Household insurance cover from Reliance

With monsoons in full swing and "Act of God" perils ready to strike, a householders’ insurance plan is a good idea.

Reliance General Insurance Company is in the process of unveiling its first over-the-counter household policy, christened "Reliance Home Protect", with added benefits with coverage of Rs 1-5 lakh. The insurer expects a premium of Rs 150 crore from the product in the first year itself.

The company, in the next stage, is preparing to target the rural market with its existing basket of products, including health and tailor-made farmer package policies. It also aims to have 65 per cent of its premium from the retail segment alone.

Home insurance contributes less than 1 per cent to the Rs 25,000 crore general insurance business in India. Incidentally, only a little over 2 per cent of the 3 crore households in the country have household insurance.

A household policy covers contents and valuables, which may be affected due to various natural calamities such as fire or floods or manmade causes such as thefts.

K A Somasekharan, CEO, Reliance General said, "Most existing household insurance policies are cumbersome as far as their procedures are concerned. We felt that a simple and easily worded mass policy with very competitive rates was needed. People often take cover for buildings leaving the content and valuables uncovered. The lack of hassle-free products has limited the growth of this segment".

"Apart from covering contents, valuables and gadgets on a first loss basis, add-on features like cover for goods in transit, loss of title good expenses, personal accident benefits, cover loss of passport expenses, children education grant would be included," Somasekharan said.

Asked whether underwriting will be an issue, the CEO pointed out: “We have internal limits like a maximum of Rs 1 lakh for fire and allied perils, Rs 1 lakh for burglary cover and lower limits for say title deeds or passport".

Source: DNA Money