ICICI Prudential Life Insurance is one of the largest Insurance networks in the country, and 2nd Life Insurance Company in India. The ICICI Group has been in existence since 1955 when ICICI Ltd., was created. ICICI Prudential started in 2002 as subsidiary of ICICI Ltd., Today ICICI Life Insurance has a customer base of 4 million with total assets exceeding Rs.1, 00,000 Cr. making it the 2nd largest life insurance company in the country, next only to LIC.
The Insurance sector, after the opening up, provides greater opportunities. Several global players have emerged and the market has changed significantly. In the changed scenario, the expectation is that the low Insurance premium as a percentage of GDP prevailing in India will improve and will offer better opportunities to the insurance players.
Life Insurance sector is one of the key areas where enormous business potential exists. In India currently the life insurance premium as a percentage of GDP is 1.3 per cent against 5.2 per cent in the US, but in the liberalized scenario, the life insurance
premiums were projected to grow at around 18% to 20% from Rs 215 billion in 1998- 99 to Rs 592 billion in 2004-05 and to Rs 1450 billion by 2009-10. Corporate non-life
premium was projected to grow from Rs 84 billion in 1998-99 to Rs 386 billion in 2009-10 and personal line non-life from Rs 4 billion to Rs 51 billion.
In the life Insurance segment the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is the major player. The LIC has 2050 branches. It is constituted in to seven Zones. Currently there are 5, 60,000 LIC agents in India. General Insurance is another segment, which has been growing at a faster pace.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study is very useful as the financial market become more sophisticated and complex, investor needs a financial intermediary who provides the required knowledge and professional expertise on successful investing and Life insurance is a form of insurance that pays monetary proceeds upon the death of the insured covered in the policy. Essentially, a life insurance policy is a contract between the named insured and the insurance company wherein the insurance company agrees to pay an agreed upon sum of money to the insured's named beneficiary so long as the insured's premiums .
INTRODUCTION
Life insurance is a form of insurance that pays monetary proceeds upon the death of the insured covered in the policy. Essentially, a life insurance policy is a contract between the named insured and the insurance company wherein the insurance company agrees to pay an agreed upon sum of money to the insured's named beneficiary so long as the insured's premiums are current.
With a large population and the untapped market area of this population insurance happens to be a very big opportunity in India. Today it stands as a business growing at the rate of 15-20% annually. Together with banking services, it adds about 7 percent to the countries GDP. In spite of all this growth statistics of the penetration of the insurance in the country is very poor. Nearly 80% of Indian populations are without life insurance cover and the health insurance. This is an indicator that growth potential for the insurance sector is immense in India.
It was due to this immense growth that the regulations were introduced in the insurance sector and in continuation "Malhotra Committee" was constituted by the government in 1993 to examine the various aspects of the industry. The key element of the reform process was participation of overseas insurance companies with 26% capital. Creating a more competitive financial system suitable for the requirements of the economy was the main idea behind this reform.
Since then the insurance industry has gone through many changes. The liberalization of the industry the insurance industry has never looked back and today stand as one of the most competitive and exploring industry in India. The entry of the private players and the increased use of the new distribution are in the limelight today. The use of new distribution techniques and the IT tools has increased the scope of the industry in the longer run.
Insurance is the business of providing protection against financial aspects of risk, such as those to property, life health and legal liability. It is one method of a greater concept known as risk management -which is the need to mange uncertainty on account of exposure to loss, injury, disadvantage or destruction.
Insurance is the method of spreading and transfer of risk. The fortunate many who are exposed to some or similar risk shares loss of the unfortunate. Insurance does not protect the assets but only compensates the economic or financial loss.
In insurance the insured makes payment called "premiums" to an insurer, and in return is able to claim a payment from the insurer if the insured suffers a defined type of loss. This relationship is usually drawn up in a formal legal contract.
PRODUCT/SERVICES PROFILE
ICICI Prudential's ultimate promise is financial security. A strong brand certainly boosts sale, but without customer-friendly, innovative products, even the best brand would not last long.
