporated on IRDA web-
site.

17. There must be an exclusive portal for the on-line agents training and on the portal
no advertisement should be displayed.

18. It is necessary to provide separate user name/password to the IRDA as a user

(candidate) as well as administrator to monitor the web site (on line portal).

19. All the training institute who wish to apply the on-line training accreditation, may
be required to make a live demonstration of the portal at the Authorities
headquarters at Hyderabad.

20. The training completion certificate must be issued by the In-charge of the On-line
training institute under his seal and signature and user applicant should not be
allowed to print the certificate from the system itself.

26
21. A set of technical points (Annexure I) must be incorporated for new/renewal of
the license for on-line training institutes (portals).

Accreditation Criteria (Check List) for On-Line Training Institutes

1. On-Line Agents training portal should be hosted in a separate domain and the
portal should be exclusive for on-line agents training.

2. Option to select life, non-life or composite testing in separate windows.

3. Course Material to be prepared by the Institutes based on the syllabus notified by

IRDA and covering all the topics.

4. Good LMS (Learning Management Systems) may be used for the purpose
preparation of course material.

5. Glossary

6. Where ever necessary, there should be a link to glossary

7. There must be some minimum time to be spent on every chapter

8. In case of on-line training portal the total no. of training hours would be 100 Hrs.
which may be divided among the various chapters.

9. In case of composite the total no. of training hours would be 150 Hrs.

10. The institute will develop revision test at the end of each chapter and after
completion of training. The time spent on revision test will not be included in
100/150/50/25 hours.

11. Home page designed in the way that the IRDA registration number is displayed
boldly.

27
12. On-line facility to monitor login/ logout time.

Start Date

End Date

No. of Days Left

Maximum Hours

Total Hours Spent

Total Hours Left

Chapter No

Chapter Name

Minimum hours to be spent

Hours spent

13. Provision for interaction between the student/candidate and the Instructors

• Through e-mail

• Chat-room/Open forum

• Off-line queries

14. FAQ Sections

15. Progress card containing the following details with provision to print the same

28
 • Module name

• Chapter No.

• Test

• Marks obtained

• Maximum marks

• Time (Hour/Minutes) spent.

16. During the practice test, there should be facility to alert the users after certain time
intervals.

17. Automatic log off facility must be available, if not brows for more than 10
minutes.

18. There should be a mechanism for reporting user problems to web administrator
using following options-

• By Mail

• By posting queries.

19. User manual required for the help on the web.

20. Facilities to change the password

21. It is necessary to submit the course materials to IRDA in both soft and hard copy.

22. Search facility must be on the page so that user can find the desired information.

29
23. News letter may be made available in the portal (Fortnightly/monthly) without
any kind of advertisements.

24. A section containing the details of Faculty, Web-administrator, Head of the

Institute, along with their address, e-mail id, phone numbers etc. should be made
available on the site.

25. Facility to IRDA to monitor the progress of the Institute containing the
following:-

Batch No., Duration, No of Student, Name of the insurer sponsoring the course,
no of student cleared the course; the no of students cleared the revision test and %
of result. Facility to see the progress of the Individual student. Facility to print the
progress report of the Institute (report format shall be similar to that of off-line
training Institute)

26. Font size must be quite impressive.

Broad Syllabus (Life Insurance)

1 INTRODUCTION TO INSURANCE

a) What is Insurance.

b) Purpose and Need of Insurance.

c) Insurance as a social security tool.

d) Role of Insurance in economic development.

e) Advantages of Life Insurance.

30
2. INSURANACE AGENCY AS A CAREER

a) Definition of an Agent.

b) Agents’ Regulations.

c) Other intermediaries

d) Methods of remunerating agents.

e) Procedure for becoming an Agent.

3. PRINCIPLES OF LIFE ASSURANCE

a) Life Insurance contract.

b) Principle of utmost Good faith.

c) Insurable Interest.

d) Principle of Indemnity.

e) Needs and Insurance.

4. PREMIMUM AND BONUSES

a) What is Premium.

b) Premium calculation and Actuarial valuation.

c) Bonus.

31
5. LIFE INSURANACE PRODUCT

a) Traditional / Unit Linked Policies.

b) Individual and Group Policies.

c) With Profit and Without Profit.

d) Types of Insurance Products as Whole Life Products, Interest sensitive product, Term
Assurance.

e) Annuities, Endowment Assurance etc.

f) Insurance Products for Female and Children etc.

6. UNDERWRITING

a) Introduction

b) Classification of Risks.

c) Financial Underwriting.

d) Non-medical underwriting.

e) Underwriting by Agents.

f) Recent Trends.

7. INSURANCE DOCUMENTS

a) Insurance Documents including Proposal Forms and other relevant Forms.

b) First Premium Receipt / Renewal Premium Receipt.

32
c) Policy Contract, Endorsement, Renewal Notice / Bonus Notice, other Insurance
documents.

