SBI life insurance launches new pension products

Kolkata, Feb 15: SBI Life Insurance one of the largest players in the insurance sector today launched Unit-plus II pension product which ensures guaranteed addition in terms of pre-unit allocation.

Announcing the launch of the unique product Deputy CEO SBI Life Insurance Pier-Paolo Dipaola here today said the new product were in addition to SBI Life Insurance's two recently launched products called "the Horizon II pensions and the Life Long pension". SBI Life Insurance is a joint venture between State Bank of India and Cardiff SA of France.

Regarding the special features of the plus II pension scheme Mr Dipaola said it was a non participating unique-linked pension plan with a wide range of flexible features.

"The policy holders can opt to increase the regular premium or make top-up payments anytime, any amount. The policy holders can also choose the vesting age and has the option of advancing or postponing the vesting age. Depending on the risk appetite customers can choose from a variety of funds like Equity Pension Fund, Bond Pension Fund and Growth Pension Fund," he said.

Asked about their financial target the SBI Life Insurance Deputy CEO said that the compeny which was said to establish a total dominance in the domestic pension market by leveraging an extensive distribution network and a strong product portpolio was poised to reach Rs 2,100 crore mark by March end this year in terms of the first premium collection.

He said the group could set its distrubution network through the SBI's 14,500 branches in addition to 20,000 insurance advisors.

About the National scenario of the sell of insurance products in India Mr Dipaola said currently the pension fund had turned out to be the most popular among all insurance products float by all public and private players with an annualised growth of around 22 per cent.

He said so far the total number of people covered under various SBI Life Insurance schemes had crossed the 6 million mark demonstrating a phenomenal 266 per cent growth during the last 3 years.

To another query he said the company had recently announced the infusion of additional fresh capital to take-up its paid-up capital base to Rs 500 crores to meet the expenses of the company's aggressive growth plan while the authorised share capital was to the tune of Rs 1000 crores.

UNI