POSTED BY April 23, 2014 COMMENTS (78)
ONToday, I wish to highlight a fraud, which has been going on for many years, but one that has not received enough attention. While the fraud itself is small and easy to conduct, its impact on investor wealth is significant.
Many investors, who wish to deposit money in some financial product as a ONE-TIME payment, opt for a ‘Single Premium’ policy. Here they are required to just pay the premium fee once, and the policy carries on for many years after that.
The mistake some investors make, is that they convey these instructions verbally to their agent and do not fill up the form themselves. Neither they do verify the tenure filled by the agent. Now what many unscrupulous agents do, is that instead of ‘Single Premium’, they specify ‘Regular Premium (or yearly) as the payment scheme – leading to a situation where the investor has to pay the same premium amount every year for many years thereafter.
What are the possible problems which happens ?
There are several readers on this blog, who shared their real life experience in the comments section on how they were cheated and lost their money and peace of mind. I just want to make you aware of these experiences. Read on below.
Example #1 – How Mr. Syed Jibran cheated by people at HDFC Bank
Through the HDFC bank, I told the concern person to deduct the amount of Rs 200000/= from my saving account and consider as the single premum only, as i cant pay the amount of rs 200000/= every year. But later I come to know that they have consider my premium as the regular premium. Next day I sent the mail to head office, not to process my application and refund the same amount in my saving account.
I got the call from head office, that they cannot process to cancel my application, as they required in written cancellation letter . I agreed with team, but this is not at all my fault. Yesterday, I got a mail mentioning that there are free-look charges. This mail shocked me – even your agent cheats me, but you charges me. I send you many mails not to proceed my case and refund the same amount in my account. you can check that????????????????
Example #2 – How Naresh policies were Lapsed because he was cheated
One of my relative taken policy from Religare insurance broking ltd before 5-6 years ago with kotak-3 lacks, birla-8 & 5 Lacks as one time premium, now they are saying that the policy was regular premium plans and that is lapsed. sir now my relative want his money back.what should he do now.pls help.
Example #3 – How Reliance Life Insurance agents cheated Mr Ashok
We discussed with Reliance Life Insurance , Senior Sales Manager Mr Amit Khandelwal that we need single premium policy , he has taken our signature on application form and advised us not to fill the forms saying that “ form is complicated and likely to be filled wrongly by you consequently form will be rejected , better I will fill up the forms , as discussed , we are doing day in out this. “
Later on , he filled up the forms in his own handwriting, he has given his own home address and the worst thing he did he has filled up regular premium payment of 5,00,00/- for 5 years despite that we decided for single premium.
Return of policies was not possible for us as we have received policies very late , much beyond 15 days free look period , as policies were dispatched to Sr Sales Mgr address.
Even after this Reliance letter , I was keep on getting phones from local Indore office that we are discussing your case with our HO Mumbai , but off-late nothing has happened as yet. It is a clear case of mis-selling , breach of trust, fraud and forgery by Reliance Life Insurance. Reliance Life has terminated policies and Fund value is 50%.
Frankly, it’s just because they earn higher commissions through this ploy. Agents earn meager commissions on “single premium” policies, but on yearly premiums they stand to reap much higher rewards.
For example – For pension plans, the single premium commission is capped at 2% (that too one time only), however if it is a regular premium, the commission would be 7.5% for first year premium and 2% in subsequent years. Which means that if a person buys a pension plan with Rs 1 lac premium, for a Single premium policy, the agent will get 2,000 rupees, whereas if he cheats the customer and puts “regular” as the premium tenure, then he will get 7,500 rupees in first year and 2,000 in next year premium (provided it is paid by the investor).
Also on various other life insurance policies like endowment and moneyback plans, the first year premium is as high as 35-40%. So why would an agent settle for just 2% premium as commission, when he can take 20-40% of the premium (which is 10-20 times original commission)
Here are some simple common sense tips which will work
I invite suggestions from our readers on what solutions are possible if someone becomes a victim of such a fraud?
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Mr Manish, Thanks for giving examples. This will really create awareness among people.
Thanks for your comment Shivakumar
Very nice article. Due to the fraudulent agents , I ensure that I always fill the form myself. If thats not possible , I ask the agent to fill the form , review it and ONLY then sign the form. NEVER before that.
