Axis Max Life Insurance does not see any immediate trigger for an increase in life insurance premiums over the next few months, even as global uncertainties weigh on consumer sentiment, managing director and chief executive officer Sumit Madan said in an interview with Mint.
His comments come as India's life insurance industry continues to grow, with Axis Max Life expanding faster than the broader market. The unlisted insurer grew 16-17% last year, compared with industry growth of around 10-12%, Madan said. In the first quarter of the current financial year, the company grew around 16%, against an industry growth of about 15%.
“I don't see any trigger for premium rates to increase, either for our company or for the industry overall,” Madan said.
Madan said the industry was having a “reasonably good run” despite global uncertainties, helped by a greater focus on need-based selling and the use of data, technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to deepen customer engagement and expand insurance penetration.
The company is also seeing a growing share of its sales come from smaller cities. Madan said more than 65% of Axis Max Life’s sales now come from tier-2 and tier-3 markets, which he partly attributed to the company’s brand refresh and the reach of Axis Bank.
“When you eventually look at the final numbers, whether it is sales or brand consideration, we have seen improvement after the brand refresh to Axis Max Life Insurance, particularly in weaker markets such as the south and east,” he said.
The shift towards smaller cities is also reflected in the company’s latest India Retirement Index Study (IRIS), conducted in partnership with market research firm Kantar. The 2026 study covered 4,134 households across 40 cities, including metros, tier-1 and tier-2 locations. The company notes that references to “India” or “Indians” in the study refer to urban India.
The study found that tier-2 cities are closing the retirement-readiness gap with larger urban centres. The tier-2 IRIS score rose to 48 in 2026 from 44 in 2025, while the metro score remained at 50 and the tier-1 score eased to 48 from 49. The improvement in tier-2 cities was driven particularly by health and financial preparedness.
Among tier-2 respondents, 67% said they were aware of the corpus required to sustain their current lifestyle during retirement, compared with 61% for overall India. Meanwhile, 78% of tier-2 respondents said they were confident about maintaining good health during retirement, up from 74% in 2025.
The broader survey, however, shows that greater awareness has not necessarily translated into adequate retirement preparedness. While 61% of respondents said they knew the retirement corpus they needed, 39% remained unaware of the corpus required to sustain their current lifestyle. The average retirement corpus accumulated stood at only 28% of the target.