Demat Insurance Can Keep Policies in Virtual Form

Insurance companies in India and repositories will soon be marketing e-insurance accounts to people as Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority is very much excited about this new tool. Initially, only term insurance plans can be stored as an e-insurance account.

Demat Insurance Can Keep Policies in Virtual Form

Policyholders can purchase a new plan directly through this e-insurance channel or convert an old plan into this format. But, people should know that it’s not the same as purchasing a plan online. The policy document is issued in the physical format and only that form is a valid document.

This account is completely safe and avoids misplacing, damaging, losing of your policies. The actual policy is needed at maturity and/or at the time of claim settlement. If policy is misplaced, the insured has to face the hassle of documentation to receive the duplicate policy copy. In fact, policyholder can appoint a reliable acquaintance to maintain track of the policy.

This person need not be the beneficiary. All policy related details will be just a click away, ensuring easy transactions. All your policies will be handled by single account, facilitating ease of operation. Insured can access it any time just by signing in to the repository’s portal. Policyholders can play their premiums online and complaints or service requests can be filed in too.

Repositories or insurers will not charge any fees for starting an e-insurance account or switching existing plans into digital format. When you open an e-insurance account, then you don’t need to go through the KYC procedure again.

You can easily change your details online. Policy owner will receive premium payment reminders as well as consolidated annual statements regularly. Single request made to the repository for modifying the details will be done across other plans you bought. Contact the insurance repository or ask your insurance service provider for digitizing your plan.

CAMS, SHCIL, Central Insurance Repository, NSDL and Karvy are the five approved repositories for this purpose. But, you will have to contact your insurer to know the net asset value of your unit linked holdings. Insured will be unable to switch funds or surrender the plans through online portals.