Great ! .. this is the way to go !
True, happened with my Dad, who is a senior citizen (70+) – the agent sold ICICI Pru Elite Pension policy, verbally telling that its a one time premium of 5L.
The Policy docs arrived late – just 2 days before the free look up period would end, the policy asked to pay 5L premium for 3 years – to his surprise!
This was in Aug 2009 & today’s fund value is Rs 4.6 L (even with Sensex booming to 24K), the policy is so rigid that it has just 5 funds to switch/allocate the amount online- all 5 with poor NAVs.
Wish I was aware of this investment way back then & this could have been avoided.
Thanks for reading.
Vyom
Thanks for sharing that Vibhor !
Who fill up the form ?
And lookup period starts from the date when you get the policy in your hand, not from the date of buying the policy !
Manish
The agent filled the form – the biggest mistake! (though the form was attached when the policy arrived).
Yes, I’m aware of the lookup period, the policy arrived very late & it had a date which was just 2 days away.
Thanks.
Hmm yea that was the biggest mistake I guess !
It is always better to write one’s name and Policy No on the back of the cheque/DD one gives to the agent. Otherwise, there is a scope for the agent to use that cheque/DD to pay for others persons policy and pocket the cash given by the other person.
Very Valid point !
Another story I would like to mention here which is similar to above:
One of my friend took a policy with an insurance company. Premium amount is 1 Lakh and policy term is 5 years. He took two policies. On first year he filled the forms and paid 2 lakh in cheque. The agent collected the money and the policy is delivered. He told my friend that he will come to his home every year and will collect the premium and will give the receipt for the same. On 2nd year, he collected the premium amount of 2 lakh cheque for renewal and he hasn’t back with receipt. The amount is debited in his bank with the name of an insurance company. So my friend hasn’t worried much. When he called the agent, he said he is very sick and he went to his native and will be back soon and will handover the receipt. days pass by. After a month, my friend called the agent again but this time his mobile is switched off. He went to the insurance company branch and asked for the receipt. That time only he found that the cheque he gave to agent has not been used for the policy renewal. Instead it has been used to buy 2 new policies. The old policies are lapsed already.
Thank u sir for enlighten us..
Buying a policy has a mess now a days…Not worth it, at of the day i unless for saving tax..Normally for all my Medical and Kids plan i go online and do it..Instant receipt and confirmation.
Thanks for sharing that incident Sri !
Dear Frnds,
Needed some enlightenment here..
Had taken a LIC Jeevan Anand Policy from a know LIC agent last year. Old LIC product, so though nothing could go wrong with it.
Its a 20 year policy with 1 lac annual premium. He has divided it into 20 individual policies with different policy numbers. With 1st year policy maturing in 21st year and so on. I did not understand why he did it but he said its for better returns.!!
Normally i understand buying a single policy and paying regular annual premium over the policy term but this one is a bit complicated.
Kind advise what am i missing here?? Agent getting better commission every year.?
Regds
Jay.
Manish Ji..Kindly advise on above??
He did this for one reason that it looks more attractive to customers . You will start getting yearly income that way . A policy will mature in 2030 , you get money .. then in 2031 , you get money .. etc etc ..
So its a structure which gives you yearly income like pension
I am not sure if he will get a better commission here ~
Dear Sir,
Firstly, I would like to say Thanks for your valuable articles.
I would like to add something regarding this article.
All this kind of frauds will be done by corporate agents and agents of private insurance companys (Many of my friends are victims of corporate agents and I have different types of examples like selling one product and explaining a different product initially, etc. ). In your article, you mentioned as Agents. I feel that you cannot use the term “Agents”, instead you have to mention “some agents” or “some corporate agents”. Your article heading damages the image of all Agents. This is because usually you will circulate your articles with titles and links. Most of the people just see the title and try to understand/conclude from the title itself instead of reading the entire article.
In case of corporate agents and agents from private companys, there is no long lasting relationship between the customer and agent. Their relationship is on the fly and there will be no follow up from the agents most of the cases (more than 90% of such agents will not do any follow up). So these kind of agents wants to earn as much as possible.
