Every side of the promise, in order

Mandate

Raise persistency and reduce mis-selling, above all in the promoter bank's branches, without abandoning the value-of-new-business growth the company had described to investors at listing.

Outcomes

• Thirteenth-month persistency rose from 78.4 per cent in FY2021-22 to 85.2 per cent in FY2025-26, and 61st-month from 49.0 to 58.6 per cent.
• Complaints alleging mis-selling fell from 41 to 17 per 10,000 new individual policies.
• Protection grew from 9 to 16 per cent of APE, including 1.12 lakh term policies for GST-registered traders.
• Retail range cut from 31 to 22 products, each with a named owner and an annual persistency and complaints review.
• Value of new business margin rose from 22.6 to 25.0 per cent despite the 2024 surrender-value changes.

Decisions in context

I was appointed chief product officer in April 2021, with responsibility for every retail product and a seat on the executive committee. The managing director's brief was blunt: our persistency trailed the better-run listed insurers, mis-selling complaints were rising in our promoter's branches, and investors had been told to expect growth in value of new business. I started with the fixed-return savings plan sold to older bank customers, then moved underwriting into the design of our bank-sourced term cover, built the trader term plan and led our response to the 2024 surrender-value changes. I lead 140 people with seven direct reports, chair the management product committee and report each quarter to the board's policyholder protection committee. By March 2026 APE was ₹4,120 crore, the value of new business margin 25 per cent and thirteenth-month persistency 85.2 per cent.

Reason for the move

Current role. Not seeking an executive move; considering one independent directorship with the consent of Varunashree's board.

Mandate

Rebuild the savings range for bank customers and launch the company's first annuity products ahead of a planned listing.

Outcomes

• Launched immediate and deferred annuities in 2018; single premium reached ₹620 Cr by FY2020-21.
• Built an in-house benefit-illustration engine used across every channel.
• Prepared the product, persistency and channel disclosures for the 2019 listing.
• Introduced the first persistency report by channel and branch cluster, presented quarterly to management.

Decisions in context

I joined Varunashree Life in September 2016 to rebuild its savings range and give it a retirement business it had never had. The company was then an unlisted subsidiary of Varunashree Bank, selling mostly through the bank's branches. We launched immediate and deferred annuities in 2018, built an illustration engine so every channel showed customers the same figures, and prepared the product and persistency disclosures for the November 2019 listing. In April 2019 I became head of products for the whole retail range. I also built the first persistency report by channel and branch cluster. That report showed the weakness in our largest fixed-return plan among older bank customers well before I acted on it, and I count the delay as my mistake. I moved into the chief product officer role in April 2021.

Reason for the move

Promoted to chief product officer with responsibility for every retail product.

Mandate

Make the insurance attached to every loan pay families quickly and fairly, after the 2010 Andhra Pradesh crisis had damaged trust in the sector.

Outcomes

• Cut the median time from a death to the family's payout from 64 days to 11.
• Extended credit-life cover to borrowers' husbands, whose deaths caused more defaults than borrowers' own.
• Retendered the group cover in 2014, reducing the premium rate by 18 per cent while adding spouse cover.
• Introduced a written explanation of each insurance charge, read aloud at group meetings before disbursement.

Decisions in context

Sevvanthi lent small sums to women in joint-liability groups, and every loan carried group credit-life cover with the company as master policyholder. When I arrived in April 2012 the claims process was failing the families it existed for: the median wait after a death was 64 days, and loan officers sometimes kept collecting in the meantime. I built a team of claims coordinators in four states, moved document collection to branches and agreed settlement timetables with the three insurers we placed business with. We extended cover to husbands, whose deaths were the larger cause of default, and retendered the programme in 2014 at a lower rate with wider cover. I reported to the managing director and presented claims data to the board's risk committee twice a year. I left to design products from inside an insurer.

Reason for the move

Wanted to design products inside an insurer rather than buy them on borrowers' behalf.

Mandate

Turn insurance selling in the branches into a process the bank could defend to its customers and its auditors.

Outcomes

• Introduced a needs-analysis form and a second signature for customers over sixty buying unit-linked policies.
• Reduced free-look cancellations from 9.4 to 3.1 per cent of policies sold.
• Moved part of the branch incentive onto second-year renewals.
• Retrained 1,900 branch staff after the September 2010 unit-linked rule changes.

Decisions in context

Sindhavi Bank sold life insurance as a corporate agent through 620 branches, and I joined in June 2007 to manage that product shelf. In 2008 and 2009 I saw unit-linked policies offered to depositors as if they were deposits, and free-look cancellations reached 9.4 per cent of policies sold. With a team of twelve I introduced a needs-analysis form, a second signature for customers over sixty and an incentive paid partly on renewals, and I worked with the bank's internal auditors to test branch sales files. When the regulator lengthened the unit-linked lock-in and capped charges in September 2010, we retrained 1,900 branch staff within a quarter. By 2011–12 free-look cancellations were 3.1 per cent. I completed an evening management diploma in 2010. I left to work on insurance for low-income households.

Reason for the move

Wanted to work on insurance for low-income households, where the cost of a bad product falls hardest.

Mandate

Build pricing models for an early private insurer's first products, and later manage its unit-linked range.

Outcomes

• Built profit-testing models for 14 endowment, term and unit-linked products.
• Managed the unit-linked range as it grew to about 70 per cent of new business.
• Wrote the company's first lapse study, showing that a third of regular-premium unit-linked policies stopped before year three.
• Passed three further actuarial examinations, seven in all.

Decisions in context

Ambalika was one of the private life insurers licensed after the market opened, and I joined in August 2002 as a pricing analyst reporting to its chief actuary. I built profit-testing models for fourteen products and passed three more actuarial examinations. In 2005 I moved into the product team to manage the unit-linked range, which grew to about 70 per cent of new business as equity markets rose. The work that mattered most was a lapse study I proposed myself. It showed that a third of regular-premium unit-linked policies stopped before their third year, mostly among customers sold premiums out of proportion to their income. The study reached the executive committee but changed little in sales practice, and I decided that I needed to understand selling from the inside. I left for a bank in 2007.

Reason for the move

Wanted to see how products were sold, and moved to a bank's distribution team.

Mandate

Prepare data and calculations for employee-benefit valuations.

Outcomes

• Prepared valuation workings for about 60 employers a year.
• Built a mortality and withdrawal study from the records of 11 employer schemes.
• Passed the first four actuarial examinations.

Decisions in context

I joined Kaliyur Actuarial Consultants in July 2000, two months after finishing my master's degree, as one of six analysts in a small Chennai practice. Most of our work was valuing gratuity and leave liabilities for employers, from textile mills to software companies, so that their accounts could carry a reliable figure. I prepared data and calculations for about sixty valuations a year and passed my first four actuarial examinations in the evenings. My most interesting project was a mortality and withdrawal study built from the records of eleven employer schemes, which taught me how much a careful look at real behaviour can change an assumption. By 2002 private life insurers had begun selling, and I wanted to price products for customers rather than value liabilities for employers. I moved to Pune that August.

Reason for the move

Private life insurers had begun selling policies, and I wanted to price products rather than value liabilities.