The rise of insurance services in tandem with rise of e commerce gave the government of India an Idea. Why not promote an online business of providing information about insurance policies? They ran with this idea and gave birth to the Insurance Web aggregator license.
An Insurance Web Aggregator, in the most simplest of terms, is a collector of insurance policies of several companies. It’s a website that hosts these insurance policies – providing their terms and conditions for the visitors to read. The visitors can come and go through this information and use the website to compare between the policies.
Finally, if they find something that they like, they also have the option to buy the insurance policy. It has led to an industry that’s worth more than 4 billion dollars in India.
As you can see, the business of online insurance selling is quite lucrative. However, the license to continue it finite.
Valid for only 3 years, an Insurance Web Aggregator license must go through an IRDA renewal process. The procedure, while simple, has its own set of intricacies that you can’t know about by reading the notification.
Therefore, in this article, we are simplifying these complex terms so that you can go renew your license and continue to operate.
Form to file to renew your Insurance Web aggregator license
The form that you need to apply for IRDA license renewal is FORM F. To increase the chances of renewal, you must file this form at least 30 days before the expiration of your license. At most, you can apply for renewal 90 days before the expiration.
Submit the mandatory documents for the renewal
Along with the application, you need to submit the following documents so that IRDA considers of renewal request.
- Self-Certified Undertaking
- Address proof of the location where you’re hosting the website, registration officer, operational office in case there is you’ve made any changes.
- In case there are some changes in Key Management personnel who watch over the content of your website, provide the details of the same.
- Business plan for the next 3 years.
- Renewal training certificates for your Principal Officers and verifiers
- Demand Draft of renewal fee which is INR 20,000/- rupees in favour of IRDAI or receipt of electronic payment of the same.
Pay the renewal fee
IRDA expects you pay INR 25,000/- as the license renewal fee. You can either make the payment through DD addressed to Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India or you can pay online using a recognized electronic payment portal.
Delay will cause penalties
If you fail to file the application for renewal within 30 days of expiration of the Insurance Web Aggregator License, the IRDA will penalize you with INR 100/-
You can’t continue to operate without the Insurance Web aggregator license
After your registration expires, you lose the right to operate as an Insurance Web Aggregator. If you still persist on continuing your operations. the IRDA is within its right to impose heavy penalties on you including prison term.
The Principal Officer must go through renewal training before applying for license renewal
The principal officer of your Insurance Web Aggregator Company must go through renewal training within six months of license expiration. It’s the only way IRDA will consider you eligible for license renewal.
IRDA won’t renew your license if you didn’t operate
If you didn’t operate as an Insurance Web Aggregator at any point during the three years you were holding the Insurance Web Aggregation License, IRDA won’t consider you an eligible entity. Thus, it will reject your application for license renewal.
Also Check – Eligibility Process for the License
Conclusion
To continue to operate as an Insurance Web aggregator, you must renew your license. However, as per this blog, you must take care of several aspects including re-training your principal officer, re-assessing your business plan and realizing the capabilities to continue your operation. All these requirements are quite complex, but if you trust in yourself, you can fulfil them with ease.
