What is E-Insurance Account and how can it help?

An Electronic Insurance or E-Insurance Account (eIA) is an electronic repository which is used for storing and managing all your insurance policies (life insurance, health, motor or any other insurance) from multiple insurers in one place.

Do you want to access your insurance policies from anywhere and anytime you want, without the hassles of paperwork?

If yes, you need an E-Insurance account, because it is the simplest (and of course, the best!) solution for efficiently storing your policy documents digitally. 

Here are some benefits that an e-Insurance account offers you: 

• Get a hassle-free, consolidated view to track, download and safely manage all your insurance policies and account statements in one place

• Easily update your personal information, bank and KYC details across all policies in one place

• Get reminders on policy renewals with online renewal payment facilities

• Your nominee or nominees can easily access all your policy documents in one place upon your death (don’t forget to inform them about your eIA account and the login credentials)

• You don’t need to undergo the KYC verification processes every time you buy a new insurance policy because your documents will already be verified by the insurance repository. All you need to do is mention your E-Insurance account number (unless there is any change in your KYC information)

• No hassles of paperwork

Opening an E-Insurance account is really simple. 

Just download and fill out the eIA opening form of your preferred Insurance Repository (NSDL, CDSL, CAMS, Karvy) and submit it with self-attested KYC documents. 
 

Pro-tip: When buying a policy online, you can share your unique eIA number with your insurer and receive the policy electronically.

Currently no, but you may prefer to open an E-Insurance Account as it can help you reduce the hassle of managing your insurance policy documents.

Yes, opening an E-Insurance Account is absolutely free!

Yes, you should. 
 

Google Drive provides handy online storage for your life insurance policies. But you should still consider opening an eIA as well. Here’s why:

• With an E-Insurance account (eIA), there is no need to repeat KYC verification to purchase policies
   

• Your E-Insurance account can also help you update your personal information, bank and KYC details across all policies in one place
   

• And in addition to that, through eIA you can also get timely essential reminders on policy renewals with online renewal payment facilities 

These are facilities you will not find on Google Drive. 
 

Plus, if you use your Google Drive for storing other files, very soon you will use up your storage space and will have to purchase more storage, whereas opening and maintaining an eIA is completely free.

Yes, you should. While it is great that you are safely storing your life insurance policies physically, you should still open an eIA account due to the following benefits: 

• It has a digital copy of all your policy documents 
   

• You/your nominees can easily find your policy documents anytime and from anywhere, eliminating the need to be physically present to retrieve them. This is especially convenient at the time of filing a claim.
   

• It helps reduce paperwork related to your life insurance policies 
   

• It reduces the risk of document damage, loss or theft, since the documents are stored online
   

• No need for repeated KYC submissions for future policy purchase

No. Opening an eIA, maintaining it and making changes to it is completely free of charge. There are no hidden charges involved. 

No. That’s the beauty of having an eIA. A single eIA account can be used to manage all the different policies you have from multiple insurers, thereby saving you from the hassle of opening, maintaining and remembering multiple accounts. 

Yes, it can be used. Although your eIA has a digital copy of the policy document, it is as good and legitimate as the physical copy.

After completing all the required processes (i.e. filling out the form and submitting self-attested KYC documents), your eIA should be opened within 7 days.

Yes, you should inform your family about your eIA and its credentials. 
 

The eIA account can be used by them to easily access the policies whenever they need to, especially during the claim process. 
 

If you pass away unexpectedly, your family will already be in a state of mourning. eIA will at least help eliminate the hassle of looking for your policy documents for making a death claim. 

Here are some best practices that you can follow after buying a term policy.

It is not required but you can do so. You can inform them about your account ID so that they can help you get the digital copy of your policy to your eIA. They can even help your nominees during the claim process by letting them know about your eIA so they can access the policy documents easily.
 

But please note, do not share the account credentials with your agent. 

Yes, there is. While both platforms allow you to store your term policy documents digitally, eIA is specifically created for storing and managing insurance policies. DigiLocker is a platform that can not only store your insurance policies but other legal documents as well (such as driving licence, Aadhaar, PAN, etc.) but you can only view your documents and not carry out any transactions. 

There is no “this is better than the other over here”. You can choose the platform that you find most convenient or you can even choose to store your policy documents on both platforms. 

There is no such rule. You can open an E-Insurance account even before you buy a term policy or even after buying a term policy or any insurance policy.

Yes. You can convert any number of physical insurance policy papers to E-Insurance. 
 

You can do so by contacting your insurer with a request for the same. 
 

They will tell you to fill a conversion form with information such as the insurer's name, policy number, name of policyholder, eIA number. You may also be required to submit your policy document along with the form if your insurer requires it. 

After you submit the form, your insurer will get the documents converted and credit the policy in your eIA in ~5-6 days. 

Remember, there are no costs involved in this process.

Of course you can. Your E-Insurance account can store any types of insurance policies you have, be it general insurance (health, car, bike insurance etc) or life insurance (which includes term plans as well).

Yes, they can access your eIA from anywhere in the world provided they have the correct login credentials for it. 
 

In fact, you should keep them informed about how to access your account and how it can be useful during the claim process because for NRI nominees, it becomes more challenging to access your policy documents in the event of your unexpected demise.

No, as per IRDAI, an individual can only have one E-Insurance account, irrespective of how many policies they own. Every repository will check if you already have an existing eIA before you try to open an account with them. Even if you want to apply for a 2nd eIA, your request will be rejected.
 

But honestly, do you even want to undergo the hassle of opening multiple accounts if all you need is one account to manage all your policies?

Yes, of course you can open an E-Insurance account online by simply visiting the website of your preferred Insurance Repository (NSDL, CDSL, CAMS, Karvy). 
 

You can also contact them to find out if you can do it offline, in case that’s what you are comfortable with.

The following documents are required to open an E-Insurance Account: 

• Latest passport size photo

• A cancelled bank cheque

• PAN

• Address proof

• Date of birth proof

• Identification Proof

You can also submit one of the following documents as your ID, age and address proof combined and reduce multiple document submissions:

• Aadhaar

• Passport

• Driving license

• Voter’s ID

• CKYC Identifier

Ideally, you should inform your nominees about your eIA and share the login credentials with them so they can access it in your absence. 
 

Besides that, when you open an eIA, you have to name someone as an authorised representative in your account opening form. In your absence, this person will be able to access your account. 
 

Remember, they will only be able to access the account to know the policy details in it and the nominees on those policies in the event of your sudden demise. 
 

You can also change the authorised representative at your discretion.