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 Home > Indian Management Education >
A Career in Insurance |
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A Career in Insurance -Serena Kallian
The insurance industry in India has never seen such vibrancy and choice like the present. If its history need be told then it should be mentioned that the insurance industry in India can be dated back to 1818 with the Oriental Life Insurance Company, Kolkata started by Europeans and today has come to be known as the Life Insurance Corporation of India. With this early beginning the insurance sector has seen all kinds of market trends starting with open competition, nationalisation and now liberalisation.
The Indian insurance sector which was largely a mainstay of public sector players witnessed a transition with the 1999 IRDA act. The Insurance Regulatory Development Act of 1999 encourages private sector insurance companies to be a part of the Indian insurance industry thus regulating their growth and ensuring the security of the policy holders. The insurance sector's value is currently estimated to be a whopping $ 41 billion. It is further expected to grow at a voluminous rate in the next decade. All this only suggests a wide range of opportunities awaiting finance and management aspirants.
A few of the well known insurance players from both the public and private sector who are part of the Indian markets include LIC, Aviva Life Insurance, Birla Allianz Life Insurance Company Ltd, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Ltd, HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co Ltd, Max New York Life Insurance Co Ltd, SBI Life Insurance Co Ltd, Religare Life Insurance.
The insurance companies usually fall into three major categories: life insurers, general insurers (property/casualty), health insurers, etc. Apart from this, the current trend with insurance companies is the investment function. This has led to an interest in finance and money management along with focus in securities research.
The industry opens up the following alleyways for an insurance aspirant: Role of the actuary, underwriter, risk manager, loss control specialist, claims adjuster, customer services managers, portfolio managers, service representatives and last but not the least the insurance agent or the broker.
In order to begin a career in the insurance industry one does not require any specific qualification which specialises in insurance. However, having a finance background either at a graduation level or the masters or a management degree can be an added edge in case one is looking to start at a higher position at the outset. Having had prior work experience is an added advantage.
Having said that it should be noted that specialised programmes in insurance is gaining popularity among aspirants and the industry also seems to be recognising this potential. The ICICI Prudential life Insurance Company Ltd in a joint venture with the Indian Institute of Management Kolkata (IIM-C) has on offer an executive programme on campus called the Executive Programme in Management and Insurance. This programme is a one year full time course with a batch strength of 80-100 and a course fee of Rs 2.1 lakh. This is essentially aimed at attracting talent among fresh graduates who wish to make a mark in the insurance sector. The participants also get a chance to intern with ICICI Prudential life insurance in the course of the programme.
The programme covers the following areas in its content: marketing management, business statistics, business economics, information technology for managers, financial accounting, Insurance 1 (introduction to financial planning, risk management & insurance basics), Insurance 2 (legal aspects in business and insurance), Insurance 3 (life solutions), Insurance 4 (underwriting & actuarial applications), Insurance 5 (financial plan construction) (to be connected with the Internship), sales, distribution management and customer relationship management, financial management, creative thinking & negotiation skills, organisation behaviour-I, organisation behaviour–II, investment analysis, financial instruments & markets, introduction to portfolio management & taxation, business strategy and business ethics, personality development, business etiquettes & communication etc. The National Insurance Academy set up in 1980 is yet another academic body and institution which offers numerous training programmes and certifications for insurance employees and aspirants. International B-schools also have similar programmes which focus on the insurance industry, for instance Wharton, University of Pennsylvania a pioneer in this regard has a department solely for this purpose. It is called the Insurance and risk management department which offers undergraduate, MBA and doctoral programmes in this field. University of Georgia's Terry College of Business offers undergraduate, MBA and doctoral programmes in Risk management and Insurance. The undergraduate programme in risk management and insurance has also featured in the local US rankings.Indian academic circles are now waking up to the burgeoning trend in insurance and so a wide array of programmes may unfold soon.
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