78% Of Indians Feel That Insurance Is An Extremely Important Part Of Overall Financial Planning: SBI Life’s Financial Immunity Survey 2.0

After March 2020, 44% & 46% of the Indians have bought Life & Health insurance respectively for the first time

Key findings: 

* 80% of the Indians strongly feel prepared towards physical immunity out of which 74% have taken double dose of vaccination

* Top 3 worries of Indians

* 59% Rising medical/ treatment cost

* 59% Instability of jobs

* 58% Concerns around Health of self/family members

* 57% of the Indians feel ‘Financial Immunity’ is equal to ‘Being financially secure and stable’

* 3 out of 4 Indians have increased their saving/ investing since January 2021 & 50% of them plan to invest in savings/investments/insurance

* Indians remains underinsured as the life cover to personal annual income ratio is only 3.8 times, which is way below the recommended 10x to 25x of annual income

* 70% of the Indians strongly feel that life cover should keep on increasing when prominent life milestones are achieved  

SBI Life Insurance, one of the most trusted private life insurers in the country, unveiled yet another comprehensive consumer study, The Financial Immunity Survey 2.0, providing deep insights into consumer’s evolving behavior towards financial preparedness in the post covid world. SBI Life commissioned the survey with NielsenIQ (India), reaching out to 5,000 respondents across 28 key cities covering the length and breadth of India.

On the backdrop of the ongoing pandemic, a vast majority of Indians are confident that the country would tide over the situation or a possible 3rd wave. The confidence of being able to navigate through the situation is not surprising when 80% of the Indians strongly feel prepared towards physical immunity on account of taking either single or double dose of vaccination. But 38% of the Indians feel that the situation could worsen over the next three months and their top three worries attributed to (1) Rising medical/ treatment cost (2) Instability of Jobs (3) concerns around Health of family/self.

The survey findings further attempts to decode the behavior towards the top worries citied by consumers on the account of impact of income because of the pandemic where 79% of the Indians faced income reduction and 1/3rd are still facing reduced income. 64% of the Indians feel that their key life milestones like accumulating savings, leisure traveling, providing for child education were impacted.

With COVID-19 and uncertainty around, the importance of financial immunity has increased and 57% of the Indians relate it to being able to maintain ‘Financial Security and Stability of self/ family’.  78% of the Indians, feel that life insurance is extremely important in overall financial planning process. Realizing this importance of insurance, 46% purchased Health insurance and 44% purchased Life insurance for the first time during COVID-19. But although Indians feel insurance is important, they still seem to be under insured with as their insurance cover is ~3.8 times of their annual income which is not even close to recommended 10X or 25X of their annual income.

Consumers can self-assess their Financial Immunity Score by clicking on the below link:

https://www.sbilife.co.in/financialimmunity

Speaking on the survey launch, Mr. AVS Siva Rama Krishna, President, Zone II, SBI Life Insurance said, “The pandemic has impacted various aspects of our lives in multiple ways. Factors like changing risk perception and risk attitudes have led to formation of new habits amongst the consumers. Their increasing affinity towards financial planning is the result of these changing habits and behavior in the post pandemic world. SBI Life’s Financial Immunity Survey 2.0, attempts to gain a better understanding of the driving factors behind this shift and what has changed in terms of consumer behaviour towards both physical and financial immunity, especially in a post-covid world.”

He further added, “In the coming years, we are expecting to see consumers opting for insurance while doing their financial planning. It has also been observed that Indians are motivated now more than ever to build a robust financial immunity for themselves and their loved ones. This evolving consumer attitude towards financial products is a good sign and will ease the process of tackling any unprecedented situations in the future.”