Chennai: In the last 3 years, insurance behemoth LIC has reversed the trend of private life insurers eating into its market share.

The sole public sector life insurer has increased its share in new business to 71.07% as of March 2016-17, from 70.4% in 2015-16; 69.2% in 2014-15 as it shores up its insurance agents' force and brings down attrition rates.

The state owned entity also sees more business from each of its individual agents than private players. LIC booked as much as Rs 1.24 lakh crore in first year gross written premium, up from Rs 97,674 crore last year. This compares to private life insurers booking Rs 50,626.23 crore as of March 31, 2016-17, up from Rs 40,983 crore for the corresponding period the previous year

LIC's growth rate at 27.4% in acquisition of new business, was more aggressive than its private counterparts at 23.5% as of March, 2016-17. "LIC's agency force has a much lower attrition rate than anyone else in the industry. Many of our agents have been with us for life. Its only with our younger recruits that we have had difficulties in retention," said an LIC official.

The public-sector giant also saw growth in all lines of business, including single-premium and recurring premium policies in both individual and group business.

When it came to single-premium individual retail policies, nearly doubled its business by booking Rs 23,412.55 crore up to March 31, 2016-17; up 84% from Rs 12,688.46 crore for the corresponding period last year.

Private players, saw single-premium policies grow 21.6% to Rs 3,766.46 crore. "Most consumers even today, can only afford to pay for life insurance in recurring mode — either monthly, quarterly or yearly. Only a few people choose to pay Rs 3-5 lakh in bulk i.e. a single-time premium payment policy for life cover of Rs 1-2 crore. Earlier, a life cover of Rs 1 crore was quite revolutionary; but these days with rising income levels it has become quite common to opt for such policies and pay in bulk up front. We have also been extensively training our agents to understand the clients' needs before proposing such polices. We're also focusing on reducing instances of mis-selling, so our growth in this segment is notable," said the LIC official. When it came to individuals buying recurring-payment premium policies, private players saw more new business than LIC.

For first-year recurring-premium payment policies, private players saw business of Rs 28,322 crore (56% of total business of Rs 50501.05 crore), compared to LIC booking Rs 22,178 crore. The market-share of private players for recurring payment policies has steadily increased to 56% as of March 31, 2016-17 from 52% in 2015-16 and 50% in 2014-15.

For group-single premium policies, both LIC and private players saw growth. LIC increased new business by 22% to Rs 74,763 crore, while private players grew 28.5% to Rs 13,795.46 crore. For group, non-single premium policies, private players saw a slight 0.3% to Rs 4,741.42 crore; while LIC saw 11.3% growth to Rs 4041.78 crore.