I took my first policy from one of LIC agent more than 14 years back and he is regularly in touch with me. In these years I took multiple policies and I never have any bad experience. The same case with many clients who took policies from him. I use to hear the same thing about agents from LIC. I never heard any wrong commitments from LIC agents.
You cannot treat all agents as same kind. I can understand that it is not your intention, but I suggest to change the title to convey the correct information.
Hi Rajendra
Thanks for sharing your views . .you are really lucky to have a great agent. However there are many LIC agents whose horror stories you will find in this same blog at various places .
Also when I say “agents” – surely it does not mean “every agent” in the same way “politicians are corrupt” means “some politicians are corrupt” .. But here maximum agents are not honest as per my experience with readers.
Manish
Most of the fraud is being done by LIC agents only since its the largest Insurer in the country and sells more policies than any other private Insurer. Since LIC enjoys the trust and faith of the people of India, its that much easier to carry out these fraud by the agents.
Why should Manish sugarcoat the reality of what’s happening just because you happen to have a good agent? I wouldn’t even say your agent is anything special. Most agents keep in touch and collect premiums yearly so that they can sell more policies to you in future and also ensure the commission flow is not abrupted.
My father also thought his agent was ‘great’ until the day came when he chose to surrender one of his many policies recently. He was initially refused outright and then given the real run around. That’s when you realize how ‘great’ your agent is and this is an agent with whom we share a 30 year long relationship. The same agent also tried his level best to dissuade my father from buying LIC’s term Insurance saying all sorts of nonsense. He kept suggesting LIC’s Money Back Plan instead!!
Fair point !
sir,
what do you mean by multiple policies?
I am real Victim of M/S Birla Sunlife Insurance Company,Jorhat Branch, Assam. Two polices were made with yearly premiums on 2010 and 2011. Agent use to collect cheques yearly 2012. But after that agent stopped collecting premiums. But on enquiry with my passbook and Bank, I have seen electronic deduction of Different premiums( Higher Amount) and on quarterly basis are made without my knowledge and authority. I asked Bank official, they let me understand that they cannot stop the premium deduction, unless Birla sunlife insurance ask them. I have written to their head office. To my surprise they let me know earlier two polices were lapsed and new polices were made with high quarterly premium. They said I have signed for the New policies and electronic deduction from my account. In fact that was total fraud, as I have never received any New policy nor I am aware of such policy.
For last one year I have written to Birla sunlife and even IRDA a large no of complains . They are asking me to renew the earlier two policies with big amount of consolidated premiums and they are silent about how the New policies were made without my knowledge.
I am cheated , can any body help me in this regard ?
You need to move to consumer forum now …
@Jyotsna – I have a Financial Services co based out of Guwahati, Assam. I am myself from Jorhat, Assam though I am based in Bangalore. Write to me, I will try and see how we can help you.
Exellent article and experiences from public.Thanks.
Thanks
Dear Manish,
Very good eye opening article. I never ever heard this type of fraud!
My wife is an LIC agent and what we do is fill-up the application form, send / show to customer for their review for each & every details and once they say it is ok, we submit it to LIC office for further processing. Customers really gets amazed when we do this. Many customer share their earlier experience that they never came across with such approach. It’s agent’s moral responsibility to give each & every details correctly.
Many customers also amazed and shared their experience about non-medical ploicy. What happens, when a policy is non-medical, agents need to mention weight & height, chest & abdomen measurements in the proposal form itself. Many agents don’t measure it actually but write down these details based on customer’s body. One should not allow agent to do so and must insist on taking correct weight & measurement details. At least, we do take correct measurements.
As I know, LIC have now started enclosing a copy of the proposal form along with policy document. Customers should go through it once received. If they don’t, they must insist through written application.
Thanks again for this info.
Regards,
Ashvin
Yes, one has to review it for sure !
another suggestion is that inspite of all the emails, branch visits or phone calls, if the life insurance company doesnt honour your request, you can write to “Pehredaar” programme on cnbc awaaz channel or write to moneylife magazine; these 2 forums are doing the work of providing adequate justice to the sufferers due to misselling
Infact this is an extremely common way of misselling being used by insurance advisors since many years now; few companies have launched the system of welcome calling to the customer before submitting the form in their branch to avoid such misselling and customer service issues in the future. One way to stop getting duped by such practices is to fill the form oneself. Such practices of asking the advisor to fill the form leading to problems also happen in case of home loans, personal loans, credit cards etc and not just restricted to life insurance
Thanks for sharing that point !
