IRDA, the insurance regulating authority has just approved the ULPs- Universal Life Policies for Bharti Axa Life Insurance and Max New York Life.

Its an interesting development in our opinion because of the inherent nature of ULPs.

Here are few of the salient features

1.Customers have flexibility in premium, sum assured as well as the tenure of the product.

2.Freedom to vary the payment of the premium over the policy’s life- you can start with monthly payments, switch to annual then quarterly and so on. What does not change is the premium quantum.

3. Also the policy is not automatically cancelled even if the customer fails to pay the premium. Even if the lapsed payment is not made , the ULP will be kept in force- what does change is the sum assured at the time of payout.

Bharti Axa General Life Insurance Company Ltd, a joint venture between Bharti Group and Axa group, today said it would invest Rs 645 crore in the next five years to expand its business.
CEO Milind Chalisgaonkar said "We are committed to invest Rs 645 crore in the next five years. The capital would be pumped in depending on business growth"
The company has invested Rs.190 crore since august 2008.
He said that the company has 31 products to offer and has applied for another 20 with IRDA (Insurance Regulatory Development Authority) and will also expand its branches to 80 and number of agents to 4000 by the end of 2009.