Is Your Insurer Getting Worse?

Grievance data doesn’t tell you who’s the best insurer. It tells you who’s getting worse. A single year’s number means little; the trend over a decade tells you whether your insurer is cleaning up or sliding backwards.

We pulled 12 years of IRDAI grievance data for every life insurer in India. The industry picture looks good on the surface: grievances have fallen dramatically since 2013-14. But underneath that headline, several insurers are quietly going in the wrong direction.

The cleanup story: grievances fell 70-95% in a decade

In FY 2013-14, Bajaj Allianz Life received 52,314 grievances. HDFC Life received 52,402. Aditya Birla Sun Life: 30,825. These were enormous numbers for companies that were still maturing their customer service infrastructure.

By FY 2024-25, those same insurers report a fraction of their former volumes. Reliance Life dropped 95.8%. Aditya Birla Sun Life dropped 95.2%. Bajaj Allianz dropped 92.7%. HDFC Life dropped 90.9%. This is a genuine industry-wide cleanup, driven by IRDAI’s tightened regulations and better grievance resolution systems.

The backsliders: who’s getting worse since 2019?

The decade-long trend masks a more recent problem. Since FY 2019-20, several insurers have seen grievances climb, not fall.

Shriram Life stands out. Their grievances went from 523 in FY 2019-20 to 2,869 in FY 2024-25, a 449% increase. They also carry 42 unresolved grievances into the next year. For a mid-size insurer, that trajectory is a red flag.

Bajaj Allianz is the most interesting case. They achieved a 92.7% drop over a decade, then reversed course. From a low of 1,572 in FY 2019-20, grievances have climbed back to 3,827. That’s still 93% below the 2013-14 peak, but the direction has changed.

Who can’t close their complaints?

Most insurers resolve 100% of grievances within the year. But 12 insurers carried unresolved complaints into FY 2025-26.

Sahara Life is the worst case: 346 grievances reported, zero resolved, on top of 217 carried over from the prior year. They’re functionally unable to process complaints. Bharti AXA carries 80 unresolved. Shriram Life has 42. Reliance Life has 33.

LIC received 74,104 grievances (59.7% of the entire industry) and resolved every single one. Zero closing balance. Their grievance resolution machinery works.

Top 10 by grievance volume (FY 2024-25)

Raw volume alone is misleading. LIC’s 74,104 grievances look alarming until you note they process 8.48 lakh death claims a year. That’s 87 grievances per 1,000 claims. Max Life’s 5,165 grievances against roughly 7,500 claims is a far higher ratio. Context matters.

What to watch for

Check the 5-year trend, not just the latest number. An insurer with 2,000 grievances that were at 500 three years ago is a bigger concern than one with 5,000 that were at 50,000 a decade ago.

Look at the closing balance. If your insurer carries unresolved grievances year after year, their resolution process has structural problems. LIC, Max Life, HDFC Life, Bajaj Allianz, Tata AIA, and SBI Life all resolved 100% in FY 2024-25.

Cross-check with ombudsman data. When insurers can’t resolve grievances internally, policyholders escalate to the Insurance Ombudsman. If both grievance counts and ombudsman complaints are rising for the same insurer, that’s a pattern, not a coincidence. See the Insurer Scorecard for the full picture.

Frequently asked questions

Methodology

Data source: IRDAI Handbook on Indian Insurance Statistics, FY 2013-14 to 2024-25 editions, Table 37 (Grievances).

Metrics: “Reported” = grievances received during the year. “Resolved” = grievances closed during the year. “Closing balance” = unresolved at year-end. Resolution rate = Resolved / (Opening balance + Reported).

Limitation: IRDAI grievance data does not break down complaints by category (claims, servicing, mis-selling, etc.). Per-claim grievance rates are approximations using death claim volume as the denominator; actual grievances cover all policy types, not just death claims.