8. POLICY CONDITIONS
a) Age, Days of Grace, Lapse and Non-forfeiture, Paid up value, Revival, Assignment.
b) Nomination, Surrenders and Loan.
c) Indisputability of the Policy.
d) Married Women’s Property Act Policy.

9. CLAIMS
a) Intimation Procedure.
b) Claims Documents- Forms.
c) Settlement Procedure.
d) Accident and Disability Benefits.

10. GROUP INSURANCE

a) Special, Legal / other features of Group Insurance.
b) Superannuation Schemes.
c) Group Insurance Scheme EDLI and Non-EDLI.
d) Group Gratuity Scheme, Group Leave Encashment Schemes.
e) Retirement Schemes.

11. RURAL AND SOSCIAL SECTORS

a) Legal Provisions.
b) Rural Sector.
c) Social Sector.
d) IRDP.
e) LALGI.
f) K.SS.S.Y. / S.S.Y.

12. ORGANISATION STRUCTURE

33
a) Organisational setup.
b) Important activities.
c) Indian contest.
d) Structure – Branch Offices, Brokers, Direct Selling, New Companies, Internal
organisations.
e) The Actuarial Profession.

13. LIFE INSURANCE MARKETING

a) Marketing concept.
b) Distribution Channel.
c) The Customer.
d) Strengthening Relationship.
e) Function of an Agent.
f) Advertisement.
g) Customer Satisfaction.

14. ROLE OF AN INSURANCE AGENTS

a) What is Insurance Agent.
b) Selling Process.
c) Pre-approach, Interview, Objection, Closing, Service, Ethical behaviour.
d) Consumerism in Insurance.

15. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

a) Scope.
b) Product Knowledge.
c) Customer Oriented business target.
d) Time Management.
e) Long-Term Relationship.
f) Motivation, Morale.
g) Communication Skill.

34
h) Behaviour with others.

16. LAW AND REGULATIONS

a) Insurance Act, 1938.
b) L.I.C. Act, 1956.
c) IRDA Act, 1999.
d) Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (COPA)
e) Ambudsman, Other Acts, (Income Tax Act, MWP Acts.)
f) Financial Planning & Taxation.
g) UTI Mutual Funds and Shares.

17. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

a) Introduction.
b) Internet of Intranet
c) Benefits to Agents & Policy Holders.
d) KIOSKS.
e) I.T. in Rural Market.

18. IRDA Licensing of Insurance Agents, Regulation 2000

19. IRDA Licensing of Corporate Agents Regulation 2002

20. IRDA Insurance Brokers Regulation, 2002

21. Bancassurance (Supplement)

35
 ABOUT RELIANCE LIFE INSURANCE ADVISORS

Being an SSS advisor can be an enriching and exciting career option. It’s an opportunity
to associate with an industry leader, be in touch with the latest and finest insurance
practices from around the globe, and grow both personally and professionally.

Here are some of the benefits of being an ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Advisor :

 Unlimited earning potential

 A clear career path

 All round support through exclusive advertising, your own in-house consultant, and
world-class training

 A comprehensive benefit package

What does it take to be an Reliance Life advisor?

At, Reliance Life we believe that our Advisors are our ambassadors to the customers.
They are a key source of business for the organization, and are the continuing link with
our clients. That is why, we take a lot of care in recruiting and developing our advisor
force, so that we continue to set higher standards of quality in service and salesmanship.
To cater to the needs of the knowledge-oriented marketplace, we look for graduates who
are service-oriented, good communicators and enjoy meeting new people. Prior sales
experience is an added benefit.
Some of the qualities we seek are:

• Self motivation

• A master communicator

36
 • A go-getter

• A graduate

Training

At Reliance Life, we understand the importance of training in a dynamic business

environment. Our advisors go through both generic and specific, professional programs
that help them remain well-informed and knowledgeable about the company’s products
in the market. There is a further focus on soft skills such as communication, managing
long-term relationships and selling skills, which are very relevant in a service-driven
industrylikelifeinsurance.

State of the art infrastructure training facilities coupled with an excellent faculty,
guarantee an exceptional learning environment. For advisors who might be occupied with
their daily business/professional routines, Reliance Life also offers convenient training
options such as online and self-learning are also provided by the organization.

A 17-day training schedule covers the mandatory IRDA training requirements and
Reliance Life product-training module. Revision session ensure that the candidates
thoroughly understand the course contents and are well prepared for the licensing
examination. Theoretical training is interspersed with practical appointment settings with
potential customers, giving advisors a feel of how their business will work from the very
first day. All through, the Unit Manager and the management provide continuous support
to the advisors in achieving independence towards garnering business.

What drives us?

An entrepreneurial environment within the organization which is lead by thought leader
in the Industry.. An environment to experiment and create. put your ideas and with us and
see them at work.

37
What makes us irresistible?
A young environment with an average age of 28 that enables higher responsibility to
young minds at an early age with unique freedom to operate that hones them
professionally.

