91% people consider purchasing life insurance necessary: Survey - Business Standard

Most people (around 91 per cent of respondents) in the country consider purchasing life insurance a necessity but only 70 per cent are willing to invest in the same, according to a survey conducted by the Life Insurance Council (LIC).

The findings are based on a survey conducted across 40 cities with more than 12,000 people to understand their perception towards life insurance.

The Life Insurance Council is the face of the life insurance industry that connects various stakeholders of the industry.

The survey showed that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a significant increase has been witnessed among people opting for life insurance. However, there is still a gap and a need to raise awareness about the importance of purchasing life insurance.

“While 91 per cent of the people consider it a necessity, only 70 per cent are willing to invest in the same,” it showed.

Of the total respondents, 71 per cent were already secured owners of life insurance or were keen to buy one, it said.

Protection in an unforeseen event, financial security for the future and achieving collective financial goals of the family are the important reasons for a majority of the respondents to purchase life insurance, the survey highlighted.

The survey also showed that life insurance investment has a perception of being long-term in nature as well as expensive these are the top-two barriers for adoption.

The west market findings highlighted that a large group of young adults and millennials were not only aware of life insurance but are also willing to invest in it.

The mindset of investing wealth was already dominant as 45 per cent of the respondents in the west invest in equity and shares, this was the highest amongst all the zones.

The high ownership in cities like Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Pune in the west is also because of the 92 per cent people that believe life insurance is a necessity for them.

The survey showed that among all other financial instruments, life insurance has near-universal awareness levels with around 96 per cent as compared to mutual funds (63 per cent) or equity shares (39 per cent).

More people above the age group of 36 years own life insurance than youngsters. Half of the respondents prefer buying life insurance from an insurance agent while three in 10 prefer banks, it said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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