Women in urban India grossly underprepared for financial instability reveals ‘India Protection Quotient’ Survey by Max Life Insurance
10thMarch 2019, Delhi: Max Life Insurance, one of India’s leading private life insurers, revealed that Indian women are grossly underprepared to face the financial instability caused by eventualities of life. As per the latest survey ‘India Protection Quotient’ conducted by Max Life and Kantar IMRB, the country’s working women appear to lag far behind in the race of financial protection with a lower protection quotient of 33 as against the national average of 35.
4,566 respondents across 15 top cities of India (metros and tier 1) were surveyed, of which women made roughly 30% (1,404) respondents. According to the findings of this survey, the life insurance gap between women and men is rather notable.
Prashant Tripathy, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Max Life Insurance said “Ensuring financial protection of women is an extremely important concern for us, considering they make up almost half the country’s population. Through our India Protection Quotient survey, we realized that women in India feel extremely under-protected on the financial front, due to poorer ownership of life and term insurance. Aside from lack of awareness, the uptake of term insurance is relatively lower in women, due to the way they often approach insurance and investment. What is required is a fundamental shift in their savings and investments patterns and a greater realization of benefits of term plans to empower a sense of financial protection.”
Indian women not financially prepared to battle future uncertainties
While the India Protection Quotient (the degree to which one feels protected and mentally prepared for future uncertainties on a scale of 0-100) for urban India stands at a modest 35, and 36 for men, women are positioned at a significantly lower mark of 33 revealing that Indian women feel grossly underprepared to face the financial instability caused by eventualities of life.
While close to 60% Indian women own life insurance, only one fifth of them own term insurance
The survey found that a low uptake coupled with lack of awareness of term insurance, which is designed to offer financial protection to policyholders, is contributing to an overwhelming number of women feeling under protected.
While 60% working women own life insurance as compared to 69% working men, term insurance ownership among women in metros is an abysmal 19% as compared 22% men who own term plans. As high as 55% women do not have any awareness of term insurance and the benefits they offer. Additionally, a startling 68% women feel that term plans are merely designed for the breadwinner.
Close to half the women (47%) surveyed feel that their cover is insufficient. The inadequacy of protection is also felt by the fact that only 9% women term buyers are invested in any critical illness rider. Additionally, 86% of urban Indian women are not even aware of the cost of treatments of critical illnesses.
Neglecting financial security, an alarming 36% of working women in the metro feel their savings would run out within a year in the event of death and/or critical illness
Neglecting savings for personal financial security, merely 33% of working women in the metro save for stability in the untimely death of a breadwinner and only 30% save for medical emergency. An alarming 39% of working women in the metro expect their savings to not last more than a year in case of critical illness. 34% working women in the metro feel their savings wouldn’t last more than a year in case of death in the family.
Savings and investments decisions more family oriented
With 43% of working women’s earnings being diverted to basic expenses as against working males who spend only 40% of their earnings towards basic expenses, the former tends to spend less on savings and investments in comparison.
The savings objectives of women in metros also are most concentrated, where close to 67% of working women save for kids’ education and 47% save for kids ‘marriage.
In case of triggers to term plan purchase too, 47% women said they’d purchase one to protect their family in case of the breadwinner’s demise.
Most women in Indian Metros don’t even consider buying Term Insurance
The survey found that Indian women in the metro do not consider the need for term insurance because of other investments they have that they feel would protect them. While 23% respondents cited that as the reason, 20% of women in the metro said their families already have term insurance making the same irrelevant to them. 18% of women in the metro admitted to never even having thought of buying term insurance in the first place.
Indian women still show a preference to purchase life insurance from agent advisors
The survey highlights that women are more likely to approach a bank or an agent. Close to 84% women bought term insurance from agent/sales representative as opposed to 2% that made the purchase digitally.