ICICI Prudential's product range has been developed on the understanding that different people have their own sets of needs at various stages of their lives. It has thus built a flexible portfolio of products that can be customized to cater to varying needs of people at each stage, and thus ensure protection in every step of life. The company's philosophy has been to help customers understand their financial needs and work closely with them to customize a product that would meet. Advisors can offer a complete range of products -Savings plans, Child plans, Market-linked plans, Protection plans, and Retirement plans - and tailor a flexible solution to meet customers' changing needs at every stage of life. In fact, ICICI Prudential was the first to un-bundle product benefits, pioneering the concept of 'riders' and soon after introduce comprehensive market-linked and retirement plans.
ICICI Prudential has launched a handful of products that are analyzed below:
ICICI Prudential's life insurance products may be loosely categorized under three forms: pure life insurance products without an investment angle to them; a product that is a mix of a cumulative investment scheme and an insurance product; and, finally, standard products such as money-back and endowment policies.
Single Premium Bond: The Single Premium Bond is the name of a policy that combines the features of an investment in a cumulative deposit scheme with that of an insurance product.
Policy-holders are required to pay a one-time premium based on a target sum assured. At maturity, the policy-holder gets the sum assured and guaranteed additions that work out to a compound return of 4.5 per cent the sum assured.
The insurance part of the package comes in the form of death benefits that are paid in the case of the demise of the policy-holder. The size of the death benefit is linked to the number of years left for the policy to expire. On maturity date, the maturity value is also paid in addition to the death benefits that would have been paid earlier.
Life Guard policies: The company offers two pure life insurance products that have an umbrella name, Life Guard. One of them involves a one-time premium for which there are no maturity benefits. The other requires regular premium payments that are returned at the end of the policy. Life Guard offers absolutely no investment-related return and is suitable for individuals looking for an unadulterated insurance package.
Insurance Solutions for Individuals
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance offers a range of innovative, customer-centric products that meet the needs of customers at every life stage. Its products can be enhanced with up to 5 riders, to create a customized solution for each policyholder.
Savings Solutions
Secure Plus is a transparent and feature-packed savings plan that offers 3 levels of protection.
Cash Plus is a transparent, feature-packed savings plan that offers 3 levels of protection as well as liquidity options.
Save 'n' Protect is a traditional endowment savings plan that offers life protection along with adequate returns
CashBak is an anticipated endowment policy ideal for meeting milestone expenses like a child's marriage, expenses for a child's higher education or purchase of an asset.
LifeTime and LifeTime II offer customers the flexibility and control to customize the policy to meet the changing needs at different life stages. Each offer 4 fund options -Preserver, Protector, Balancer and Maximiser.
LifeLink Super is a single premium Unit Linked Insurance Plan which combines life insurance cover with the opportunity to stay invested in the stock market.
Premier Life is a limited premium paying plan that offers customers life insurance cover till age of 75.
InvestShield Life is a Unit Linked plan that provides capital guarantee on the invested premiums and declared bonus interest.
InvestShield Cash is a Unit Linked plan that provides capital guarantee on the invested premiums and declares bonus interest along with flexible liquidity options.
InvestShield Gold is a Unit Linked plan that provides capital guarantee on the invested premiums and declares bonus interest along with limited premium payment terms.
Protection Solutions
LifeGuard is a protection plan, which offers life cover at very low cost. It is available in 3 options -level term assurance with return of premium and single premium.
HomeAssure is a mortgage reducing term assurance plan designed specifically to help customers cover their home loans in a simple and cost-effective manner.
Child Plans
SmartKid education plans provide guaranteed educational benefits to a child along with life insurance cover for the parent who purchases the policy. The policy is designed to provide money at important milestones in the child's life. SmartKid plans are also available in unit-linked form - both single premium and regular premium.
Retirement Solutions
ForeverLife is a retirement product targeted at individuals in their thirties.
SecurePlus Pension is a flexible pension plan that allows one to select between 3 levels of cover.
Market-linked retirement products
LifeTime Pension II is a regular premium market-linked pension plan.
LifeLink Pension II is single premium market linked pension plan.
