Shareholic

Monday, April 22, 2013

INSURANCE EXAMINATIONS - TIPS FOR INTERVIEW – PART: 002




INSURANCE  EXAMINATIONS - TIPS FOR INTERVIEW – PART: 002

01. What are the specific principles of insurance? The following are the specific principles of insurance:
·         Uberrima Fide – utmost good faith
·         Insurable interest
·         Indemnity
·         Proximate clause
·         Subrogation
02. What do you know by actuary? The actuary is a technical expert who combines an understanding of the risks involved in insurance and the mathematical techniques to develop insurance products to manage these risks. He advises on pricing the insurance products and calculates the reserves to be held for meeting the financial risks of the insurance products. Insurance Regulatory Development Authority has made it compulsory for any life insurance company to appoint an actuary without which they cannot carry on their life insurance business
03. What do you know by Unit Linked Insurance Policy? ULIP is an abbreviation for United Linked Insurance policy. It is a life insurance policy which provides a combination of risk cover and investment. The dynamics of the capital market have a direct bearing on the performance of the ULIPs. In a unit linked policy, the investment risk is generally borne by the investor. Most insurers offer a wide range of funds to suit one’s investment objectives, risk profile and time horizons. Different funds have different risk profiles. The potential for returns also varies from fund to fund.
04. What do you mean equity funds? The amount collected through premium is invested in equity funds and it is an investment in company stocks with the general aim of capital appreciation and the risk category is medium to high
05. What do you mean by Income, fixed interest and bond funds? In the case of income, fixed interest and bond funds, they are invested in corporate bonds, government securities and other fixed income instruments and the risk is medium
06. What do you mean by cash funds? Cash funds is also called as money market funds and they are invested in cash, bank deposits and money market instruments and the risk is found to be low in this type of investments
07. What do you mean by balanced funds? Balanced funds denote the combination of equity investment with fixed interest instruments and the risk is found to be medium
08. What do you mean by group insurance ?Group insurance is plan of insurance which provides life cover to a number of persons under single policy called as master policy. The premium is comparatively cheaper because of the low administrative handling only one policy instead of many policies.
09. What are the features of group insurance? The features of group insurance are as detailed below:
·         The premium is very low
·         A number of group insurance schemes have been designed for various groups. These include employer-employee groups, associations of professionals (such as doctors, lawyers, chartered accountants etc) members of cooperative banks, welfare funds, credit societies and weaker sections of society.
·         Individual lives are not assessed. A person will be covered so long he remains eligible to be the member of the group
·         Double accident benefit: i.e. payment of double the sum assured on death due to accident (without permanent disability benefit) may be allowed under group insurance schemes for an extra premium
10. What do you know by General Insurance Corporation? General Insurance Corporation is a sole reinsurer in the domestic reinsurance market providing reinsurance to the direct general insurance companies in India. General Insurance Corporation of India receives statutory cession of 20 per cent on each and every policy subject to certain limits and leads domestic companies treaty programmes and facultative placements. The corporation’s reinsurance programme has been designed to meet the objectives of optimizing the retention within the country ensuring adequate coverage for exposures and developing adequate capacities within the dome.
11. What do you know by Insurance Ombudsman?
·         The institution of Insurance Ombudsman was created by Government of India
·         Notification dated 11.11.1998 with the purpose of quick disposal of the grievances of the insured customers and to mitigate their problems involved in redressal of those grievances
·         Insurance Ombudsman is of great importance and relevance for the protection of interests of policy holders and also in building their confidence in the system. The institution has helped to generate and sustain the faith and confidence amongst the consumers and insurers
·         Ombudsmen are arbitrators for insurance related disputes to be resolved quickly and at a very low cost
·         There are twelve offices of insurance ombudsmen across the county
·         Any insurance related complaint can be filed
·         Complaints upto Rs. 20 lakhs for life or non life policies can be filed with the ombudsmen
·         Insurance Ombudsman has two types of functions to perform :1) conciliation; 2) award making. The Insurance Ombudsman is empowered to receive and consider complaints in respect of personal lines of insurance from any person who has any grievance against an insurer.
