An Insurance Marketing Firm, defined in the legal terminology prescribed by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India, IRDAI, is an entity with the permission to undertake insurance service activities.
In simple terms, Insurance Marketing Firm (IMF) is a company that markets insurance related products and services. Insurance Marketing Firms was milked out by one of the insurance committees in 2007 where various companies professed an idea to market their products related to insurance and mutual funds in a more effective manner.
For a business entity, such as an IMF, it is mandatory to secure an insurance marketing firm license issued by the IRDAI. IMFs work together with insurance companies to market their products.
An insurance marketing firm license can be issued only to a registered compan, an individual is not eligible for the license procurement.
IMFs are not stipulated to work with any one insurer. They can work with innumerable insurance companies and market and sell their products. But specific guidelines need to be followed by an IMFs while dealing with customers.
Insurance Marketing Firm hire Insurance Sales Persons (ISP) who carry out marketing and soliciting activities on their behalf.
Services Offered
An IMF can provide following marketing to following product and services:
· Insurance products
Insurance Marketing Firms market and solicit products related to insurance. They can solicit health insurance, general insurance, and life insurance products. IMFs can only market individual line of products and not commercial products in the market.
· Insurance Servicing
IMFs establish strategic alliances with other insurance intermediaries such as surveyors, loss assessors, insurance repositories, TPAs and more. By doing this, IMF engages in providing a plethora of services that are beyond its domain, like providing:
- Back-office assistance such as outsourcing as per the guidelines of IRDA.
- Acting as an approved person for Insurance repositories
- Surveying and doing loss assessment services by inducting surveyors and loss assessors in their company.
- Other insurance-related services as directed by the IRDA.
· Financial Services
As a marketing firm, IMFs, as per the directions of the IMF license, can also market the following financial products than insurance activities:
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- Selling Mutual Funds of Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI)-regulated companies;
- Pension products under the regulations of PFRDA;
- Other financial products under the regulations of SEBI-licensed investment advisors in India.
- Banking/Financial products sold by the NBFC under the regulations of RBI
- Non-Insurance products provided by Department of Posts, Government of India;
- And other financial products under the regulations of the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India.
Eligibility
Any applicant who is trying for IMF license should be a registered business entity or a company registered under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. It can be a Liability Limited Partnership (LLP), One Person Company (OPC) or a Private Limited Company (PLC). Along with this, an applicant organization must have:
- a qualified principal officer
- a qualified Financial Service Executive
- an Insurance Sales Person
- A net worth of at least 5 lakh rupees to open a single branch of IMF and a net worth of at least 10 lakh rupees for multiple branches.
- The term IMF or Insurance Marketing Firm included in applicant organization’s name.
Process of License Registration
Compile the required documents and get them certified by an appropriate signatory.
- File out the application for online IMF registration via their online official portal.
- Carefully upload the requisite document and ensure the quality of the uploaded attachments for a successful submission.
- After the submission, monitor the application to deal with any discrepancies arising during the application's processing.
- Get the license to start your Insurance Marketing Firm.
Validity of License
Validity of an insurance marketing firm license is for three years after which IMF cannot conduct activities with an expired certificate.
How can Registrationwala help you to procure an IMF License?
To get a license for registering an Insurance Marketing Firm, Registrationwala provides to its subscribers a complete holistic end-to-end service which includes:
- Filing of application,
- Drafting of required documents, and
- Conducting the dues prescribed by IRDAI diligently.
We ensure that our service subscribers get the NOC in no time to set up their Insurance Marketing Firm.
Give us a call at registrationwala or visit our website if you want to get license for setting up your Insurance Marketing Firm in time- and cost-effective manner.
