It is important to find out not just how good is an insurance company’s claim settlement ratio, but also how consistent it has been. Thankfully, the IRDAI publishes this information on a regular basis every year and it is a good metric to rely on when comparing and buying term insurance plans in India.
 
We have compared the claims settlement ratio for all the life insurance companies for the last 6 years. This is based on the latest information that is available as on date. Let us see how the CSR % behaved over time for each insurance company.
 

Claims Settlement Ratio Comparison for Consistency

Claims Settlement Ratio of more than 90% is indicated with a green circle to make it easy for you to analyze. The companies are listed in order of the latest CSR in decreasing order. You may click on the table below to view the information on full screen.
 

Check the latest Claim Settlement Ratio for Term Insurance by IRDA : 2016-2017.

Key Observations on Claims Settlement Ratio Consistency

As we do the comparison, we notice a few things about how they have moved.

• Older the company, better is the claims settlement ratio. This includes companies such as LIC, ICICI Prudential Life, HDFC Life which have been consistently higher than 90% in the last 6 years. This is not surprising because as companies become older (and larger in terms of customer base), they gain in experience on the kind of population that should be insured. But there are other reasons as well, and you will find it here in this link.
• Some companies are consistent and increasing, and some others are fluctuating. This again happens for companies with a smaller customer book. When buying a term insurance plan, it is generally desirable to choose insurance companies with higher and consistent claims ratio.

MintWise has also published Claim Settlement Ratio for Term Insurance by IRDA : 2016-2017 which has the latest data.