InvestShield Pension is a regular premium pension plan with a capital guarantee on the investible premium and declared bonuses
Golden Years: is a limited premium paying retirement solution that offers tax benefits up to Rs 100,000 u/s 80C, with flexibility in both the accumulation and payout stages.
Health Solutions
Health Assure and Health Assure Plus: Health Assure is a regular premium plan which provides long term cover against 6 critical illnesses by providing policy holder with financial assistance, irrespective of the actual medical expenses. Health Assure Plus offers the added advantage of an equivalent life insurance cover
Cancer Care: is a regular premium plan that pays cash benefit on the diagnosis as well as at different stages in the treatment of various cancer conditions.
Group Insurance Solutions
ICICI Prudential also offers Group Insurance Solutions for companies seeking to enhance benefits to their employees.
ICICI Pru Group Gratuity Plan: ICICI Pru's group gratuity plan helps employers fund their statutory gratuity obligation in a scientific manner. The plan can also be customized to structure schemes that can provide benefits beyond the statutory obligations.
ICICI Pru Group Term Plan: ICICI Pru's flexible group term solution helps provide affordable cover to members of a group. The cover could be uniform or based on designation/rank or a multiple of salary. The benefit under the policy is paid to the beneficiary nominated by the member on his/her death.
Flexible Rider Options
ICICI Pru Life offers flexible riders, which can be added to the basic policy at a marginal cost, depending on the specific needs of the customer.
Accident and disability benefit: If death occurs as the result of an accident during the term of the policy, the beneficiary receives an additional amount equal to the rider sum assured under the policy. If the death occurs while traveling in an authorized mass transport vehicle, the beneficiary will be entitled to twice the sum assured as additional benefit.
Accident Benefit: This rider option pays the sum assured under the rider on death due to accident.
Critical Illness Benefit: Protects the insured against financial loss in the event of 9 specified critical illnesses. Benefits are payable to the insured for medical expenses prior to death
Income Benefit: This rider pays the 10% of the sum assured to the nominee every year, till maturity, in the event of the death of the life assured. It is available in SmartKid, SecurePlus, and CashPlus.
Waiver of Premium: In case of total and permanent disability due to an accident, the premiums are waived till maturity. This rider is available with Secure Plus and Cash Plus.
PLANNING TOOLS
ICICI PRUDENTIAL offers a range of tools to help you chalk out your financial plans properly.
Child Calculator: It helps you calculate and plan the future of your child.
Minimum Insurance Needs: It helps you calculate the minimum insurance cover that you must have in order to protect the financial future of your family.
Savings Needs: This savings calculator estimates the expenditure on your goals and aspirations.
Retirement Needs: It helps you make plan for a steady income for your future.
Investment Needs: It figures out the investment options for you.
The Financial Horoscope: It makes a comprehensive plan for your future taking into consideration all your savings, investment, and retirement needs.
Easy Plan Finder: It helps you find the plan that suits you best.
Types of Insurance
Life Insurance - Insurance guaranteeing a specific sum of money to a designated beneficiary upon the death of the insured, or to the insured if he or she lives beyond a certain age.
Health Insurance - Insurance against expenses incurred through illness of the insured.
Liability Insurance - This insures property such as automobiles, property and professional/business mishaps.
Porter 5 Force's model of Insurance Industry
Threat of New Entrants: The insurance industry has been budding with new entrants every other day. Therefore the companies should carve out niche areas such that the threat of new entrants might not be a hindrance. There is also a chance that the big players might squeeze the small new entrants.
Power of Suppliers: Those who are supplying the capital are not that big a threat. For instance, if someone as a very talented insurance underwriter is presently working for a small insurance company, there exists a chance that any big player willing to enter the insurance industry might entice that person off.
Power of Buyers: No individual is a big threat to the insurance industry and big corporate houses have a lot more negotiating capability with the insurance companies. Big corporate clients like airlines and pharmaceutical companies pay millions of dollars every year in premiums.