SWOT analysis of insurance advisor of Reliance life Insurance company

Strength: why to join Reliance life

1 Tied Agency is the largest distribution channel of, Reliance life comprising a large
advisor force that targets various customer segments. The strength of tied agency lies in
an aggressive strategy of expanding and procuring quality business. With focus on sales
& people development, tied agency has emerged as a robust, predictable and sustainable
business model.

2 The Group Business of Reliance life has been in existence for over 2 years. Today
Reliance is the Number 1 player among private companies in Group Business .
Reliance life offer the entire gamut of products including Gratuity, Superannuation Term
Insurance, Leave Encashment, Employee Deposit Linked Insurance (EDLI), Mortgage
Reducing Term Assurance (MRTA) & Informal Group Term covers.

3 The Operations department oils the work processes between the customer and the
company to ensure consistent and quality service to the customer. To streamline the
operations, the Operations department interfaces between the clients and the agents,
the branches and the underwriters, and manages work processes.

38
The Vision at Customer Service is to deliver 'World Class Service' at every opportunity.
Units such as the 9 to 9 contact centre, Outbound Call Centre, Customer Care and Query
Resolution Unit are all committed to providing effective solutions to over lakhs of
customers across the country.

4 The Business Excellence function is committed to building a quality mindset across the
organization.

5 With its initial focus on operational excellence to deliver benefits and services to staff
members, HR is now committed to building capability through state of the art processes.
A robust performance management system, compensation system and a segmented
training architecture enable it to deliver value to the organization.

6. The Marketing function at covers an array of activities - brand and media

management, channel support, direct marketing and corporate communications.
The Brand and Communications team is in charge of advertising, consumer research,
media planning & buying and Public Relations; that helps develop and nurture Reliance
life corporate identity while effectively communicating its varied product offerings to the
customer. Channel marketing provides support to the sales force by streamlining the
design and development of collaterals and sales tools across distribution channels. The
Direct marketing team was set up to generate high quality leads for profitable business.
The team achieves this through target database acquisition and communicating
customized product information through e-mailers, telemarketing and innovative direct
mailers.

39
7. Reliance life was a pioneer in offering life insurance solutions through banks and
alliances(B&A) Within a short span of two years, and with nearly a large number of
partners, B & A has emerged as a vital component of the company's sales and distribution
strategy, contributing to approximately one third of company's total business.

The business philosophy at B&A is to leverage distribution synergies with our

partners and add value to its customers as well as the partners. Flexibility,
adaptation and experimenting with new ideas are the hallmarks of this channel.

8. Reliance life is the life insurer in the country (including the Life Insurance
Corporation of India) to declare the embedded value-the present value of future profits
embedded in the policies sold. Amongst the private life insurers, Reliance life has the
highest equity base .

9. As compare to HDFC Standard and Tata AIG who has grown by 3 and 2 percent
respectively, Reliance life grown by 5% This is a remarkable achievement, considering
that the doors were thrown open to private players only in 2005. Private players have
recorded a 312 per cent growth this fiscal, and are expecting over 20 per cent year-on-
year growth over the next three years

10 The success of Reliance life has been attributed to their innovative offers, customer-
centric products, increasing awareness levels of consumers through a need-based,
structured approach of selling, sound risk-management practices, enhanced service
standards, reaching out to the customer through a number of distribution and
communications channels, and providing advice to the customer.

40
11 Reliance life has also instituted a simplified claims process. Reliance life average
turnaround time for settling a claim is seven days from the date of receiving the complete
documentation

12 Reliance life Life pioneered the multi-channel distribution model, which encompasses
bank tie-ups, corporate agents, brokers as well as advisors. Today the company has one
of the widest distribution networks with 125 branches in 80 locations spread across
the country. On service, the focus is to create a variety of touch points in order to enable
customers to interact easily with the company.

13 The section 80C limit under the Income Tax Act was also increased from Rs70,000 to
Rs1 lakh, thereby increasing the limit for insurance premiums receiving tax benefits.

14 Private players have invested in multiple and innovative distribution strategies.

Internet and direct mailers are the easiest ways to reach the consumer. Bancassuarance, or
distribution of insurance products through the branches and multiple communication
channels of banks, including ATMs, tele-banking and Internet banking, is slowly gaining
popularity. India’s 27 public sector banks account for almost 92 per cent of the entire
network spread. This network has 33,000 rural and 14,000 semi-urban branches, where
insurance penetration remains largely untapped. The link-up saves the insurance
company distribution costs and helps increase the customer product offerings for the
bank. The credibility of the bank makes it easier to win customers.

Because of the above strengths company has grown at 148 per cent CAGR over the past
three financial years. It has emerged as the only private life insurer to have crossed a
number of milestones with amazing regularity, the most recent being the Rs6,000-crore
figure of funds under management (FuM), making its asset base the largest amongst all
private life insurers

41
Reliance life Life has been the first private life insurer to cross several milestones and
has won accolades along the way. Milestones include the 1-million policy mark, FuM of
over Rs6000 crore and most recently, the mark of 2 lakh rural and social policies.

The life insurance industry is growing at 15 to 20 per cent, and that there is enough space
for all players to thrive — because there is no such thing as too much insurance.

