Chennai: Private life insurers beware. The Bangalore-headquartered life insurer MetLife India Insurance Company is slowly expanding its presence in the group insurance segment. The company has launched a unique flexible group insurance policy Met Group Life - one of the few group products for which it has applied for the insurance regulator's permission.

The company had earlier announced its strategy of leveraging its global relations with multi national companies (MNC) to tap the domestic corporate group insurance business. It should be noted that Metlife International, one of the three joint venture partners in the Indian company is a major force in the group insurance business overseas.

MetLife India's Met Group Life enables both the employers and the employees to choose the right mix of life cover and the premium payment option as per their needs.

For employers looking at a higher employee satisfaction, Met Group Life offers the right combination - a cost effective solution to providing financial security for employee families, while ensuring uniform business expenses, and easy and hassle-free plan administration. It requires no individual underwriting and offers various paying options - annual, semi-annual, quarterly or monthly.

The policy offers a rich basket of options for employees - easy enrolment process with no medical underwriting up to free cover limit, non-taxable face-amount for beneficiary and additional cover on a contributory basis. Met Group Life also offers the option of converting group coverage to individual coverage if the employee desires, and the advantage of covering spouse and children - subject to minimum participation levels.

MetLife India will also provide communication materials to educate employees about life insurance needs, to illustrate coverage options, and to show how life insurance adds to their overall financial freedom.

Says Tim Mitchell, vice president- sales & marketing, MetLife International: "Worldwide, group policies have proved to have significantly increased employee motivation, morale and loyalty, leading to a better work environment. MetLife has successfully leveraged on the same to become the biggest group insurer in the industry, making group business the cornerstone to building financial freedom. With Met Group Life, we endeavour to replicate the same in India, thus bringing in the expertise and quality service levels towards maintaining our global reputation".

Through group insurance business, MetLife India plans to deliver creative and targeted group business solutions to customers through a choice of solutions, expert advice and integrated administrative services,

Compared to last fiscal, MetLife India is growing at a faster clip this year. The company has booked Rs.13.31 crore as first year premium income till December 2003 of which Rs.12.83 crore is from individual non single premium policies.