If you are not in the right books your life is doomed. No this statement has nothing to do with the Sahara life case, but let us look at what the press said about the Sahara Life business being would up and being given to Icici prudential life insurance. There are 3 stated reasons:

• Chairman Subrato Roy did not attend the meetings (he could not have, he was in jail, the company should have appointed another chairman)
• the company’s business was falling
• the company did not submit a 3 year business plan to Irda.

Now, now from a policy holder’s point of view did this bother you? Well it did not bother me. All 3 lapses seem to have arisen from lack of leadership – and that is a cause of worry.

As a policy holder I would be worried about :

• company’s underperformance in ULIP vis-a-vis the index
• delay in settling claims
• having products which nobody can understand
• manipulate the NAV
• have a different start point for NAV for different products – helping create confusion
• poor communication with stakeholders

Well I do not know the process which was used to declare that Sahara should be taken over by Icici Pru Life and the price at which the deal is being done.

It also means that like the banking industry, the policy holder today has NO RISK. All he has to do is buy a policy which is cheapest. If there is a problem later on a big strong player (tsk tsk) like Icici Pru Life will take over all the assets and liabilities.