Gone are the days when one had to go through a lot of hassle in order to purchase an insurance policy. In this modern era of the Internet and with the advent of the life insurance aggregators, the hiring of a local agent to sell insurance products, such as life insurance and regular visits of this agent plus fear of being cheated due to lack of information related to the insurance company has all vanished.
In our busy life, who really wants to spend time with insurance agents to understand a policy, its terms, and other information, especially when everything is available online? Today, the Internet has changed these things for better. Just like any other online shopping, purchasing an insurance policy has also become simple and quick today. Instead of hiring an insurance agent or going to the local insurance office, one can easily access the website of a trusted life insurance aggregator to fetch all the necessary information.
What are web aggregators?
The basic role of a web insurance aggregator is to enable comparisons among various financial products of different financial institutions at a single platform. Generally, insurance web aggregators are the insurance portals that help you compare insurance policies of different companies, such as life insurance policies of various insurance companies, and enable you to purchase a policy by either directing the insurer to you or you to the insurer.
As per the definition presented by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) of India, a web aggregator is a company that is registered under the Companies Act to maintain and/or owes a website that provides information of different insurance products of various insurers.
Role of a web aggregator
The primary role of a web insurance aggregator is to compare various insurance products of different insurance companies. These websites have agreements with the insurance companies for providing all the relevant information to consumers. Resultantly, a web aggregator displays all the information of the insurers on its website in a specific format. However, they are not allowed to present best sellers, ratings, rankings, or endorsements of insurance products. They are not allowed to display anything other than insurance products and cannot carry any advertisements on their web page at any time.
Remuneration for web aggregators
Insurance aggregators display insurance products and feature price comparisons of insurance products, based on a tie-up with different insurance companies. An insurer has to pay a flat amount of Rs. 50,000 per year for each product that is displayed on the comparison charts on the webpage of the aggregator. Addition to this fee, they can also charge commissions for lead generations for the insurer of not more than 30% of conversion. The aggregator can also charge a fee for various other activities, such as premium collection performed by it, but this fee should be pre-defined.
Benefits of using web aggregator
One of the advantages of web aggregators is saving your effort and time in comparing multiple insurance policies. In addition to this, since many banks, non-bank financial institutions, and insurers participate and compete in this neutral online marketplace, everyone gets the same portion of opportunities to attract customers through their actual product values instead of just doing marketing.
Limitations of aggregators
Limitations of web aggregators are:
- The IRDA of India defines a range in which all the web-based insurance aggregators work. Same lead cannot be transmitted to more than five insurers, which are within the same level of business or to more than one broker.
- Same lead cannot be shared with both an insurer and a broker.
- A lead has to be shared with the insurer and/or broker within five days of making a query on the website.
- Web aggregators are allowed to socialite the insurance policies. In other words, they have all the authority to transfer a lead or call you for selling a policy. However, they have to ensure that no inconvenience is caused in this process.
- A web aggregator can share the contact details of its users with the insurers for making a call, but the website has to display this information properly on its homepage that the particulars of visitors can be shared with the insurers.
In past few years, the need of an online platform for personal finance management has become more apparent. This has generated the need of having devoted websites known as “Web Aggregators” that offer all the key information related to different financial products. In this way, customers are able to compare different insurance policies and get the best policy for them on one platform.
The web aggregators are known for giving their unbiased views on various financial products to the customers so that they can make a wise-decision in selecting the best product for them. It is a growing market and the key to success is having a proper infrastructure in order to provide both product and service to the client correctly.
Various reports say that there would be 450 million users of the Internet by the year 2020, thus more and more insurance companies are approaching the web aggregators. It is because these companies know that these platforms are acting as information providers, solicitors, brokers, and telemarketers.
These insurance platforms have made the life of a common man so much easier that he/she need not rush to an insurance agent or company to make their future safe by taking a most-suited policy. In this busy time, nobody wants to go here and there to purchase a life insurance policy or bear the timing issues of an insurance agent when everything is conveniently available online.
So trust a web aggregator and opt the best insurance policy weather it is a life insurance policy or something else for you and your loved ones. Do not waste your time by going to an agent or visiting the office of an insurance company; rather go to the webpage of an insurance aggregator and avoid any hassle.
