Life Insurance Corporation, popularly known as LIC is Indian state-owned insurance group and investment company. The corporation was formed by merging and nationalizing 245 private life insurance companies in India on September 1, 1956, with an initial capital of Rs 50 million. From the corporation’s incorporation until 2000, it was the only life insurer in India. The corporation was identified by IRDAI as a Domestic Systemically Important Insurer (D-SII) on the basis of size, market importance and domestic and global inter-connectedness in September 2020. The corporation’s brand, LIC, was recognised as the third strongest and 10th most valuable global insurance brand as per the “Insurance 100 2021 report” released by Brand Finance. The strength of a brand means the efficacy of a brand's performance on intangible measures relative to its competitors and is determined by looking at the brand's marketing investment, stakeholder equity and impact of those on business performance. The value of a brand is the present value of earnings specifically related to brand reputation.

Business area of the company

The corporation is been providing life insurance in India for many years and is the largest life insurer in India. It has a broad, diversified product portfolio covering various segments across individual products and group products. Its individual products comprise (i) participating insurance products and (ii) non-participating products, which include (a) savings insurance products; (b) term insurance products; (c) health insurance products; (d) annuity and pension products; and (e) unit linked insurance products. Its individual products include specially designed products for specific segments, such as special products for women and children and Micro Insurance products. In addition, it offer riders that provide additional benefits along with the base product to cover for additional risks, such as accidental disability, death, critical illness and premium waiver on the death of the proposer. The corporation’s individual product portfolio in India comprises many individual products and various individual riders. Its group products comprise (i) group term insurance products, (ii) group savings insurance products; (iii) group savings pension products; and (iv) group annuity products. The corporation’s group product portfolio in India comprises various group products.

The corporation’s omni-channel distribution platform for individual products currently comprises (i) individual agents, (ii) bancassurance partners, (iii) alternate channels (corporate agents, brokers and insurance marketing firms), (iv) digital sales (through a portal on Corporation’s website), (v) Micro Insurance agents and (vi) Point of Sales Persons-Life Insurance scheme. The corporation’s individual policies are primarily distributed by its individual agents.

Awards, accreditations and recognitions received by corporation

2019-2020:

• Aqua Foundation’s Excellence Award under the category of Excellence in Resource Management.
• BFSI Congress - Customer Centric Excellence Award.
• Life Insurance Provider of the year at Outlook Money Awards.
• Award for Marketing Excellence in BFSI sector at BTVI Awards.
• Golden Peacock National Training Award (GPNTA) for the year 2019.

2020-21:

• Certificate of Appreciation on reaching final rounds of evaluation of BML Munjal Awards 2020.
• HR Award 2020 in Training Excellence at the 9th Annual Greentech HR Award 2020.
• Golden Peacock Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance (GPAECG) for the year 2020.
• Continuous Campaign (Metro only) Award by IPRCCA.
• Jamnalal BajajUchit Vyavahar Puraskar for Fair Business Practices by Council for Fair Business Practices.
• SKOCH Award - Excellence in BFSI (Platinum) for claim settlements.
• Micro Insurance Leader Award at the Business Leader of the Year Awards.
• Claim Service Leader Award at the Business Leader of the Year Award.
• Most Admired Company of the Year Award at the Business Leader of the Year Awards.
• Technology Initiative of the Year Award at the Business Leader of the Year Awards.
• Life Insurance Company of the Year Award at National Award for Excellence in Financial Services.
  Customer Service Excellence Award at National Awards for Excellence in Financial Services.
• Award for Marketing Excellence at National Awards for Excellence in Financial Services.
• Certificate of Apprenticeship by Governor of Maharashtra for excellent work done during lockdown arising out of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

2021-22:

• FICCI Special Jury Award at the Insurance Industry Awards 2021.
• FICCI Best Insurance Campaign – Life Category at the Insurance Industry Awards 2021.
• Recognised for Epitomising Excellence in the BFSI Industry at 50 Most Trusted BFSI Brands Awards 2021 by Marksmen Daily.
• Best PSU award in the life insurance sector at Dun & Bradstreet PSU Awards.
• Customer Service Excellence Award at National Award for excellence in BFSI.
• ‘Insurance Company of the year’ at National Award for excellence in BFSI.
• Certificate at ACEF 10th Global Customer Engagement Forum & Awards in ‘Television - Promotion’ for ‘Pehle LIC’.
• Recognised as one of the Most Trusted Brands of India 2022 by Team Marksman India.
• Recognised as one of the Best BFSI - Brands 2022 by the Economic Times at the Best Brands Awards 2022.
• Customer Service Excellence Award at the World BFSI Congress & Awards.
• Insurance Company of the Year Award at the World BFSI Congress & Awards.
• Operational Excellence Initiative of the Year Award for ‘Ananda’ at the World BFSI Congress & Awards.
• Technology Initiative of the Year Award for ‘Jeevan Sakshya’ at the World BFSI Congress & Awards.
• Excellence in Claim Service Award at the World BFSI Congress & Awards.

Major events and milestones

• 1956: Establishment of the Corporation.
• 1956: Established foreign branches in Fiji and Mauritius.
• 1960: Established foreign branch in United Kingdom.
• 1963-64: Corporation undertook initiatives in becoming pioneer in installing computers with installation of two computer systems - one in Mumbai and one in Kolkata, with an aim to improve operations.
• 1981: Implementation of ‘Reorganization Policy’ to give effect to larger scale decentralization of operations and decision-making.
• 1989: Established an associate, LIC Housing Finance Limited.
• 1989: Established LIC Mutual Fund as a trust.
• 1989: Established a subsidiary, Life Insurance Corporation (International) B.S.C. (c), in Bahrain.
• 1997: Implementation of Corporation’s ‘Metro Area Network’ and ‘Wide Area Network’ resulting in linking network of all branches.
• 2000: Established a subsidiary, Life Insurance Corporation (Nepal) Ltd., in Nepal.
• 2003: Established a subsidiary, Life Insurance Corporation (Lanka) Limited, in Sri Lanka.
• 2006: Established ‘LIC’s Golden Jubilee Foundation’ with an aim to support construction of hospitals, schools, etc. and provide scholarships to meritorious students from marginalized communities.
• 2007: Established a subsidiary, LIC Pension Fund Limited.
• 2007: Entered into an agreement for implementation of ‘Enterprise Document Management System’ (EDMS) with an aim to convert all policy records into digital format.
• 2008: Established a subsidiary, LIC Cards Services Limited, to provide credit card services.
• 2012: Established a wholly owned subsidiary, Life Insurance Corporation (Singapore) Pte Ltd, in Singapore.
• 2015: Established a subsidiary, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) Bangladesh Limited, in Bangladesh.
• 2019: Completed the acquisition of 51% stake in IDBI Bank.
• 2020: Designated as Domestic Systemically Important Insurer (D-SII).
• 2021: Launched Atma Nirbhar Agents New Business Application.