Reliance life believes in the partnership approach and seek to partner with our advisors to
ensure the long-term sustainability of their business, be it through offering them the finest
product suite, training, technology and service support to build their business strongly
and systematically. look at providing alternative career opportunities to them,
depending on their potential, inclination and interests. Based on all these initiatives,
we believe we offer our advisors a holistic proposition and the right minded partners will
prefer to continue their relationship with us

Weakness

The number of agents the company has and their churn ratio, industry sources aver that
ICICI Prudential Life has the largest number of individual agents amongst the private life
insurers and their attrition rate is also fairly high contributing to high HR Cost

Currently there are 14 life insurance companies RELIANCE life insurance slid down to
second position in terms of new business procured in September, October and
November 2005 because of vast completion. Many new companies are planning to
enter in this sector with unique plans to get major share

The imposition of a service tax has been a minor setback for the industry. Also, the cap of
the pension limit at Rs6,000, and its recent merger into the 80C limit has been a downer
for the industry.

42
LIC still holds major market share and people still trust LIC for insurance and
investment. In terms of transparency, people are not worried about money put in LIC
because it is a government company. It is difficult for private companies to convince
policyholders about the safety and whereabouts of their money

Underwriting of insurance requires a high degree of knowledge and technical skills,

which the insurance advisor mostly not so educated i, may not possess. Further, there is
concentration of risk without any spread due to limited geographical operations, and the
policyholders group being homogenous. This is against the principles of insurance and in
turn makes them vulnerable to losses in case of occurrence of even a single calamity (eg:
Latur/Gujarat earthquake). Also, in the present competitive era, the insurance advisors
may not be able to cope with demands such as aggressive marketing, innovative thinking,
fast communication systems and effective management techniques which are essential for
a successful insurance venture.

Higher cost for insurer and consumer because of high commission rates: On selling every
policy insurance advisor use to get commission which is quite high depending on
different insurance plan, the cost is charged from insurer amount

Not as convenient as other channels like Banks and Alliances as there is large attrition
rate involved in this sector. Everybody is not capable to sell policies as there are already
many players (14 companies) with similar plans it is difficult for advisor to sell policies
and people still trust LIC for insurance

Old fashioned channel not fully up to date with latest technologies

Opportunities

Focus on high net worth individuals who prefer relationship over price

43
RELIANCE LIFE has witnessed a sea change in the industry itself, with customers
becoming more aware about life insurance, displaying greater willingness to buy it, and
thereby demanding much more from a life insurer than ever before. Private players have
driven many of these changes, as part of their business strategy in this highly competitive

market. Of course, the biggest beneficiary of the competition amongst life insurers has
been the customer. A wide range of products, customer-focused service and professional

advice have become the mantras of the industry, with the customer forming the pivot of
each company’s strategy.

Today’s customer is much more aware about the relevance of life insurance as a
protection and financial planning tool, and therefore, more willing to spend some time

to understand different products and how they meet his specific needs. Obviously, when

he makes this time commitment, he would like advice from someone who understands

the issues that impact him and make suitable recommendations. For a life insurer, this has
some clear implications. For instance, they cannot just recruit product-pushing sales
people, but must build a team of advisors who go beyond offering only insurance advice
to strike a personal relationship with their clients and advise them on their entire portfolio
of investments.

In this way insurance advisor play an important role by giving advice to the clients that
which plan will benefit them most. Training also becomes of utmost importance, as
advisors must understand the role of life insurance in the complete context of financial
services, and also possess soft skills such as communication, presentation and time
management. The privatisation of the industry has also introduced new levels of
transparency and information sharing, in product as well as in process. This requires the
entire company to be aligned with the needs of the customer. For instance, at RELINCE

44
LIFE our Central Underwriting team often interacts with customers to explain the
implications of the findings of their medical tests.

Integrate alternative channels into their own strategies

RELIANCE LIFE is a Life Insurance Company Ltd is upbeat on the emerging

opportunities in the areas of health insurance and pension products.

The private insurance major proposes to take advantage of its vast network of
125branches across 80 locations, advisor strength of 52,000, eight bank partners and
over 100 corporate agents and brokers with a total of 3,000 distribution points
across the country

Although the contribution of health insurance, thrown open to life insurers just recently,
is currently insignificant, the company expects a significant contribution in the next
couple of years. Reliance Life is confident of growing at over 60 per cent this year and
retains their market leadership position

Continually look for new sales opportunities

In order to expand in the market Reliance Life has established itself by giving
advertisements in the press, television and billboards. Reliance Life has call centers with
toll-free numbers, Reliance Life claims that around 5,000 people dial in to its call centre
each month on an average, and half of them end up taking a policy. Reliance Life also
has an arrangement with rediff.com by which one can e-mail a request for a visit by
company agents.

Reliance Life being quite aggressive in the market it works on a push market strategy not
the pull market. Reliance Life doesn’t use its parent company's client base to solicit
custom.

