Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority (IRDA) have initiated dialogues to come up with an agreeable regulation regarding the star product of India's Life Insurance industry- Unit-linked insurance plans (Ulips).

SeEBI spokesman announced that SEBI had agreed to explore various ways to resolve the matter. SEBI Chairman CB Bhave had an hour long meeting with the IRDA Chairman J Hari Narayanan.

The trigger for the meeting was the show cause notices issued by Sebi to life insurance companies for selling ULIPs without an explicit prior approval from SEBI.

IRDA maintains that the unit-linked plans were approved by them under the Insurance Act. SEBI's contention is that ULIPs if sold under collective investment schemes should come under their purview.

The final decision will have significant impact on the Insurance Industry as the ULIPs are a substantial portion of new policies sold in the industry

Find attached a comparison of ULIPs plans from BimaDeals.
If for some reason, you cannot see this image- please view the attached file

BimaDeals has now come up with a Comparison Chart in ULIP Products which will help you to check out the Eligibility differences, Premium Allocation Charges & other Features across Life Insurance Players.

ULIPs are not a pure insurance product, but combine the features of both Insurance and Investments. It is this flavor of investments that makes this product volatile and susceptible to market changes.
As a policy holder one can choose between the various ULIP plans that an Insurance company has and these typically vary according to the percentage split between debt & equity or the kind of sectors that the fund manager would typically invest in.

Given that the equity markets have a certain level of inherent uncertainty, it is obvious that many policy holders would want to re-think their fund selections - based on how the market has performed and what the projections look like.