Mahindra Insurance Brokers to reach 100,000 more villages in 3-4 yrs

Firm says in FY14 itself, it had a million retail cases serviced and generated gross premium of Rs 825 cr

Mahindra Insurance Brokers aims to reach 100,000 additional villages in the next 3-4 years. The insurance broker which completed 10 years last year has already reached 100,000 villages through its suite of offerings.

Jaideep Devare, managing director of Mahindra Insurance Brokers said that in FY14 itself, the company had one million retail cases serviced and generated gross premium of Rs 825 crore. It had an income of Rs 111 crore with a profit after tax of Rs 42 crore. Mahindra Insurance Brokers is a subsidiary of Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services Limited (Mahindra Finance), a group company of the Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) group,

Apart from the focus on the commercial and corporate segment, Devare explained that they have a strong focus on the rural markets as well. The company also has a loan-related insurance product targeted at people who take loans from Mahindra Finance.

Mahindra Loan Suraksha (MLS) is a Credit Term Group Plan. This is a pure death cover given to Mahindra Finance loan customers. MLS protects the customer's family and assets in case of the death of the customer by covering the Outstanding Finance amount, thereby not putting the burden of repayment on the family. The average sum assured in this case is about Rs 3-5 lakh, which is typically the cost of the vehicle. For instance, a tractor purchased through Mahindra Finance.

Similarly, its product Sampoorna Suraksha gives a life cover (Credit Term Group Plan) and Fire cover for Mahindra Home Finance customers. They also have Aarogya Suraksha plan which provides health cover without medical tests up to the age of 65 years. There is no waiting period for this scheme.

Going forward, Devare said that the focus would be on increasing presence in the SME segment, which is under-penetrated at present. These could be fire policies for smaller factories which may not require very detailed inspection or policies to cover potential liabilities for exporters. Mahindra Insurance Brokers aims to be among the top 100 brokers in revenue by 2020 globally.

With the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana and the government's financial inclusion agenda, he added that insurance intermediaries like them would play a crucial role in this initiative and that they have already reached several villages in this endeavour.

In 2012, Mahindra Insurance Brokers Ltd signed a strategic partnership with LeapFrog Investments, one of the world's largest investor in insurance to under-served consumers. Under the partnership, LeapFrog's subsidiary Inclusion Resources, Singapore invested Rs 80.41 crore for a 15 per cent stake in MIBL. This partnership aims to create significant impact by enabling millions of people to protect their assets, and thus the livelihoods on which their families depend, Devare explained.