45
For now, Reliance Life seems to be concentrating on designing attractive products. All of
them are investing heavily in research, studying life expectancy and health statistics
across age groups, income levels, professions, and regions on their own instead of just
relying on data with the public sector insurers. Products are designed with a technical
team of actuaries (which studies such patterns) and a product development team (which
interacts closely with customers and helps identify their needs) working closely together

What differentiates it from others?

In India, life insurance products are bought more as investments rather than for risk
protection and the insurers prefer to strike a fine balance between the two. The private
players have accepted all the imperfections of the market as given and are working
around it.

Because of the poor quality of service provided by the public sector companies, there's
tremendous scope for tapping the dissatisfied customer, whether it is small business or
the retail customer. These companies lead not only because of good service but because
of various product offerings for different segment

The key, then, will lie in distribution, with agents providing the cutting edge to
operations. Insurance agents sell policies and give business to company, so agents are the
important distribution channel

Reliance Life performance

A policy base of two million in less than six years of operations is an indicator of the
robustness and scalability of Reliance Life business processes - distribution,
underwriting, service, etc. Reliance Life has been able to realize economies of scale and
bring down the expense ratio, an important parameter from the profitability point of view.
Last, but not least, since the pooled mortality and investment risks are spread over a

46
larger base, the overall risk for the company, and hence policyholders, is reduced which
indicates a strong position in this sector and further help to improve its performance

Growth rate

India has a savings rate of 23 per cent, but less than 5 per cent of it is spent on insurance
so there is ample opportunities of investment in insurance sector if Reliance Life is able
to tap the market

Figures in the sector

Table No.1

Life Insurance Statistics

Indian population 1 bn
GDP as on 2000 (Rs bn) 20000 bn
Gross domestic savings as a % of GDP 23%
NCAER estimate of insurable population 240 mn
Estimated market by 2005 650 mn
Source: Indiainfoline.com and NCAER

India has an enormous middle-class that can afford to buy life, health, and disability and
pension plan products. The low level of penetration of life insurance in India compared to
other developed nations can be judged by a comparison of per capita life premium.

Table No.2

Country Life Premium Per Capita US $ in 1994

Japan 3,817
UK 1,280
USA 964
India 4

47
Source: Various Newspapers

Clearly, there is considerable scope to raise per capita life premium if the market is
effectively tapped.

India has traditionally been a high savings oriented country - often described as being on
par with the thrifty Japan. Insurance sector in the US of A is as big in size as the banking
industry there. This gives us an idea of how important the sector is. Insurance sector
channelises the savings of the people to long term investments. In India where
infrastructure is said to be of critical importance, this sector will bring the nations own
money for the nation.

In 3 years time industry expect the 10% of the population to be under some sort of an
insurance cover. This assuming a premium of Rs. 5000 on an average, amounts to 100
million x Rs.5000 = Rs. 500 bn.

This has made the sector the hottest one in india after IT. With social security and
security to the public at large being the agenda for opening the sector, the role of the
regulator becomes all the more serious and one that would be carefully watched at every
step.

Threats

One of the challenging tasks is to be looking at appointing good brokers and providing
training to them and biggest threat is that other insurance companies might adopt this
strategy. Reliance Life is very keen in appointing good insurance advisors as they believe
there assets who generate most of the business. So, there is always fear that other
competitors don’t adopt the similar strategy

Reliance Life has to cater host of challenges that lay before them. Consumer attitudes
towards insurance were largely indifferent, and insurance was regarded as an inflexible,

48
tax-saving product that offered low returns. Rarely was it recognised for the multi-
dimensional protection instrument that it is. Service levels are low, products were not
transparent and are typically sold as the “one-size-fits-all” kind, with very little relevance
to a consumers’ actual need.

Reliance Life has to face a lot of challenges like– customer acquisition, distribution,
product design etc. The most challenging area would be to set up the distribution
channels as company has to deal with wide variety of intermediaries. When Relianc Life
is dealing with so many outside agencies they need to ensure the level of customer
service, training of personnel and value systems are of the same level as embodied by
them.

Today most products offered by private players are homogeneously packaged. For
instance, most endowment plans offered by private companies offer different benefits,
but the overall structure remains largely similar. So it becomes again difficult for
Reliance Life to gain good market share

Ineffective market discipline is one of the issues identified by the Association of

Insurance Regulator as a threat to the emerging markets. This is an issue that has to be
effectively tackled for the healthy growth of the insurance market. While the Regulator
has a role to play in ensuring market discipline, the role played by the well informed
public in bringing about discipline in the market place cannot be ignored. The key to
effective market discipline lies in public disclosure and consumer education. Informed
and educated consumers are often the most effective means of enforcing commercial
discipline.

People in India are still not too enthusiastic about insurance. They don’t want to take life
insurance policy because of traditional believes and rituals. Some have apprehensions
that if they take a policy they will die.

49
It is believed that one needs to protect 10 times of one’s present income through
insurance, so that the family can be free of financial difficulties in the event of the
insurer’s untimely death. Few in this country can provide this kind of security. The
concept of a customer buying more than one policy has not taken off yet. Herein lies
the challenge of the insurance company: to retain business and ensure that customer
service transfers into customer comfort.

