India's PolicyBazaar to sell plans without commissions
India's insurance comparison website PolicyBazaar is planning to sell low-cost unit-linked insurance plans (ULIPs) on a commission-free basis. The policies are being developed in partnership with insurer Edelweiss Tokio Marine Life Insurance. The insurer reportedly won't make any money from the policies for the first year of coverage, but will if consumers renew after 12 months. PolicyBazaar says the goal of offering commission-free products is to increase engagement with its client base. 
(This story originally appeared in on Nov 04, 2017)

MUMBAI: PolicyBazaar , which recently raised Rs 500 crore from international investors, plans to disrupt the insurance market by selling low-cost unit-linked insurance plans, or ULIPs, without any commissions. These ULIPs are being tailor-made for direct sales by Edelweiss Tokio Marine Life Insurance.PolicyBazaar has also brought the concept of cash-back type incentives by offering additional allocation of units of 1% for the first five years, which increases every five years to 3%, 5% and 7% respectively.Speaking to TOI, PolicyBazaar founder and CEO Yashish Dahiya said that the objective of the online aggregator was to increase engagement with insurance buyers. "The charges on the Wealth Plus policy are lower than what investors would pay on a direct purchase of a mutual fund," said Dahiya.For a 30-year old policyholder investing Rs 10,000 every month, the absence of charges could make a difference of Rs 2 lakh on the returns over a 20-year term. Assuming an 8% return, the fund value would be Rs 49.69 lakh in Wealth Plus in 20 years as against 47.74 lakh on apolicy with charges.According to Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance MD & CEO Deepak Mittal, the insurer will not make any money in the initial year. It will make money only after the customer continues to renew the policy for several years.