Life Insurance Council

What is the Life Insurance Council?

The Life Insurance Council is the industry body of life insurers in India, created by law rather than by private agreement. Section 64C of the Insurance Act, 1938 provides for two councils within the Insurance Association of India: a Life Insurance Council for life insurers and a General Insurance Council for general, health and reinsurance companies. Every life insurer, including LIC and the private life companies, is a member.

The Council works through an executive committee. It is not a regulator: IRDAI makes the rules, while the Council helps its members keep to them, speaks for the industry and runs shared programmes. It does not sell insurance or announce bonuses, and it warns the public against anyone who claims to sell policies on its behalf.

What the Life Insurance Council does

The Insurance Act gives the Council's executive committee a set of functions around conduct and cost. In practice its work covers:

The Council's new business performance data, released monthly, is one of the main public sources that analysts and the press use to track market share in life insurance.

How the 2025 amendment changed the Council

The Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance Laws) Act, 2025, in force from 5 February 2026, broadened the executive committees of both councils. Under the amended section 64F, insurer representation rises from four to seven members, the number of eminent persons not connected with insurance rises from one to two, and two persons nominated by the Central Government join each committee. The Act also lets the councils fix their own fees through bye-laws instead of prescribed fees.

The aim, according to the notes on the Bill, is to "broad base" the councils' membership, giving wider voices a say in how the industry regulates its own conduct.

What the Life Insurance Council means for distribution

• Agent data comes from here. The Council publishes data on individual agents by insurer, which distribution leaders use to benchmark agency size, recruitment and attrition against peers. Combined with new business data, it gives a rough read on agent productivity across the industry.
• Industry positions on commission. When IRDAI consults on commission, expenses of management or distribution reform, the Council collects members' views and submits an industry response. Distributors who want their concerns reflected often work through their insurer partners' representation in the Council, as well as through their own associations.
• Awareness campaigns support the field. Category campaigns such as "Sabse Pehle Life Insurance" are not brand advertising. They aim to make the first conversation about life cover easier for agents and bank staff, especially in markets where protection is little understood.
• Conduct expectations. Good practice agreed among insurers through the Council can shape how every insurer instructs its channels, even before IRDAI writes it into a rule.
• Public data for monitoring. Monthly Council data lets a bank or broker compare how each insurer partner is growing, which helps in shelf-space and partnership decisions under open architecture.