In my case, I have followed recommendation suggested in the article. Same thing was told me that pls sign the blank application form and later they would fill it. They exactly told the same thing that if we fill it up, there could be some mistakes and the it might get rejected.
I refused and told them to fill up the form and bring it to my signature. When the filled form was brought to me, I almost took a day to review the details and ensure everything is right and signed the doc. Although the taken ULIP underperformed, I did not have any issue of miscommunication or agent fraud.
Another thing I noticed with HDFCLife Insurance is that your filled & signed application is scanned to be made part of the Policy document. When you recv the policy doc, you can actually view your signed application form which I felt bit transparent .
Thanks for sharing that point . you did 100% right thing ! .. great !
I have also experienced the same with Bajaj Allianz ,my father who was retired want to invest 2 Lac money in a single premium policy , but the agent sell him a regular premium policy, which he came to know after a completion of one year when he get a shocking call from Bajaj Allianz to pay next premium.My father who was retired won’t be able to pay the same amount and the agent is also left the Job Bajaj Allianz also raised hand. Although he has complained the matter to various official but no one is listen his pain for loosing the hardcore income of his entire life. My father is decided to close the policy and he get the final refund amount 1.22 Lac . We have loosed 78000 in a year.
sad to hear that .. Yes – its a cheating from agent, but I am not sure how do you prove that you didnt knew that its a REGULAR premium plan, In the court of law, everything depends on the PROOF . You should have read the policy document once it came to you !
I fully agree to a comment made above that it is “team game plan” and obviously individuals are soft targets for them. But the question is why one should be a soft target ? Simply because we trust them blindly ?.
Following are some suggestions, for like we say “prevention is better than cure” :
> Do not just by policy from an agent who has approached you on his own through somebody like your old friend or distant relatives, saying that pl. buy a policy from me so that I would be able to achieve my yearly target.
> Always remember that, buying a policy is your need and can not be somebody else’s whom you do not know.
> When you receive a policy original document, do not just file it, but give some time and take some pains to go through in detail for what was assured verbally by an agent at proposal stage.
> If you have a slightest doubt that verbal assurances are not fulfilled in policy document in ‘Black on White’, first and foremost important thing to do is, do not discuss your doubts/questions on phone, but send an e-mail and preserve all such communication.
> Seeing your e-mails, if an agent/customer care center tries to call you and explain then listen, but do not accept their verbal explanations immediately. At the end of the call, always tell them silently that they should put all this communication on record by sending you a reply mail referring to your original query mail.
> If the agent or a company is dishonest, you would never receive a reply in writing. Then send them reminder only once.
> General experience is, you will not receive a reply mail, because no cheater would like to put their false & hollow explanations on record by writing you an e-mail.
> In such a case never call for follow-up. Because if you call, they will try to convince you for a solution which would cost you huge amount of money and you may agree to settle the case to get out of it.
> Without calling them, lodge your written complaint to banking ombudsman or authorized customer grievance bench with a copy to an agent / insurance company.
> If you take immediate above step, then and then only the case will be settled in respectable manner OR remember that it is their “team game plan”.
Great points .. everyone should read these points !
yes, every word is true.
I want to ask a question regarding the free look period .Does the free look period start when we get the policy documents in our hands, or does it start when it has been dispatched by the insurance company?
Starts when you get the policy in hand !
Thanks for your reply!
yes, date of receipt of your policy bond by courier or speed post.
kindly note that 15 days only, NOT working days.
in one case the courier itself delayed by 5 working days.
another case the life co. closed on sat, sun and monday on pongal/ dushara etc. holidays.
in such, kindly call the help line immediately.
3. in one case customer returned the policy by courier which excceded the above 15 days.
these are all from my old memory.
i do not know what really happened.
thanks
Better talk to company only through RTI now !
thanks manish … this is new for me ..thanks for sharing this information .
Welcome .. now share it with more people !
