Ease of living to Senior Citizens
Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) is aimed at providing ease of doing business in Insurance industry and for protection of interests of policyholders. In this direction, to bring ease of living for senior citizens, IRDAI has relaxed the requirement of submitting separate proposal form for taking the Immediate Annuity products from proceeds of National Pension Scheme (NPS). In current scenario, NPS retirees submit an exit form to NPS and a proposal form to insurers at the time of superannuation.
Now, the exit form of NPS will be treated as proposal form for purchasing annuity, thereby reducing the time and efforts of senior citizens as well as insurers. Also, in order to increase the adoption of technology, insurers have been advised to adopt Adhaar based authentication for verification of life certificate, such as Jeevan Pramaan, a Government of India initiative on biometric enabled digital service.
Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India
Cir No: IRDAI/Life/CIR/MISC/188/09/2022 | Dated: Date: 13 September 2022
To,
All Life Insurers
Subject: – Immediate Annuity Products
1. This has reference to the immediate annuity products offered by the life insurance companies to the subscribers of NPS retirees. In order to offer these products, life insurance companies in accordance with Regulation 8 (1) of IRDAI (Protection of Policyholders’ Interests) Regulations, 2017, are using proposal form.
2. In this regard, currently all insurance companies to offer immediate annuity products, collect proposal form from the NPS retirees. However, it has been observed that, PFRDA is collecting exhaustive exit form from the NPS retirees which captures necessary details which insurance companies require in the proposal form.
3. Given the duplication and to facilitate ease of doing business and simple onboarding of NPS retirees for immediate annuity products, after due consultation with the industry, IRDAI in exercise of power conferred under Section 14(2) (e) of the IRDA Act, 1999 and Section 34 of Insurance Act, 1938 issues the following direction:
(i) The Exit Form submitted by NPS retiree must be considered as the proposal form, for offering the immediate annuity product by the insurance companies.
(ii) In order to facilitate ease of living for all senior citizens who are receiving annuity payments the current framework of Aadhar based authentication for life verification certification such as Jeevan Praman, a Govt. of India initiative on biometric enabled digital service for pensioners, to be adopted.
4. In this regard, the requirements of Section 41 and Section 45 of Insurance Act 1938 shall be considered as compliant as no direct solicitation of business is involved.
The circular comes into force with immediate effect.
CGM (Life)
