IRDA license don’t have many takers in India. Why?

People need insurance policies to secure a future that is looking bleaker with each passing day. You would think that the rise in demand of insurance policies due to that need would flood the market with seekers of IRDA license – people who want to become web aggregators in insurance or agents of insurance policies.

However, that is not the case.

IRDA certification process is one that’s difficult. It requires thorough investigation by the IRDA and it requires the license seekers to have special qualifications. Perhaps, this difficulty is the reason many entrepreneurs don’t commit to go through the entire process. It’s reason that seemed reasonable to us until we started to dig deep.

And we found that it’s  a combination of lack of awareness, the greed of the industries and the lack of care that are responsible for the lack of holders of IRDA web aggregator license.

Who are web aggregators in India?

Web aggregators of insurance policies are companies that specialize in presenting insurance products via their websites. Their goal is to help the visitors of the site to go through these insurance policies, read the terms and conditions, compare between them and then buy the policy. Simply put, an insurance web aggregator is an intermediary that works on behalf of several insurance companies. This is what a web aggregator is, an intermediate for the insurance companies, but without any human element.

Let’s now discuss what an insurance web aggregator is not. He is NOT a marketer. While he provides information about the insurance service, none of it is marketing content. He has to provide fair facts about the policies to the people while remaining unbiased towards the companies that he represents.

The non-marketing factor is not desirable by many entrepreneurs. Just think about it, you only provide simple information about a service if you’ve already grown big enough.

This brings is to the first reason why there are not many who have insurance web aggregator license in India:

You need to be well established in the business industry to become successful as an insurance web aggregator.

From the cost of setting up the infrastructure to the qualifications required for the license, every requirement for IRDA license needs more time and more money. So, for start-ups, becoming an insurance web aggregator is out of the question.

Lack of awareness is one major factor that not many seek IRDA license

Like all government authorities, the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India also believes in doing the bare minimum. It is quite vigilant when putting notification on the IRDA websites. However, regardless of how important these notifications are, they don’t reach out to people. Why? It’s because  merely putting the notification on a website has virtually has no visitors is not the way to spread awareness.

While there are content creators and IRDA licensing companies who market their online insurance license service provide consumer friendly information, they are quite few. Registrationwala is among one of them. Despite our efforts, people still find it hard to get interested about how to get IRDA license because the IRDA notifications on which our contents are based on, is incomplete.  

People’s confusion about what the license is?

Applicants who choose to get IRDA license. Download it after going through the process without knowing what exactly they are allowed to do. The recent developments at PolicyBazaar -  India’s premiere Insurance web aggregator – has shown that even the biggest players are unaware of the intricacies present in the IRDA policies.

They believe that the license they obtain from the IRDA  agent licensing portal allows them to:

1. Market the insurance policies, which it does not, and
2. Provide favours to particular insurance companies, which it also does not,

Why we have written this article

Insurance web aggregators removes the human – the corruptible element – from the process of getting insurance policies. It provides fair information to the people about insurance policies that they need and does so in a way that’s impartial to any particular insurance company. In the age where fraudulent factors are getting stronger and the legitimate service providers are few, the concept of Insurance web aggregator should not be removed. Thus, in order to increase people’s interest in IRDA license, we should:

1. Provide them with better options.
2. Make them realize the importance of services,
3. Creating awareness about the policy and it’s perks among them.