Term insurance claim settlement ratio 2026
Every life insurer in India on both measures – and why, for a term plan, the number that decides your nominee's claim is not on this page at all.
Last checked against IRDAI's published data on
What the term insurance claim settlement ratio tells you
The death claim settlement ratio is the share of death claims a life insurer settled out of every death claim it decided in a financial year, counted by number of policies. A 99% ratio means 99 of every 100 death claims the insurer closed were paid.
In term insurance it is even less useful for choosing than it is in health. Across the 22 life insurers with a published figure below, the whole industry sits inside 2.7 percentage points. A death claim is binary – the insured has died, and the policy either covers it or does not – so there is little room for the ratio to move.
Complaints per 10,000 policies run from 1.33 to 180.66, a spread of roughly 136 times, and that is where the real difference between insurers shows up. HDFC Life draws the fewest at 1.33.
Why the settlement ratio cannot pick your insurer
Every life insurer we track, plotted on both measures. Settlement ratios sit inside 2.7 percentage points of each other. Complaint volumes run 136× from best to worst.
Each dot is one insurer. Hover a dot for the name. Green, amber and red use the same thresholds as every plan page on this site.
Death claim settlement and complaint ratio, every life insurer
Sorted by settlement ratio, highest first. Insurers too new to have a published ratio appear last.
| Insurer | Claim settlement ratio | Complaints per 10,000 |
|---|---|---|
 HDFC Life | 99.6% | 1.33 |
 Bandhan Life | 99.6% | 39.67 |
 Tata AIA | 99.5% | NA |
 PNB MetLife | 99.4% | 44.33 |
 Axis Max Life | 99.3% | 7 |
 Canara HSBC Life | 99.3% | 17.67 |
 Edelweiss Life | 99.3% | 167.33 |
 Bajaj Life | 99.2% | 3.95 |
 Pramerica Life | 99.2% | 51.67 |
 Bharti AXA Life | 99.1% | 95.67 |
 SBI Life | 99% | 5.59 |
 Aviva Life | 99% | 93.67 |
 Indusind Nippon Life | 98.9% | 2.9 |
 IndiaFirst Life | 98.8% | NA |
 Kotak Mahindra Life | 98.6% | 6.79 |
 ICICI Prudential | 98.5% | 11 |
 Aditya Birla Sun Life | 98.5% | 2.33 |
 LIC | 98.3% | 4.57 |
 Shriram Life | 98.2% | 13.43 |
 Star Union Dai-ichi Life | 98.2% | 17.67 |
 Ageas Federal Life | 97.8% | 109.33 |
 Generali Central Life | 96.9% | 180.66 |
 Acko Life | NA – too new | NA |
 CreditAccess Life | NA – too new | NA |
 Go Digit Life | NA – too new | NA |
Both figures are a weighted average of the last three financial years, latest available as of March 2026, from IRDAI's published data. Acko Life, Go Digit Life and CreditAccess Life have written life business too recently to have a meaningful ratio and show NA rather than a zero.
Section 45 decides more death claims than the ratio does
Section 45 of the Insurance Act 1938 stops an insurer questioning a life policy on grounds of misstatement or non-disclosure once three years have passed from commencement, revival or the addition of a rider – whatever the reason, and even where fraud is alleged.
Inside those three years, the insurer can investigate and does. Almost every contested death claim turns on something written on the proposal form years earlier: an undeclared condition, understated income, an existing policy that went unmentioned, tobacco use marked as none.
Which means the single most useful thing you can do for your nominee is answer the proposal form completely and keep a copy of what you submitted. No settlement ratio compensates for a form that was wrong. Our insurer-by-insurer claim guides set out what each one asks a nominee for.
Looking for health insurance instead?
Health claims work differently and the ratios spread much wider, because a health claim can be reduced as well as declined – by a waiting period, a room rent cap, a co-pay or a sub-limit.
Health insurance claim settlement ratio, all 31 insurers →Claim ratio questions, answered
What is the claim settlement ratio in term insurance?
It is the share of death claims a life insurer settled out of every death claim it decided in a financial year, counted by number of policies. A 99% ratio means 99 of every 100 death claims the insurer closed were paid. IRDAI publishes it annually.
What is a good claim settlement ratio for term insurance?
Above 98% is the working bar, and almost the whole industry clears it. Across the life insurers on this page the ratio spans under three percentage points, so it cannot meaningfully rank them. Complaint volume, which runs across two orders of magnitude, is the figure that separates one insurer from another.
Which life insurer has the best claim settlement ratio?
Several sit at 99% or above and the differences between them are inside the noise. A more useful reading is the pair: an insurer settling 99.3% of claims while drawing 167 complaints per 10,000 is telling you something an insurer settling 99.2% with 4 complaints is not.
What is Section 45, and why does it matter more than the ratio?
Section 45 of the Insurance Act 1938 stops an insurer questioning a life policy on grounds of misstatement or non-disclosure once three years have passed from commencement, revival or rider addition, whatever the reason and even in cases of fraud. Inside those three years the insurer can and does investigate. That three-year line decides far more death claims than any difference in settlement ratio.
Why are term insurance ratios so much higher than health insurance ratios?
A death claim is binary and rarely ambiguous: the insured has died, and the policy either covers it or does not. A health claim involves waiting periods, sub-limits, room rent, medical necessity and pre-existing conditions, each a place to reduce or decline. That is why life ratios cluster near 99% while health ratios spread over a dozen points.
Should I choose a term plan by claim settlement ratio?
It is a poor primary filter. Once an insurer is above about 98%, the ratio has stopped discriminating. Weigh complaint volume, whether the payout structure suits your family, the riders you actually need, and above all the accuracy of your own disclosure, which is what most contested death claims turn on.
What is the difference between the claim settlement ratio and the amount settled ratio?
The settlement ratio counts policies; the amount ratio counts rupees. They diverge when an insurer pays most small claims but contests large ones. An insurer settling 99% of claims by count while settling appreciably less by value is declining the big ones, which is precisely the category a term policy exists for.
What most often causes a death claim to be rejected?
Non-disclosure, and by a wide margin: an undeclared medical condition, understated income, an existing policy that was not mentioned, or tobacco use marked as none. Almost all of it is decided at the proposal form, years before the claim. After three years Section 45 closes that door for the insurer.
There is more to a policy than these two numbers
Both figures on this page describe the insurer, across every policy it sells and every customer it has. Neither describes the policy you are about to buy, and neither can tell you whether your claim will be paid.
What decides that sits in the wording: how you answered the medical and financial questions, whether the payout is a lump sum or an income, which riders you took, and whether the policy is past the three years after which Section 45 stops the insurer questioning a claim on non-disclosure. A high settlement ratio does not rescue a claim that falls foul of any of them.