·         The complaint may relate to any grievance against the insurer. i.e. i) any partial of total repudiation of claims by the insurance companies; ii) dispute with regard to premium paid or payable in terms of the policy; iii) dispute on the legal construction of the policy wordings in case such dispute relates to claims; iv) delay in settlement of claims and e) non issuance of any insurance document to customers after receipt of premium.
·         The insurance companies are required to honour the awards passed by an Insurance Ombudsman within three months
12. What do you mean by micro insurance? Micro insurance is the term used to refer to insurance to the low income people and is different from insurance in general as it is a low value product (involving modest premium and benefit package) which requires different design and distribution strategies such as premium based on community risk rating (as opposed to individual risk rating), active involvement of an intermediate agency representing the target community and so forth.
13. What do you mean by nominee in the case of one insurance policy? Nomination assumes great importance in life insurance policies and in the case of death of the life assured, claim money is to be paid to the nominee and it facilitates the insurer in paying the claim amount.
14. What do you mean surrender value? The cash value payable by Life Insurance Corporation of India on termination of the policy contract at the desire of the policyholder but before the expiry of term is known as surrender value. A policy can be surrendered, provided the policy is kept in force for at least three years. The bonus will be added provided the policy was in force for at least three years. i.e. premium should have been paid for three years and also three years should have been completed from the date of commencement. This condition is not applicable in respect of claims by death.
15. What do you mean by certificate of insurance? Certificate of insurance is issued by the insurer either by the Life Insurance Corporation or private life insurers as the case may be and it contains the essential features of the insurance contract like date of the policy, date of expiry of the policy, insurance amount, risk cover, subject matter and also the name and address of the assured.
16. What do you mean by assignment? An assignment of a life insurance policy may be made only by an endorsement upon the policy itself or by a separate instrument signed by the transferor or assignor or authorized agent. The assignment is effective if only an attested copy of the endorsement should be sent to the insurer. The insurer has to give a written acknowledgment of the receipt of assignment notice. The assignment may be of two types viz., absolute assignment and conditional assignment.
17. What do you mean by foreclosure? Foreclosure means closure or witting off the insurance policy before its maturity date. The life assured has options to pay interest or allow it to accumulate from the policy money which is payable when the claim arises if a loan is granted on the policy. In the case of paid up policies, the surrender value will not grow fast as compared to accumulated interest. Sometimes, the principal loan amount and interest accumulated will be more than the surrender value and the foreclosure is necessary in such situations. If the foreclosure is planned, a notice may be issued to the policyholder calling for the payment of arrears of loan interest. In case interest is not paid, the policy is said to be foreclosed; i.e. surrendered to loan amount. The balance surrender value will be paid to the policy holder is any after adjusting the principal loan amount outstanding interest.
18. What are the steps in selling life insurance? There are four important steps in selling life insurance which are as detailed below:
·         Knowledge and understanding of the prospect’s problems
·         The sale of the objective, the result of the problem, rather than the problem to be solved
·         The development of possible solutions of which the key factor is determination of the prospects major objective
·         The application of all facts and figures as they relate to the salesman’s proposal and their direct relationship to the prospect’s specific problem.
19. What are the selling techniques of a salesman? A salesman should follow AIDAS formula. A for attention, I for interest, D for desire, A for action, S for satisfaction/
·         The products must attract to the customers, salesman should create interest in the minds of the customers by sales demonstration. He should develop the desire to buy the products
·         Physical qualities: The physical appearance is the biggest asset of a sales person – free from physical defects – sufficient care for his appearance, appropriate dress – cheerful smile in his face – a good natural smile is most important
·         Social qualities – such as ability to make himself socially acceptable – mingle with groups
·         Mental qualities – good power of memory and observation-able to recognize customers, their characteristics, buying motives – absentminded person cannot be a good salesman. He must be resourceful, self confidence – proper management of time and systematic attitude such as creating a goodwill and name for fair and honest dealings – loyal to both to his employer and to his customers.
20. What are the characteristics and traits of salesman? The following are the characteristics and traits of salesmen
·         Trustworthiness
·         Enthusiasm
·         Empathy
·         Persistence
·         Patience
·         Desire for self improvement
·         Motivation





No comments: