The
Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has asked all insurers to
display information about any unclaimed amount above Rs. 1,000 on their
websites.
Unclaimed
amounts are those lying with the insurer beyond six (6) months from the date of settlement. These
include amounts payable to a policyholder as a claim due to death / maturity,
premium refund, survival benefits, and unadjusted premium deposit.
In
a circular issued on recently, IRDA said, “A facility shall be given in the
website of the insurer to enable policyholder (s) or his / her dependants to
find out whether any unclaimed amount due to them is lying with the insurer.”
Insurers
have to upload the information by January 2015 and will also be required to
update the information on a half - yearly basis.
IRDA
said said a policyholder should be able to find out the information by entering
details like name, date of birth, policy number and PAN.
"Name
of the policyholder and date of birth may be made as compulsory fields to enter
(on website), while policy number and PAN may be optional fields," the
circular added.
Defining
unclaimed amount, IRDA said it includes any sum payable to policyholder as
death claim, maturity claim, survival claim, premium due for refund, among
others, that remained unclaimed beyond six months from due date of settlement.
IRDA
also said in case of a new insurance policy, insurers are not required to
collect the cancelled cheque where payment of premium is made by the proposer
through cheque from his own bank account.
The
new norms will come into force from October 1.
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