Availability of Substitutes: There exist a lot of substitutes in the insurance industry. Majorly, the large insurance companies provide similar kinds of services - be it auto, home, commercial, health or life insurance.
SERVICES MARKETING MIX
(1)Price
t
(2)Product
ICICI aims to deliver its financial products and services in the way its customers want them delivered: with exemplary service, convenience and at competitive prices. This is reflected in its mission statement: to set the standard in helping their customers manage their financial future.
ICICI is a global financial institution of Dutch origin, currently offering banking, investments, life insurance and retirement services to meet the needs of a broad customer base. Going forward, it concentrate on its position as an international retail, direct and commercial bank, while creating an optimal base for an independent future for insurance operations (including investment management).
Strategy
To serve the interests of stakeholders, increase management focus and create value for shareholders, ICICI is moving towards separation of its banking and insurance operations. They believe the widespread demand for greater simplicity, reliability and transparency makes this the best course of action. In the future, ICICI Bank will build on its global presence and international network and capitalise on its leadership position in gathering savings, multi-channel distribution, simple propositions and marketing..
Stakeholders
ICICI conducts business on the basis of clearly defined business principles. In all our activities, we carefully weigh the interests of our various stakeholders: customers, employees, business relations and suppliers, society at large and shareholders. ICICI strives to be a good corporate citizen.
Corporate responsibility
ICICI wants to build its future on sustainable profit based on sound business ethics and respect for its stakeholders and be a good corporate citizen. For only by acting with professionalism and integrity, will they be able to maintain our stakeholders' trust and preserve our reputation. Their Business Principles prescribe the corporate values they pursue and the responsibilities they have towards society and the environment: they act with integrity, they are open and clear, they respect each other and they are socially and environmentally responsible.
(3)Place
The ICICI in the U.S. take your privacy very seriously. They share a commitment to protect your privacy and the confidentiality of your personal and financial information.
As providers of products and services that involve compiling personal-and sometimes, sensitive-information, protecting the confidentiality of that information has been, and will continue to be, a top priority throughout icici. Whether you are a current customer, former customer, or potential customer, we believe that you should know about the information we collect, the measures we take to safeguard it, and the situations in which we might share information with select business partners. This notice explains how the icici handle-and protect-the personal information we collect.
The information we collect and the extent to which we use it will vary depending on the product or service involved. In fact, in certain cases, we may not collect or share some of the types of information noted below. For example, in a number of cases an ICICI has an agreement with distributors or plan sponsors that limits the sharing of information about its customers with any other company, even if that company is an ICICI affiliate. These agreements continue to be honored.
(4) Promotion
• Advertising: Television, radio, movies, theatres
• Print media: hoardings, newspaper, magazines
• Publicity: road shows, campus visits, sandwich man, Sponsorship
• Sales promotion: gifts, discount and commission, incentives,etc.
• Personal selling: Cross-sale (selling at competitors place),personalized service .
(5) Process
Customer enters branch
Security check
Inquiry by customer
Interaction with banker
Fills form
Told will receive welcome kit
Customer leaves
(6) People
In a company or organization, employees are essentially the contact personnel with customer. Therefore, an employee plays an important role in the marketing operations of a service organisation. To realize its potential in bank marketing, UCO become conscious in its potential in internal marketing - the attraction, development, motivation and retention of qualified employee-customers through need meeting job-products. Internal marketing paves way for external marketing of services. In internal marketing a variety of activities are used internally in an active, marketing like manner and in a coordinated way. The starting point in internal marketing is that the employees are the first internal market for the organization. The basic objective of internal marketing is to develop motivated and customer conscious employees. A service company can be only as good as its people. A service is a performance and it is usually difficult to separate the performance from the people.
(7) Physical evidence-physical evidence is the material part of the service.their are many examples of physical evidence
Internet
Paper work
Brouchers
Business cards
Building itself(such as prestigious offices, scenic headquarters)
The physical evidence also include signage ,reports,punch lines,other tangibles ,employee's dress code etc.
Signage:each and every bank has its logo by which a person can identify the company. Thus such signage is significant for creating visualization and corporate identity.