In terms of transparency, people are not worried about money put in LIC because it is a
government company. People still trust LIC for long term insurance as it provides
guarantee of returns. Investor don’t believe private life insurance company as they can be
insolvent and investor might not get their principal money they have contributed.

With the opening of insurance sector for private life insurance companies and because of
ample growth opportunities with the increase in population and ability to pay premium
has lured many companies to enter in this sector which resulted the competition.
Presently there are 15 life insurance companies including Reliance Life so with growing
competition it is difficult for Reliance Life to acquire reasonable market share

50
 COMPARITIVE ANALYSIS

CONTENTS
1. Commission Structure
2. Clubs
3. Rewards
4. Recognitions
5. contests
6. Career path
7. Spl. Pay-outs

1. Commission Structure

1. Insurance Player 2. Commission Structure

RELIANCE LIFE 5%-40%

LIC 5%-40%

BAJAJ ALLIANZ 5%-40%

KOTAK 2%-40%

AVIVA 5%-40%

TATA AIG 27%-45%

ICICI PRU 5%-40%

51
2. Clubs

1. Insurance Player 2. Clubs

ICICI PRU Star Club - Début, Criteria-5L WRP

India, Criteria-15L WRP

President Club - 50L WRP

LIC Not Avalable

BAJAJ ALLIANZ Silver

Gold

Platinum

KOTAK 51 Club Membership

(Qualifying Criteria -2Pol.Every week For

11weeks)

AVIVA Not Avalable

TATA AIG Bronze

Silver - 1.35L pr. for Silver club

RELIANCE LIFE Bronze

Silver

Gold

CEO

52
3. Rewards

1. Insurance Player 2. Rewards

ICICI PRU Next 226-500 goes to Indian destn.

Top 225 qul. Goes for foreign trip.

Top 40 Goes for foreign trip.

LIC Not Avalable

BAJAJ ALLIANZ Rs.6000/-

KOTAK Rs. 1.5L+ to & fro fare; & life time

Insurance Covarage.

AVIVA Not Avalable

TATA AIG Not Avalable

RELIANCE LIFE Next 200-500 goes to Indian destn.

Top 148 qul. Goes for foreign trip.

Top 40 Goes for foreign trip.

53
4.Contests

1. Insurance Player 2. Contests

ICICI PRU Jo Chao who pao, Subh Labh

LIC Dhan laxmi

BAJAJ ALLIANZ Contests held on Qtrly. Basis

KOTAK Local contests held by the SM

AVIVA Monthly, Quarterly, yearly, foreign trips.

TATA AIG Contests held on yearly

RELIANCE LIFE Contests held on Quarterly, which are

based on cash incentives only

54
6. Career path

1. Insurance Player 6. Career Path

ICICI PRU Can Become UM(6month –fastrak)

(12 month –Pinnacle)

Tiger Term - (Can Become mobile trainer)

Agency champion

LIC Not Avalable

BAJAJ ALLIANZ Sales Team manager (After giving 30

policies)

KOTAK Not Avalable

AVIVA Not Avalable

TATA AIG Business Associates(After giving 37

policies in a year)

RELIANCE LIFE Can Become UM(6month –fastrak)

Tiger Term - (Can Become mobile trainer)

Agency champion

55
 DOCUMENTATION & OPERATIONAL NEEDS

Documents Require for the Insurance Advisors

1) 8 Passport Size photograph

2) Address Proof:- Bizali Bill, Telephone Bill, Ration Card, Voter ID Card & etc.

3) Date of Birth proof :- 10th Certificate , PAN, PASSPORT, DL etc.

4) Qulification Proof: - Minimum qualification required 10+2.

Operational Needs for the Insurance Advisors

1) Fill up the Application Form.

2) Insurance Agreement form

3) IRDA Examination form

4) Online sponsership Form

As a work Insurance Advisors in the organisation required the applicant should be clear
the examination conducted by the IRDA.

56
 DATA ANALYSIS

PERSONAL OBSERVATION

It can be defined as a face to face contact made on an impromptu basis in order to secure
an appointment for a recruiting interview.

Effective recruiting requires consistent activity. Personal observation is a method of

prospecting that enables you to be always recruiting and taking advantage of every
opportunity that arises. These opportunities usually occur when you are in the midst of
some other activity or event. You may be having lunch with an agent attending a child’s
sporting event, working out in the gym or running errands on the weekends.

As you use personal observation, you will notice more and more the caliber of the
individual you meet daily. Ideal candidate are impressive people, and you will want to
approach them if you have not been introduced.

These are some of the most effective sources of gathering names. There are other very
important sources like newspaper advertisements, seminars, college interns etc. but these
sources should be used as supplementary means to the once discussed earlier for greater
result and consistency.

Once sufficient names have been gathered and after having qualified the names to suit the
requirement, the next obvious step is the initial screening.

