The behemoth: LIC's commission ratio one of the highest among its peers

The Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) is the fifth largest life insurer in the world and tenth largest in terms of total assets. LIC boasts of an asset under management (AUM) of Rs 39 trillion as of September, almost 3.3x more than the AUM of all private life insurers in India and 16.2x more than the second-largest Indian player. As of FY21, LIC had 45 products in its portfolio, compared with 39 of SBI Life, and 48 of HDFC Life. 

It has a market share of 63.6 per cent as of September in terms of total premium, and 64.5 per cent in terms of new business premium. In number of policies (individual), it commanded 71 per cent market share as of September. 

It also boasts of large agency force of 1.34 million agents as of September as against 143,232 agents of SBI Life, 107,157 agents of HDFC Life, and 198,050 agents of ICICI Prudential Life. LIC’s commission ratio is also one of the highest among its peers.