Financial reports:the company's financial reports are issued to the customers to emphasis or credibility.
Tangibles :bank gives pens ,writing pads to the internal customers. Even the passbook ,cheque book.
Punch lines: punch lines or the corporate statement depict the philosophy and attitude of the bank. Banks have influential punch lines to attract the customers.
Employee dress code: ICICI follows a dress code for their internal customers. This helps the customers to feel the ease & comfort.
SERVICE SEGMENTATION OF ICICI PRUDENTIAL
"Market segmentation is subdividing a market into distinct and homogeneous subgroups of customers, where any group can conceivably be selected as a target market to be met with distinct marketing mix."
Segmentation is essentially the identification of subsets of buyers within a market who share similar needs and who demonstrate similar buyer behavior. Segmenting isolates consumers with similar life styles, needs and the likes and increases our knowledge of their specific requirements. The more marketers establish this common ground with consumers, the more effective they will be in assessing these requirements in their communication programmes and informing or persuading potential consumers that the product or service offering will meet their needs. A company will evaluate each segment based upon potential business success. Opportunities will depend upon factors such as: the potential growth of the segment, the state of the competitive rivalry within the segment, how much profit the segment will deliver, how big the segment is and how the segment fits with the current direction of the company and its vision.
At the heart of any customer relationship management (CRM) programmer is the effective segmentation and profiling of customers allowing institutions to serve increasingly finer segments more profitably.
Segmentation seeks to differentiate between different value groupings, in order to establish the most significant features that describe the user of a particular product, and to identify which of those are characteristic of a particular customer group. By focusing in on those attributes with the greatest predictive strength, models can be created to predict propensity to purchase or to anticipate response to a new offer.
Whereas once banks could rely on the traditional stickiness of financial relation- ships to retain customers, now in a retail world characterized by intense competition, product commoditization and growing consumer sophistication, segmentation is key to differentiation, and growth. Every major financial services group is focusing on high-value customers who contribute disproportionately towards profits (a version of Pareto's Law is applied, which holds that 20% of customers account for 80% of revenues).
Segmentation poses challenges for organizational design, while vertical disaggregation of customer segments is essential in order to match different servicing levels with segment value, horizontal integration of value chain components within each segment is essential in order to ensure optimum fit between data, technology, products, distribution and the customer experience.
Segmentation is not synonymous with 'one-to-one' marketing as this rarely pass- es a cost-benefit test within the retail space, with the exception of certain high net worth and professional segments. However in order to retain customers (in particular via the branch) and given the issues parts of the retail sector face in terms of rebuilding trust and credibility with customers something closer to a one to one approach is needed.
Over the past ten years strategic thinking in segmentation has emphasized the move away from one-dimensional 'silo' typologies (labeling customers without trying to understand what drives their behaviors, attitudes, needs and preferences at a more fundamental level). Customer data is the financial services industry's greatest asset in achieving this. The goal is to mine the samples in order to find underlying patterns and trends, as a result of this, success measures are no longer connected to basic short term indicators such as:
- Shifting products to customers.
- Response rates of specific marketing campaigns. And have focused on:
- The growth of niche subgroups.
- The life style and 'liquidity' event customer.
- The increased categorization by preferred channel usage (branch/telephone/Internet/mobile).
- Alignment of micro targets with corporate goals
- Customer retention and lifetime value
In spite of this seemingly increased level of sophistication, results within the financial services have fallen far short of expectations and of what has been achieved in the FMCG sector; significantly greater cross-selling ratios have not been achieved.
While few would argue that simplicity and prioritization should guide all elements of a targeted segmentation initiative, achieving this is much easier said than delivered. Data quality and availability are key issues that limit the usefulness of internal data, while broader, market-based analyses raise concerns about accuracy. Legacy systems are a major hurdle. Even for companies that have surmounted this barrier, the lack of synergy often found between operational and analytical systems severely limits their usefulness...