The importance of name gathering can be seen form the recruitment funnel. The funnel
says that in order to recruit 2 quality agents the sales manager should have 60 qualified
names. Out of those 60 qualified names there should be at least 20 initial screening, and 8
career seminars and 4 career interview. This shows how important getting enough
qualified names is .also since the Reliance Life Insurance works on a quality model ,
therefore it is important to screen good number of well qualified names before recruiting

57
agents. It is because of this reason that Reliance Life Insurance has a highly respect and
efficient agent advisors team amongst all other insurance companies in India

SURVEY

The aim of the survey was to find the out what are the factors that motivate an insurance
agent advisor and also to find out how the organization can help the agents in improving
their performance. The survey was carried out on a sample size of 30 agent’s advisors of
Reliance Life Insurance. It was questionnaire based survey in which I personally sat with
each and every sample and discussed the various question. This practice though time
consuming help me in bringing out the best results as I could not get the most intriguing
answers and also the agents and advisor felt more comfortable in giving their genuine
feedback and suggestions. The survey was carried over a period of one month and each
say was an enriching experience as each day the agent advisors had some enriching
experience to share. During the duration of one month I tried to cover agent advisors
from various demographics. For example I tried to cover equal number of tenured agents
and the newer once. I also made a point to cover the agent’s advisors of all age groups
and I was happy to observe that different age groups had different view about the various
aspects covered in the survey. The survey also gave me an opportunity to interact with a
good number of agent and advisors which was a very rewarding experience. In the
subsequent pages I will share with u the finding of the survey.

This survey revealed some interesting facts about the motivational needs and
expectations of the agent advisors. More than 60% of the advisors who work with
Reliance Life Insurance currently have their own business or other job and the primary
reason why they have joined Reliance Life Insurance is extra money.

58
Graph below shows the various factors which motivate the agent advisors.

motivating factor

money
12
10 recognition
8
association with
6 an organisaation
4 influenced by
2 others success
had freet ime
0

From the above graph, it is evident that most of the agent advisors working with Reliance
Life Insurance are motivated by the kind of money that they can make in the business.
The other factors which motivate them are recognition and association with a multi
national organization. There are few who motivate themselves by the success of the other
agents. A handful of people do not actually have any thing to motivate them, they are
working with Reliance Life Insurance to spare time.

The agents and advisors have also given some important feedback about the important
characteristics which an Reliance Life Insurance agent’s advisor should possess. The
results are shown with the help of a graph below 3.2.2.

59
 characteristics

30%
25%
patience
20% comunication
15% relation building
10% persistence
5% hardworking
0%
1

The agents feel that communication is the most important characteristics that an advisor
should possess, followed by patience and the ability to work hard. Therefore the
management of Reliance Life Insurance should give emphasis on developing the
communication skills of the agents. Also as an advisor makes most of his appointments
over the phone, there should be greater emphasis on soft skill development in the training
module.

Most of the Reliance Life Insurance agents advisor feel that they are growing with the as
rate as which the insurance industry is growing which is a very good sign, how ever there
are a few percentage who feel that they are not growing as fast as the industry is and they
feel that the reason for not growing is their lack of time devotion and hard work.

The feedback of the agent advisors regarding the recruitment interview has been very
positive with the majority of the agent advisors saying that they are very pleased with the
entire recruitment process.

Graph given below shows the above said fact.

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 comfort with screening interview

80%

60%

40% comfortable
not comfortable
20%

0%
comfortable not
comfortable

Some of the agents felt that the presentation of the managers during the screening
interview is very impressive and that the way they project this career is very effective.
The fact that the manager had treated them like guests rather than an individual who is
seeking a work opportunity left a lasting impression. The advisors also feel that the career
seminar had helped in making up their mind to a great extent. However a good

Percentage of the agents surveyed had not attended the career seminar which means that a
number of prospect do not get an opportunity to attend the seminar and therefore the
company might lose a potential top performer.

Graph below shows the same figure.

61
 influence of the career seminar

70%
60%
50%
influenced
40%
not influenced
30%
did not attend
20%
10%
0%
1

Those there were mixed reaction about other things but a majority of the advisors had a
similar opinion about the training program. This can be seen in the graph (3.2.5) given
below.

satisfaction with training program

100%

80%

60% satisfied
40% unsatisfied

20%

0%
satisfied unsatisfied

The agent and advisors also feel that the success of the advisor in bringing good business
is also due to the world class training program. On a question regarding the product range
of Reliance Life Insurance, there was a mixed response from the advisors. Where 60
percent of the advisors feel that the products are enough while he remaining 40 percent
say that the products are not enough.

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 product range of MNYL

80%

60%
satisfied
40%
not satisfied
20%

0%
1

The two most successful products of Reliance Life Insurance according to the agents and
advisors are the Whole Life Plan and the Life Maker Plan, the former being the risk cover
plan and the latter being the investment plan. The agents and advisor also had to give a
good number of feedback and suggestions which have been discussed below.

The advisors would want the management to increase the number of telephone lines that
are available in the agent’s area.

