Last Updated on October 1, 2023 at 9:21 pm
The IRDA annual report with Life Insurance Claim Settlement Ratio Data for 2021 (FY 2019-20) was released on Feb 10th delayed by at least 1-2 months due to the pandemic. The claim settlement ratio data along with total claims and claims paid is presented in the table below.
Life Insurance Claim Settlement Ratio Data for 2021 (FY 2019-20)
| Insurer | Total Claims | Claims Paid | Claim Settlement Ratio |
| Max Life | 15463 | 15342 | 99.22% |
| HDFC | 12626 | 12509 | 99.07% |
| Tata AIA | 2982 | 2954 | 99.06% |
| Pramerica Life | 569 | 560 | 98.42% |
| Excide Life | 3468 | 3404 | 98.15% |
| Canara HSBC OBC | 1276 | 1252 | 98.12% |
| Reliance Nippon | 8017 | 7866 | 98.12% |
| Bajaj Allianz | 12127 | 11887 | 98.02% |
| Aegon | 351 | 344 | 98.01% |
| ICICI Prudential | 11460 | 11212 | 97.84% |
| Aditya Birla Sun Life | 5162 | 5035 | 97.54% |
| Aviva | 810 | 790 | 97.53% |
| Bharati Axa | 1320 | 1285 | 97.35% |
| PNB Met Life | 4364 | 4241 | 97.18% |
| Star Union | 1248 | 1210 | 96.96% |
| LIC | 758916 | 733809 | 96.69% |
| India First | 2241 | 2166 | 96.65% |
| IDBI Federal | 1416 | 1366 | 96.47% |
| Kotak Mahindra | 3346 | 3225 | 96.38% |
| Future Generali | 1143 | 1089 | 95.28% |
| SBI Life | 22490 | 21257 | 94.52% |
| Shriram | 3074 | 2816 | 91.61% |
| Sahara | 654 | 585 | 89.45% |
| Edelweiss Tokio | 326 | 272 | 83.44% |
Source: IRDA Annual Report FY 2019 2020 (pages 192,193)
Analysis: How to choose
We have already established that the Claim settlement ratio (CSR) is not a probability of life insurance claim acceptance! Even if you make the mistake of assuming it represents a probability, a high CSR means very little because most companies have this number 95% (20 out of 24) and there is little to distinguish among them based on just this number.
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What matters more is the total number of claims. The only reason a buyer is misguided to look at CSR data is that they want do not want to pay a high premium to LIC and want to look for a “reliable private player”.
Only six of these have more than 10,000 claims even 22490 claims to SBI LIFE is a less than 3% of what LIC got.
| Insurer | Total Claims |
| LIC | 758916 |
| SBI Life | 22490 |
| Max Life | 15463 |
| HDFC | 12626 |
| Bajaj Allianz | 12127 |
| ICICI Prudential | 11460 |
So if you want a private insurer then it makes no sense to look beyond these six. They are established and have enough market share to at least registered 10,000 plus claims. Beyond this, you will have to read the terms and conditions of the policy and “just pick one”.