Life insurers paid Rs 42,322 crore to agents in 2022-23: IRDAI

New Delhi: Despite growing popularity of online premium payments and buying policy directly through insurance companies, the cut for agent commissions have gone up. In the financial year 2022-23, life insurers paid Rs 42,322 crore as commission to agents, which is 5.41 per cent of the total premium collected during the year, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) data showed.

In 2021-22, commission expenses by life insurance companies as 5.18 per cent of total premium.

As per the IRDAI annual report, commission outgo of life insurance companies surged by 18 per cent while premium increased by around 13 per cent in 2022-23, year-on-year.

LIC paid 27.61 per cent as commission from first-year premium. This means for every Rs 100 collected as first-year premium, Rs 27.61 went to agents.

Out of the 24 life insurers in operation during 2022-23, 17 companies reported profits, which for the overall industry grew by a staggering 452 per centin 2022-23 with profit after tax of Rs 42,788 crore as against Rs 7,751 crore in 2021-22.

The public sector reported an increase in profits by 800 per cent while private insurers together reported an increase in profit by 72.36 per cent.

The operating expenses of the life insurers increased by 25.21 per cent in 2022-23 and operating expenses ratio (operating expenses as a percent of gross premium underwritten) increased from 10.31 per cent in 2021-22 to 11.43 per cent in 2022-23.

Commission expenses and operating expenses constitute a major part of the total expenses.

Non-life insurance sector penetration remained steady at 1 per cent. India's overall insurance penetration reduced to 4 per cent in 2022-23 from the level of 4.2 per cent in 2021-22, the insurance regulator noted in its annual report.