I have taken TATA AIA -MAHA LIFE GOLD policy three years back. my age now 48 years. I have taken it online, just 3 days before leaving abroad(for employment). The online agent told me that the policy period is 10 years. I received the document after two months (In India).
I came back India and gone through the policy document . This is after three years and noticed the premium payment term. it is 15 years. As per my age, i have to pay premium even after retirement. I am facing a strange situation, is difficult for me. I understand that it is also one kind of fraud.
Please advice me what to do about this policy ?.Should I cancel or continue.
In case, if I cancel the policy, beneficial for me ??.
There is an alternate option called making the plan “paid-up”. In this case, one would not need to make additional premium payments. However, there would be a reduction in the amount of sum assured. It would be a ratio of the number of premiums paid to the total number of premiums multiplied by the original sum assured.
IMO, cancelling a policy would not be beneficial as the amount that would be paid back would be a fraction of premiums paid excluding the 1st year premium. You can check if the insurer provides such an option.
But Bhargav, one can do that only after 3 yrs of payment , a lot of people cant even make 3 yrs payment because the amount if quite high !
Thank you Mr.Bhargav for your advice.
hi manish,
it was really nice and informative blog. but apart this some shocking news more. it’s done by not only agent, it’s complete team game.
for this i want to talk to you over the phone for sharing my won experience.
rahul agrawal
Hi Rahul
Can you share your experience here ? I am into few things these days which take all my time, if possible can you write your experience here ?
Well nothing surprises me anymore, this is India afterall, the land of frauds and scams. People here will do anything to make a quick buck and agents are the worst of the lot. This is why I have vowed not to buy an LIC policy until the day they allow us to buy policies directly without agents.
The only reason agents have the audacity to carry out such frauds is because there seems to be little consequence and the rewards are high. How many people pursue their case in court and are willing to sue the agents?
But to be honest, I find it hard to believe that there are people who just pay a huge chunk of money in order to buy a single premium policy and never even look at the policy document once. A cursory look at the Sum Assured amount would be enough to raise the red flag as a policy with Rs.2 lac yearly premium would have an abnormally high Sum Assured. The first page of the policy document itself contains all the relevant details.
If anyone is putting that much faith in an agent, they probably deserve to get cheated. At the end of the day, its your hard earned money right? You can’t just give some stranger a bag full of cash and your signature on a blank form and expect him to do what’s best for you rather than himself.
Well said. Everyone can check the policy at least once.
I echo your thoughts . Well said !
very very bad exp with MAX BUPA HEALTH ISSURANCE
What happened ?
I Am going through a very very bad time everyone is giving me the excuses for my claim. they have cheated me from all the side. i need your help and i ant to show this company that what happens when a simple person is cheated from any of the company.
Dear Friends,
Hi Everybody I would like to inform you all the biggest mistake of my life was I spoke with MR Shantanu Panda (Agent with Max Bupa Health Insurance Company) and second mistake I trusted Max Bupa to show me this bad time.
As I have already mentioned what exactly happened with me. But still I would like to explain and let you know some good things which you should take care in your future. My wife Diksha Kiran Jadhav got admitted in hospital on 2nd March 2014 as it was an emergency.
I informed insurance company when she was admitted for 9 days. No one turned up from the insurance company as the hospital was not listed in their list. so i went for reimbursement for the claim. when my wife got discharge I had submitted all the original documents bills, receipts, blood report, O.K. etc. after submitting the report max bupa called me and said they declined my claim as it was not emergency. But one of the Manager Name Gaurav told definitely you should be able to get claim as it was an emergency just we request you please send the justification letter from Doctor. I did the same went to doctor took the justification letter and email customer services of Max Bupa and courier the hard copy to them. And today they again declined my claim. As they are showing me the clause of 90 days.
I understand the clause of 90 days but as she was having fever it is an emergency and doctor told me to admit which i did. So it was not my mistake. i was aware of 90 days clause which max bupa is trying to tell me. But I would like to add one thing the agent had clearly mentioned that if suppose it is an emergency than you will get the claim because fever is emergency. so either the agent is telling lie for completing his target or the company is showing me my mistake card by rejecting my claim..
