National Pension System Immediate Annuity, Jeevan Pramaan form submission rules: The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has announced two changes in rules to provide ease of living to senior citizens.
First, the IRDAI has relaxed the requirement of submitting a separate proposal form for taking Immediate Annuity products from the proceeds of the National Pension Scheme (NPS).
Second, the insurance regulator has advised insurers to adopt Aadhaar-based authentication for verification of Life Certificate such as Jeevan Pramaan.
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“The Exit Form submitted by NPS retiree must be considered as the proposal form, for offering the immediate annuity product by the insurance companies,” IRDAI said in a circular dated 13 September 2022.
“In order to facilitate ease of living for all senior citizens who are receiving annuity payments the current framework of Aadhar based authentication for life verification certification such as Jeevan Pramaan, a Govt. of India initiative on biometric enabled digital service for pensioners, to be adopted,” it added.
Will Senior Citizens benefit?
It is expected that both clarifications will benefit senior citizen NPS subscribers.
Under the NPS, the subscriber who superannuates is required to purchase an immediate annuity (excluding the commuted value) from any life insurance company. At the time of purchasing immediate annuities, a separate Application form is collected by life insurance companies.
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“The information required in the Application form is already available under NPS. In order to avoid duplication, IRDAI has advised life insurance companies to treat the Exit form as the Proposal form for NPS retirees purchasing annuities – instead of again collecting information from customers,” Conjeevaram Baradhwaj, Executive Vice President (Legal & Compliance) & Company Secretary at Future Generali India Life Insurance said.
“Since under annuity policies, the annuity amount is payable only as long as the annuitant survives, life insurance companies take an annual “survival certificate” from the annuitant. IRDAI has now clarified that the signature to the “survival certificate” can be taken through biometric based digital means. Both the above clarifications are welcome steps intended to facilitate ease of servicing annuity policies purchased by annuitants,” he added.
