25 hrs training mandatory for insurance agents

It's back to school for insurance agents "" individual and corporate. The Insurance Regulatory Development Authority's (Irda) has now stipulated that all existing insurance agents will have to undergo a 25 hours of practical training to renew their licence, which was valid for three years. Composite agents will have to undergo a practical training of 50 hours.

This once again brings up the issue of training the agents of the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) recruited before Irda came into being.

LIC, at present, has a total of 10 lakh agents. A couple of lakh or so agents recruited after Irda's formation will have to mandatorily take the 25 hour training but the situation is not clear for agents recruited before Irda's formation.

The purpose of such practical training is to enable agents applying for the renewal of licences to acquaint themselves with the latest developments in the insurance market.

The topics for practical training under life and general insurance business shall include new regulations, notifications and circulars issued by Irda that affect intermediaries or policyholders.

The training module will include new products introduced by insurers, all tax matters relating to and benefits accruing from such products, advance sales training, services which policyholders expect from agents and provisions of agents' code of conduct, protection of policyholders' interest and grievance redressal mechanism and refresher for some important topics of previous 100-hour training on request from trainees.

The institute where training will be imparted will also have to obtain a feedback from agents on the 100-hour pre-licensing training and send it to Irda for information.

Agents, however, keep getting training on a regular basis from their companies they work for.