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 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

• To fix an appointment especially with the corporate people was very tough and
many a time negative response was received.

• The customers are sometimes bias towards the product and moreover the customer
lacks the information about insurance. So the accurate conclusions may not be
drawn on the basis of information collected.

• Some of the customers due to time constraints and availability of documents with
them filled up the data sheet in a hurry, which meant that the provided data might
not be 100% true.

• The numbers of respondents were limited to 400 because of time constraints &
assignments.

• The project (report) so made is a compilation based on the data collected by various
team members during project period.

64
 CONCLUSION

The survey has made it evident that the agents and advisors are by and large satisfied
with the organization and are happy to be a part of this esteemed company. However
there are few areas where the agent advisors feel that there is some scope of
improvement.

Most of the agents and advisors feel that communication is the most important
characteristics that an advisor should possess. And as the agents take most of their
appointments over the phone, the training module should contain program which would
train them on soft skills and telephone etiquette.

Most of the agents and advisors are not satisfied with the working of the camp shop,
therefore some measures should be taken to make it more effective and spontaneous.

Since money is the most important motivating factor, the company should make regular
updates in the reward and recognition program, as many agents and advisors feel that the
rewards and recognition system are not enough remuneration for their hard work and
commitment.

There is a need for refreshment for the clients who visit the office. Unable to do so might
leave a bad impression in the minds of the client about the organization.

65
 RECOMMENDATIONS

FINDINGS

The greatest motivating factors for the agents and advisors are money followed by being
a part of a Multi national organization.

The agents and advisors find that the career seminar is a very important tool in selling the
agency as a career and most of them have been influenced by this.

 The agents and advisors are very satisfied with the training program at
Reliance Life Insurance and believe that is it one of the reason for their
success.

 A good number of agents feel that there should be more policies for the
children

 A good number of agents are not satisfied with the facilities provided by the
management. They would like the company to increase the number of
telephone in the agent area and also make the camp shop more efficient

 The agent advisors also felt that the y are not given regular updates on the
position of the application that they have submitted.

 The agents are happy with the kind of support they are getting from the
management, but some feel that the management should be more supportive
towards non productive agents.

CONCLUSION

66
Earning millions out of selling insurance is not a miracle anymore. At least not with
Reliance Life. Here we give you the freedom to decide your own work schedule and even
your office location. You don’t just get an ideal work environment but also the right
motivation and training to become a world class professional financial advisors, even if
you have no prior sales experience.

Depending on the targets you achieve, you can even represent RELIANCE LIFE at the
Million Dollar Round Table, USA.

67
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Chhabria, Vishal, “Outlook Money”(15th MAY’2005) – PAGE 38

• Das, Priya Ranjan, “The Times Of India” (20thMAY’2005) – PAGE 1

• Escolife Solution for the Insurance industry

• Javeri,Nani, “Outlook Money”(15th MAY’2005) – PAGE 44

• Mehra,Puja, “India Today (27th MAY’2005) – PAGE 43

• Sinha, Prabhakar, “The Times Of India” (16thMAY’2005) – PAGE 1

• www.relianceresearchcenter.org

• www.tata-aig.com

• www.reliancelife.com

• www.personalfn.com

• www.finadvisor.blogspot.com

• www.finadvisor.rediffblogs.com

68
 ANNEXURE

QUESTIONNAIRE

FINANCIAL QUESTIONNARE
(Personal Covers)

Proposal no. :
Life to be Insured:
SECTION A
1 Please state your occupation
2 Are you (tick one)
a) Employed yes ( ) , no ( )
b) Self employed yes ( ) , no ( )
c) Share holding director (%of share holding) yes ( ) , no ( )
d) In partnership yes ( ) , no ( )
3 Please give details of any current policies that are with other life insurers
Insurers Sum Assured Reason for Cover Type/Term of
Policy

1 Please give details of Existing Policies in force for Life or Type/Term of Policy
Disability Benefits
Insurers Sum Assured Reason for Cover Type/Term of
Policy

2 Please state Earned Income in the last tax year (for self employed persons, state
personal earnings as assessed for income tax after deduction of allowable
business expenses.)

69
3 Please estimate the value of your Personal Assets and Liabilities.
Assets Liabilities
Property Mortgages
Investments Loans
Unquoted equities Others(please
specify)
Others(please
specify)
Total Total

4 Number and Age of Dependents

8 What is the reason for applying for this policy

(Please tick the appropriate one)
a) Family Protection ()
b) Personal Protection ()
c) Private Residential Loan Cover ( )
d) Others (please specify) ()

70
 SECTION B
Please state:
1) Reason for Loan
2) Name of Lender
3) Name(S) of Borrower(S)
4) Amount of Loan
5) Term of Loan
6) Interest Rate
7) Repayment method (e.g. interest only, capital and interest)

I hereby declare and agree that the above particulars and answers are complete and
true, that I have not held back any relevant facts or details, and that the answers to
questionnaire will form part of the application for the desired insurance on my life.
Signature of Life to be Insured

DATE:

71