IRDAI's FY2025-26 first year premium data dropped on April 21. The life insurance industry grew 15.7% to Rs 4.60 lakh crore in FYP. But there's a more significant growth story when you dig deeper into the numbers. Mid-tier insurers are playing catch up with their top-tier peers.
The Three-Tier Split
I split IRDAI's 25-insurer data into three tiers for analysis.
The Top 5 (LIC, SBI Life, HDFC Life, ICICI Prudential, Bajaj Allianz) together grew 14.6% and lost 0.82 points of market share, going from 83.3% to 82.5%. LIC by itself captured 54.2% of the industry's absolute increase, adding Rs 33,794 crore. In absolute terms, the Top 5 are still dominant.
But just below them, the mid-tier is expanding at a fast clip. Four mid-tier insurers each added between Rs 1,968 crore and Rs 2,371 crore in first year premium: ABSLI (+Rs 2,371 crore), Max Life (+Rs 2,328 crore), Kotak Life (+Rs 1,970 crore), and Tata AIA (+Rs 1,968 crore). These numbers compare well with HDFC Life (+Rs 2,884 crore) and ICICI Prudential (+Rs 2,226 crore).
The mid-tier has a FYP book that's about half the size of the Big 4 private insurers, but are adding comparable volumes despite a much smaller base. That's a story in itself, but the retail premium is an even more interesting story
Not All Premium Is Equal
One of the stickier sources of revenue in life insurance is individual non-single premium (with significantly lower churn than group business). This comes from retail customers who pay regular annual premiums and renew it every year.
The mid-tier (Max Life, ABSLI, Tata AIA, Kotak, PNB MetLife, Star Union Dai-ichi) added Rs 4,297 crore in retail regular premium in FY26. The Top 5 added only marginally more at Rs 5,181 crore. The mid-tier delivered 83% of the top-tier's retail gain from a base that is only 35% the latter's size, growing at 15.7% versus 6.6% for the top-end.
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There is a structural difference between the two tiers. Nearly 52.7% of the mid-tier's total premium comes from the retail business. For the Top 5, that figure is only 22.2%. Almost 74% of LIC's FYP comes from group business. The mid-tier is building a book that looks fundamentally different.
The mid-tier is not far behind in policy count either, suggestive of broader reach, not just higher ticket sales. Mid-tier insurers added 4.65 lakh new policies, roughly two-thirds of the Top 5's 7.08 lakh.
Another Interesting Story in the Lower Rungs
A third tier of emerging insurers (Go Digit, Generali Central, Bharti AXA, CreditAccess, Bandhan, Acko) grew 52.4% to Rs 5,321 crore. In absolute terms, they are still a fraction. But one number is worth highlighting: their sum assured-to-premium ratio is 176, against 20 for the Top 5. For every rupee of premium they collect, they provide Rs 176 of life cover, as opposed to Rs 20 of life cover by the Top 5, indicating a much higher tilt towards protection-led products (individual, group and credit life).
Of these, Bharti AXA, Bandhan Life and Generali Central are heavily tilted towards individual, while the rest are overwhelmingly focused on group. Together, this set grew their retail regular premium by 75.2%.
A Gradual Industry Shift
Every rupee of premium now buys more cover than it did a year ago. Sum assured across the industry grew 23.6% while premiums grew 15.7%. The industry's sum assured-to-premium ratio moved from 25.8x to 27.6x.
Within the mid-tier, Tata AIA is leading this shift. Its SA-to-premium ratio at 94x is almost five times that of the Top 5's. Max Life (53x) and Kotak Life (36x) are also trending upward. Max Life is now just Rs 85 crore short of overtaking Bajaj Allianz as the fifth-largest private insurer (Rs 14,501 crore vs Rs 14,586 crore).
The Big 4 private insurers aren't struggling. HDFC Life added Rs 2,884 crore. SBI Life grew 19.6%. But the mid-tier is catching up, with retail-heavy books and growing sum assured coverage.
Ashok Hegde is the founder of Gyansurance.com, a term insurance education platform. The analysis is based on IRDAI's New Business Statement for the period ended 31 March 2026, parsed across 25 insurers and five premium categories.
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