Seminar on Consumer Education - Key for Insurance Policyholders - FY 2012-13

One day seminar on “Consumer Education - Key for Insurance Policyholders” was organised by M/s. Consumers Association, Palakkad, Kerala on December 28, 2012. After the welcome speech by Mr. P A Surendran, General Secretary of Consumer Association,the seminar was inaugurated by Mrs. Yegnapriya Bharath,Joint Director, IRDA.Mr. P.M. Ali Asgar Pasha, IAS, District Collector, Palakkad and Mr. Parwathy Warrier, Social activists are other speakers in the inaugural session. The participants include representatives of consumer bodies, NGOs etc.

There were four technical sessions viz. Life insurance and its benefits; health insurance, grievance and claim settlement systems motor vehicle accidents, ULIP issues and concerns & on the subject of policyholders’ protection.The technical session panel consisted of experienced personnel from insurance companies, resource persons from consumer bodies, senior officials from Government offices viz. Dy. Superintendent of Police, District Magistrate etc. Mrs. Yegnapriya Bharath has addressed the inaugural session and also informed the participants about various initiatives taken by IRDA towards protecting the interests of the Policyholders during the technical session.Kerala being highly literate State, the seminar was taken as an opportunity for exchanging of views by the consumer organisation members and the insurance service providers.The questions raised during the sessions were very pertinent to the topic of each session and relevant to the theme of protection of policyholders’ interests.The concerns expressed were over the issue of controlling of losses in case of motor third party claims which has a direct impact on the cost of the insurance; curbing mis-selling in life insurance and creation of a guarantee fund to protect interests of policyholders in case of insolvency of any private insurance company . Overall, the seminar was executed very well.