QUALITY CONCERNS OF ICICI PRUDENTIAL
ICICI prudential
ICICI Life is rated A+ (Superior) by the A.M. Best Company. ICICI is a world class leader in providing financial products and services to its customers across the globe. ING provides banking, insurance and asset management to more than 60 million clients in over 50 countries. ICICI's businesses in the United States offer personal and institutional clients a broad array of financial products and services in insurance, asset management and direct banking.
ICICI provides retail and institutional clients with products and services in retirement services, annuities, life insurance, employee benefits, mutual funds, financial planning, reinsurance and institutional markets. ICICI distributes products through more than 200,000 financial professionals in the U.S.
ICICI Investment Management provides asset and relationship management services for institutional clients, as well as for many of ICICI's mutual funds and insurance companies. These services are offered through a wide variety of products, from traditional equity and fixed income to alternative assets, including structured products, private equity, single strategy hedge funds and funds of hedge funds.ICICI Direct, personal banking products; and ICICI Wholesale, financial markets and corporate services.
INTERATED GAPS MODELOF SERVICE QUALITY
EMPLYEE & CUSTOMER ROLE IN SERVICE DELIVERY IN ICICI PRUDENTIAL
ICICI Employee Benefits works with top quality brokers and producers from across the United States to offer valuable insurance products. Our reputation of building strong relationships is second-to-none and we pride ourselves on the localized sales and service we are able to provide.
For more than 80 years, we have offered traditional group insurance products (such as life, disability income, personal accident and stop loss coverage) as well as voluntary insurance products, (such as universal life, whole life, accident, critical illness and disability income) and retirement programs, all conveniently delivered at the worksite. And we enhance our services, technologies and educational tools to ensure ease in delivery. It's more of what your clients want.
At ICICI Employee Benefits, we have a national network of employee benefits professionals who operate from offices across the country. Our sales and service representatives take a consultative approach with you and your customers. Put simply, we seek to design and implement customized benefit plans that meet employer goals and employee-specific financial needs. Our sales and service team are backed by home office experts in underwriting, claims and customer service.
Today's employers find many challenges in their benefits programs. On one hand, you want to attract and retain employees by offering a full range of benefits. On the other hand, you need to control costs and keep administration easy.
ICICI Employee Benefits can help. We are proud to work with today's employers to offer valuable insurance products.
For more than 80 years, we have offered traditional group insurance benefits as well as voluntary insurance products and retirement programs, all conveniently delivered at the worksite.
Integrated Service Marketing Communication Of ICICI PRUDENTIAL
Stage 1: Tactical Coordination of Marketing Communication
1. Integration requires a high degree of interpersonal and cross-functional communication within the organization across business units, and with outside supplier. It cannot be driven by formal policies and procedures alone.
2. Organizations are taking charge of the integration process themselves rather than looking to ad agencies or other suppliers to provide the coordination.
Stage 2: Redefining the: Scope of Marketing Communication
3. Organizations gather extensive information about their customers-using primary and secondary market research sources as well as actual behavioral customer data-and apply that information in planning developing, and evaluating communication activities.
4. Best-practice organizations create a variety of feedback channels to gather information about customers and effectively use customer feedback throughout the company.
5. One of the most difficult challenges of integration is aligning internal practices and processes with external communication.
Stage 3: Application of Information Technology
6. Leading best-practice organizations maintain a greater number of data sources, and their marketing communication personnel have greater access to the data for planning marketing communication programs
7. Among organizations marketing internationally, best-practice organizations are more likely to maintain global, integrated databases than separate, non-integrated
databases.
8. Information technology must be effectively incorporated into communication planning, development, and execution to functionally turn customer data into customer Knowledge.
9. Relatively few organizations are taking advantage of available technology to create customized communication programs based on individual customer circumstances and characteristics.
Stage 4: Financial and, Strategic Integration
10. The role of the marketing communication department is perceived differently at partner Companies than at sponsor companies, with partners' departments more often having bottom-line responsibilities and a more prominent-role in strategic planning and new product development.
