mumbai stung by the strong negative perception against unitlinked insurance policies ulips created by complaints of rampant misselling in the past several life insurers are taking measures to preempt such grievances and nip them in the bud in an attempt to stymie future complaints and safeguard their reputation life insurers like sbi life idbi federal and indiafirst life have started making calls to their policyholders to enquire whether they have understood the policy terms and conditions before issuing the policies these preissuance calls are made even before the policy is issued and the mandatory 15day freelook period clause which allows policyholders to cancel the policy and claim refund of premium comes into play this year we sold 113 lakh policies out of which 95 lakh went through this call process to confirm whether policyholders had understood the terms and conditions or not said arijit basu managing director and ceo sbi life companies are also carrying out an internal suitability analysis in addition to need analysis that is part of the standard proposal form prescribed by the insurance regulator we will evaluate whether the prospective policyholder can afford the product like banks ascertain whether you can afford emi or not also in case of potentially vulnerable customers say those aged over 50 or 60 we call them to explain product workings and ask them if they are aware of the terms and conditions said rm vishakha managing director and ceo indiafirst life insurance ulips had gained notoriety following largescale complaints against distributors who pushed these products on the back of exorbitant commissions in 2010 misselling complaints and turf war with markets regulator securities and exchange board of india sebi over regulation of ulips prompted the insurance regulatory and development authority of india irdai to issue sweeping guidelines including capping ulip commissions and other charges industrywatchers feel that regaining the dented customer confidence is among the key challenges the life insurance sector is facing at present the customer has to be at the centre of insurers universe however many life insurers had moved away from this principle and were focussed on pampering the distributors instead only now have some insurers started placing emphasis on customers interests said anuraag sunder managing consultant financial services pwc india to assure customers on their commitment to claim settlement idbi federal and max life offer a claim guarantee that is claim processing within 810 days failing which the policyholder is paid penal interest for the period of delay we pay customers 8 interest for every day of delay in claim settlement this is not going to increase our topline but sends the message to existing customers that we value them said vighnesh shahane wholetime director and ceo idbi federal life insurance