I wish I could have taken my policy from any other company as Mr Naushad From Bajaj Alliance or from other company as I was in touch with other agents also. i am totally ready for all the problems which i will face from media or any of the company.
Now they told their was a lab report problem so we are declining your claim. if lab report was the problem you should have told me at the start only what is the reason. why did you asked for the justification letter. because they thought as my policy was under cooling period so i could have canceled my policy .so they played a very good game with me.
I will go to all possible things which I can do. So that next time no one should face the same problem from your company. Further decisions will be taken from my lawyer.
Thanking you
Kiran N Jadhav
Hi Kiran
THanks for sharing your incident. Now tell me one thing . Is company decision as per the policy document or not ? Is company not doing what is written in policy document ?
Manish
As per my observation. In ulip plans purchasing regular plan and paying single premium gives more return compared to paying regular premium.
Reason:
Case 1) Paying reguar premium: ULIP plan performs in between -10% to 18% return. 18% return is maximum. While the charges deduction are about 20%. So on an average its a loss of 2%.
Case 2) paying premium for only 1 year: While if u discontinue paying premium you get around 9% return as discontinued fund of most f companies give 9% return by investing in less risk fund and release that fund after 5 years . No charges are deducted in it. only discontinuation charge is deducted i.e max 6000. so u get round 8% return. but you dont get insurance. But it can bought by paying less premium in term plan. This suggestion is for those who are trapped by such agents.
Thanks for sharing that Karan !
The same thing happened with me as well. For ICICI ULIP they told me that charges are 1%. I thought of it as annual charges and later on I found it as monthly charges.
So, I also discontinued the policy and decided never to go with ULIP with ICICI or with any other bank. Agents never disclose the charges.
Thanks for sharing that Pallavit !
yes.
I fully agree with this article as the time I am an agent I see that my client are given the best policy as per their need and not my commission. I have joined insurance for help in the best way for whom insurance is necessary I have never thought and worked for commission.
Great to hear that !
Thanks for the information.
Same thing hapepned with me when Kotak Life agent issued me a yearly premium ULIP in place of single premium. Luckily I found this out in free look-up period and got it changed from the company. However, it was very difficult to convince them that their agent has done this fraud…..
Great that you found out so early . !
OMG!! These things also happen ?
Even if agents change the policy tenure, shouldn’t the policyholder become little bit sceptical when he/she pays premium AGAIN, thinking about the cover amount and comparing with the premiums being paid ? If a premium is being paid, the COVER AMOUNT will definitely come in my mind 🙂
Correct .. he should, but what would you do if you have paid 1.5 lacs in 1st year and then next year you come to know that now if you dont pay you lost EVERYTHING ! .
The psychological pain is too high to handle and hence people prefer slow death !
Thanks Manish, for making aware about this fraud
Useful information.
One has to be careful while buying financial products. There many steps in the process where one can get cheated, providing correct information and checking application can eliminate some loose ends.
If one finds himself in a financial fraud situation, the best way is to keep all the documents exchanged. At the end one can go to respective ombudsman with all the facts for redressal. To my pleasent surprise, these ombudsmans are very active and one gets positive redressal.
Victims can approach IRDA for redressal in this case.
Thanks for sharing that point Srinivas
It is obvious to what happen with investors. I believe investor should take onus of buying policy and hence also take onus of filling up the form on his own. It should be general practice to take photocopy of filled form (for buying any kind of financial products). Thanks Manish for sharing the info.
~Samir
Yes Samir, agree with that !
Thank you very much for sharing.
It’s always good to take a copy of ANY application (insurance, credit card, bank accounts, PF, PPF, Mutual fund, demat account, Loans etc…) that you sign for your future reference. Consider it as BEST PRACTICE for any financial engagements.
yes,every word is true.
kindly atleast visit the life insurance office while taking a policy.
but unfortunately in india no one does.
all trancations by cheque only.
always pay your dues through your bank (ECS )
in some hni cases half yearly mode of payments are converted into monthly.clients only know this after free look period only.
see the name of policy and keep a scan copy for future reference.
never fall into trap words like complete child protection, life long pension, 100 % bank approved (sbi, ing- vysa, andhra bank, hdfc bank ..)
thanks for this service.
Thanks for sharing that Chennapragada !