All about CorporateAgent and its registration process in India
The IRDAI, i.e., the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India, as per its regulations of 2015, has mandated the registration of Corporate Agents in the Insurance market. The said regulations become effective from April 1, 2016. Since then, multiple corporate agents have registered under the above mentioned IRDA's provisions.
WhocanbecomeaCorporateAgentinIndia?
Any existing business structure can become a Corporate Agent, such as
An Insurance Agent participates in soliciting, producing, and servicing the insurance business of Insurers of all kinds, be it life, general, or composite.
TypesofCorporateAgentsinIndia
The Corporate Agents in India are broadly categorized into the following four types:
Life Insurance Corporate Agent: A Life Insurance Agent can engage with three life insurers. They can solicit, procure and service their insurance products for policy pitching.
General Insurance Corporate Agent: A General Insurance Agent can engage three general insurers simultaneously. They can also solicit, procure and service the corresponding insurance products.
Health Insurance Corporate Agent: A Health Insurance Agent can engage with three health insurers at a time for solicitation, procurement, and service provisions regarding the health insurance products.
Composite Corporate Agent: A Composite Agent can apply for any or all of the abovementioned insurance products and services.
If the Insurance Agent wants to reflect any change in its Business's nature, then it can do so with prior approval from the Authority. The Insurance Agent must make suitable arrangements for servicing existing policyholders.
AreyoueligibletobecomeanInsuranceAgentinIndia?
Every Insurance Agent must fulfill the following conditions before applying for the Agent License registration with the IRDAI:
Nature of the Business
Any of the following entities can apply for its registration as a Corporate Agent in India:
Act
Liability Partnership Act
Societies
RRB or Regional Rural Bank
Necessary Infrastructure
under the Regional Rural Banks Act, Section 3
The Insurance Agent applicant must build the required infrastructure to roll out their business activities. By infrastructure, we mean the following:
trained
Principal Officer Qualification
The principal officer of the Corporate Agent must be a graduate. He or She must have completed at least 50 hours of training from a recognized institution approved by the IRDAI.
Code of Conduct
The Corporate Agent Licensee must strictly adhere to the IRDAI's set Codes of Conduct for the Insurance Agents. Also, every License firm executive must have a Fit and Proper certificate issued by a Competent Authority.
Net worth Requirements
The Insurance Agent applicant must maintain a minimum share capital of 50 Lakh rupees.
HowtoregisteryourBusinessasaCorporateAgentFirminIndia?
To register your Business as a licensed Corporate Agent Firm in India, the licensee must commit to the following steps:
Prepare the requisite documents to be attached to the registration application.
File the online application for Insurance Agent registration and pay the application processing fee.
Submit the application and regularly check the application status on the official website. The IRDAI, during the assessment period, can ask you to submit some missing details or prove the authenticity of the submitted documents. The Authority can also summons the applicant.
After successful registration, the Authority will grant you the Certificate of Registration for the Corporate Agent.
Application Attachment for Corporate Agent Registration
The applicant must submit the following documents with the registration application:
Certificate of Registration of the Business Entity
Details of the Branch Offices (proposed or existing) of the applicant Firm
Details of the Principal Officer of the applicant Firm
Details of the individual directors or partners of the applicant Firm
Chart briefing functional responsibilities of each Department in the organization
LicensingFeefortheCorporateAgentRegistration
Pre Registration
Every Corporate Agent applicant must pay a non refundable fee of ten thousand rupees plus applicable taxes for the license registration as well as renewal. The applicant must pay the fee in favor of the Insurance Regulator and Development Authority of India.
The applicant can pay the fee through a recognized Electronic Funds Transfer to the IRDAI. The IRDAI will not entertain any application without the application fee.
Post-Registration
The newly registered Insurance Agent must, above all, pay an amount of 25 thousand rupees plus applicable taxes within 15 days of the license registration. In addition, after receiving this post registration fee, the Authority will grant you the registration certificate to act as a Corporate Agent under your chosen Insurance category.
Renewal Fee
Upon its license expiry, an Agent can apply for license renewal by filing an application for renewal in the prescribed format. Along with the renewal applicant, the applicant must also pay a fee of 25 thousand rupees to the Regulating Authority.
WhatisthevalidityoftheAgentLicense?
The Registration Certificate of a licensed Corporate Agent is valid for three years. The validity is noted from the date of its issue of the License. However, if, in any case, the Authority chooses to revoke or cancel the License of the Corporate Agent, then the License will be expired before its validity expires.
UnregisteredAgent:Whatcangowrong?
If a business is impersonating as an Agent without holding a valid Agent license, then the Regulating Authority will penalize the business under the Criminal Act and related Laws against
such violations. The director, manager's secretary, or other officers of the Corporate body and its Partner will also be penalized in a court of law.
IRDA’sCorporateAgentCompliances
Every licensed Agent is permitted to solicit as well as service insurance business as per the set regulations of the IRDAI. He or She must comply with the provisions of the following:
Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999
the Regulations, Circulars, Guidelines, and Instructions issued by the Government
Informing against Misinformation
An Agent must inform the Authority in writing if any particulars submitted by them to the Authority are false or misleading and also file the application for the correction with the Authority.
Redressal of Grievances
The Agent must take adequate steps to redress grievances for the clients. Also, the redressal must be resolved within 14 days of such a complaint’s receipt. Also, the Authority instructs the Agent to submit the number, nature, and other particulars of the complaints received by him to the Authority in the prescribed format. The Agent can only solicit as well as procure a reasonable number of insurance policies. They must commensurate with their resources as per the number of specified persons they employ.
Insurance Policy Recordkeeping
A licensed Corporate Agent must maintain records to capture the policy wise as well as the person wise details of the sold insurance. Every policy solicited by the Agent must be tagged to the person. The exception is the simple products sold over the counter and approved by the Regulating Authority.
FAQs
Q1. What is Corporate Agent in Insurance?
1. A corporate Agent is a person or a business entity who will market and pitch the Insurance products and services of its clients, i.e., Insurers, to the potential consumers. An Agent is a broker working for Insurance Companies.
Q2. How to become a Corporate Insurance Agent?
1. You can become an Agent in India by filing for Corporate Agent license registration with the IRDAI. If you want the registration procedure, you can refer to this article’s section, “How to register your Business as a Corporate Agent Firm in India?”.
Q3. Can you share some of the Corporate Agent regulations issued by the IRDAI?
1. In this article, we have detailed the Agents' compliances issued by the IRDAI in the “IRDA Corporate Agent Compliances” section.
Q4. What are the different IRDA Corporate Agent registration fees?
A. There are majorly three types of licensing fee requirements for the license registration enlisted in the following points:
1. Pre registration Fee
2. Post registration Fee
3. License Renewal Fee
SD: Learn all about the Corporate Agent: its meaning, types, purpose, scope, benefits, operational condition, and registration process.