If you have a non life insurance policy, be prepared to find your premiums go up or, if you are lucky, go down. This shift in premiums is because the insurer now has the regulator’s go ahead to change premium rates to compensate commissions to agents. “The regulations bring about certain revisions in commission or remuneration rates and also introduce the reward system. These may trigger insurers to revisit the pricing of their products as far as the costing input relating to commission or remuneration is concerned. In this backdrop, it has been decided that general insurers who wish to revise the pricing of their products as a result of the new regulations, may do so without having to file a modification to the product under the product filing guidelines,” according to an IRDAI circular.

This new commission guideline will come into effect from April 1, 2017 with the assurance from the regulator that the change in price would be limited to the extent of change in commission or remuneration including rewards. The move comes on the back of an increase in the cap on commissions from 10 per cent to 15 per cent on all non life policies. Your car, home and health policies could go up in the coming days, as chance of lowering commissions is an unlikely prospect.

olmdesk@outlookindia.com