Delivering Service Through Intermediaries Of ICICI PRUDENTIAL
"This past year was highlighted by strong client retention and a continued leadership position in sales -- a clear demonstration that customers have confidence in our value proposition," said Catherine Smith, CEO of ICICI U.S. Retirement Services. "I'm proud of the outstanding work we accomplished to leverage our industry leadership, grow distribution relationships and execute important strategies. Despite the extraordinary market conditions this year, we've been focused more than ever on our business and continue to lead the way in helping American workers plan for their retirement."
Executing the CitiStreet Integration
One of ICICI's primary initiatives in 2009 involved the integration of the former CitiStreet LLC business, which ICICI purchased in July 2008. This successful effort brought the two companies together in 2009 as one cohesive retirement services firm.
Another measure of success was ICICI's expanded footprint in the defined contribution industry. With its combined businesses, ICICI's U.S. Retirement Services ranked among the top three plan providers and record keepers in the country, with more than 52,000 plan sponsors, approximately 7 million plan participants, and over $235 billion in combined assets under management and administration.1 The business is now uniquely positioned to serve all sizes and segments of the market - corporate, education, government, healthcare and not-for-profit.
"From pure record-keeping services to a full service investment provider, ICICI is one of the few companies with a scaled leadership presence across the entire spectrum and the ability to offer retirement solutions for any size or type of employer," noted Smith.
Growth and Focus in the Corporate Markets
In the institutional corporate market (plans with more than $150 million in assets), ICICI continued to deliver on more than eight years of consecutive growth. At the end of the third quarter, customer retention and new business relationships in this segment accounted for more than $5.5 billion in 401(k) plan assets and nearly 570,000 plan participants. Large plan sponsors benefitted from customized support and award-winning communication and education programs, including a series of global participant web casts and the expansion of online, personalized media initiatives.
Several of ICICI's largest 401(k) customers extended their relationships this year to incorporate additional value-added offerings such as the ICICI Advisor Service, a professional investment advice and managed accounts service, and ICICI's Taking Control® suite of solutions to help employees navigate the complexities of workplace transitions.
In the intermediary corporate market (plans with less than $150 million in assets), ICICI maintained its #2 sales position at the end of the third quarter for plans with less than 500 participants.2
Sales in this segment were bolstered by a new channel management distribution strategy and the technology synergies from ICICI's institutional market. Product offerings included the launch of ICICI's mid market Framewor(k)®, a customizable solution that features the benefits of open architecture, competitive pricing and fee transparency with a comprehensive suite of services.
ICICI also underscored its commitment to sponsors and distribution partners with a number of programs and technology investments. These included a new simplified product structure, an on-demand plan reporting system, the roll out of enhanced capabilities for the third party administrator (TPA) community and a new electronic payroll administration tool that connects to ICICI's recordkeeping system.
"They continued strong presence in all segments of the corporate market reflects their deep commitment to customers and business partners,"."they see tremendous opportunity in focusing on all portions of the 401(k) market allowing us to leverage their talent, resources and capabilities."
Continued Leadership in the Public Markets
For nearly four decades, ICICI has been a leader in the education market, helping teachers and academic professionals plan for their retirement. As of third quarter, ING ranked #1 in the K-12 market based on plan participants and sales, extending its leading sales ranking for the 25th consecutive quarter.3
ICICI also elevated its long-standing commitment to the higher education and healthcare markets with the introduction of a new business development team focused on strengthening relationships with existing customers and proactively forging new partnerships.
Building on its education leadership, ICICI remained at the forefront of helping school officials navigate the new IRS 403(b) regulations with supportive tools and innovative resources. At the end of the third quarter, 10% of all K-12 public school districts across the country had signed up for ICICI's pioneering planwithease.com administration and compliance platform. In addition, the online ICICI Educator's Direct 403 Program gained traction in the state of Delaware, where it launched to employees at 39 institutions. To date, market share has grown significantly for new enrollments, and ICICI is planning to expand access to other states.
In the government market, small and mid-sized plan sales were strong, and several new large plans representing $4.5 billion in assets under administration were successfully transitioned over to ICICI.
