Life insurance business has paid out Rs 57,500 crore in 2008-09 as claims of which death claim is estimated at around Rs 6,629 crore, according to SB Mathur, secretary general of Life Insurance Council, the official representative body of the domestic life insurers.

Private-sector life insurance companies have paid death claims worth over Rs 976 crore in 2008-09. Giving a synoptic view of the performance of the insurance sector in the past fiscal, Mathur?s analysis showed the sector had held up despite the financial meltdown.

?Death claims have risen faster than maturity claims. The rate of increase in business and in premium in case payments are also on the rise. But, policyholders? benefits are not increasing,? he said.

Talking about the investment made by life insurers, Mathur said they are the net buyers of equity valued at Rs 57,000 crore.

This came at a time when FIIs sold their equity amounting to Rs 47,000 crore. In fact, insurance companies made good the almost distress sales of the FIIs in 2008-09. This was significant as even the mutual funds bought only about Rs 4,000-5,000 crore of equity in 2008-09.

Life insurance companies? investment in infrastructure increased by Rs 24,000 crore during 2008-09. However, the first quarter of the current fiscal remained flat in terms of new business premium.

Though LIC gained ground, net decline in new premium was less than Rs 200 crore. Total premium was at Rs 14,600 crore as against Rs 14,700 crore during the same period a year ago. Renewal premium increased by 25% for the industry. The Ulip renewal premium, simultaneously, went up by 79%. Total income of the life insurers increased by 16% to Rs 47,200 crore from Rs 42,450 crore during the first quarter of 2009-10 fiscal.

Though figures are yet to come from Irda on lapsation, it differs in terms of policy and premium, said Mathur.

Keeping in view the renewable premium which has remained so high in the industry, the lapsation rate is all set to come down. In case of LIC, the number of surrenders has come down significantly.

?In 2008-09, new business premium dipped by Rs 6,000 crore to Rs 86,900 crore from Rs 93,700 crore a year ago, renewable premium increased Rs 26,000 crore to Rs 1,33,318 crore in 2008-09 from Rs 1,07,550 crore recorded in the previous fiscal. Thus, total premium income grew by Rs 20,000 crore or 10% on year-on-year basis,?? he said.

This reflects persistency is growing. In case of Ulips, renewable premium income has seen a massive increase within a past couple of years.

Income from renewable premium grew to Rs 46,239 crore in 2008-09 as against Rs 22,380 crore in 2007-08, which, in simple term, means that the growth was doubled in the sector, he said.