MANAGING WAITING LINES
People and their performance are key to an organization's effectiveness. This review describes an evidence-based framework of the links between some key organizational influences and staff performance, health and well-being. This preliminary framework integrates management and psychological approaches, with the aim of assisting future explanation, prediction and organizational change. Health care is taken as the focus of this review, as there are concerns internationally about health care effectiveness. The framework considers empirical evidence for links between the following organizational levels:
1. Context (organizational culture and inter-group relations; resources, including staffing; physical environment)
2. People management (HRM practices and strategies; job design, workload and teamwork; employee involvement and control over work; leadership and support)
3. Psychological consequences for employees (health and stress; satisfaction and commitment; knowledge, skills and motivation)
4. Employee behaviour (absenteeism and turnover; task and contextual performance; errors and near misses)
5. Organizational performance.
This review contributes to an evidence base for policies and practices of people management and performance management. Its usefulness will depend on future empirical research, using appropriate research designs, sufficient study power and measures that are reliable and valid
Stages in policy insurance
1) Proposal
A Proposal Stage is the First stage before the policy is issued at COPS. At this stage, the application form is received by COPS, but it is pending for issuance due to further clarifications required from the customer.
2) Login
A proposal which is complete i.e., duly filled with all necessary documents attached to it & accepted by the Branch ops, is called a Login
3) Reject
An Application gets rejected at the Branch Ops level due to necessary details not filled in the form or necessary documents not submitted is a Reject. It is then sent back to the Advisor for completion.
4) Issuance
Issuance means a policy that is issued to the Customer by Central Ops.
5) Decline Status
When a customer refuses to take a policy post login but before Issuance is called a Decline
6) Cancellation
When the cheque given by the customer bounces, it amounts to cancellation of the policy.
7) Lapse
A policy for which the Customer fails to pay subsequent premiums is a Lapsed Policy.
8) Freelook
Post issuance of the policy, the policyholder has the option to turn down the policy within 15 days from the date of issuance. This period of 15 days is called Freelook Period.
9) Surrender: When a customer wants to discontinue with the policy.
RECOMMENDATIONS TO COMPANY:
Since ICICI Prudential Life Insurance co. ltd is the largest in terms of FDI invested, in terms of work force, in terms of market share, in terms of no. of customers. All these positive stands of the company place at the number one position. On second aspect whatever amount of money ICICI Prudential save, can be used to increase the no. of policies, which will helpful to increase the market share of the company. Since the customers think about the companies in the industry, when they invest money in the life insurance industry. So it's necessary to increase the market share of the company. There are some recommendations.
Open some more branches in semi urban and rural area.
ICICI Prudential has almost its branches in urban area or metros. So in order to increase the no. of customer, ICICI Prudential should increase the approach towards potential customers. For that it has to increase the branches in the semi urban cities like C, D grade cities. And the rural marketing is the best option for ICICI Prudential to increase its base in the market
Improve customer services.
In order to take the advantage of being industry leader in private sector, ICICI Prudential has to improve its customer services. According to my experience in the company, a good number of customers forget to pay their premium at time so it causes a big loss to the company. ICICI Prudential has already collaborated with the ICICI bank for its Bancassurance facility and then can include another feature in it. ICICI bank can offer a bank account with the life insurance policy in which an ATM card will be provided. This card will have all the information regarding the policy as like future premium payment dates, payment made, money value of the policy at that date, value of the unit linked plan and all other information what the customer want. This will help the customer to pay premium on time and save their losses. This will be mutually helpful for both sister companies, ICICI bank will get new account and ICICI prudential will be able to more efficient services to their customers.
Bring some unit linked life insurance plans in the market.
Being a market leader doesn't ensure the leadership in the future. Since after increment in FDI from 26% to 49% all player will have the opportunity to capture the market share. So in order to maintain its position ICICI Prudential should
-Introduce some new market linked insurance plan, which will give a competitive advantage to the ICICI Prudential against its competitors.
Trained the financial advisors more efficiently.
In the changed scenario, more efficient training will be needed, so ICICI Prudential should provide good and efficient training to their financial advisors. Because they are the one who interact directly with the customers. So good training will give them the right way to deal with the potential customers.
