Aviva Life Insurance

Dear Sir,

Recently, I took out two insurance policies with Aviva Life Insurance. One was for Safeguard, an investment plan and another for Lifetime, a pure insurance cover.

I paid the premiums of Rs 78000 on the Lifetime policy and Rs 60000 on the Safeguard Policy for a cover of Rs 14,50,000 and Rs 6,00,000 respt. on 22.12.2005. I also underwent medical examination as required by the company.

I subsequently received a letter from Aviva revising the premium on the Lifetime policy. A load of 25 % was put on the mortality rates. On my enquiring the reason for the same, the Company replied that the loading was done due to elevated high fasting blood sugar levels. The Company asked my consent for levying the revised higher premium. Since I had my doubts, I requested the Company to send me my medical reports so that I could refer them to my family physician for his advise and opinion.

However, the company refused to comply with my request and informed me that it was against the policy of the company to share the medical reports of the insured with the insured. I, therefore, replied that today we are living in an age where the public are demanding transparency in all decisions. In fact, towards this end, the Government of India had recently enacted the Right to Information Act, a landmark legislation in the annals of history. I informed them that in the absence of the medical records it was impossible for me to take a decision since I was not in a position either to validate or disprove the data. I also informed them that Prudential ICICI with whom I had taken a policy earlier had sent me a copy of all my medical reports.

However, the Company stuck to its guns. As a last resort it sent a letter to my family physician giving certain readings which my doctor was not in a position to validate.

It is now more than 4 months since I paid the premiums. I wrote to the MD, Mr Purdy requesting him to look into the matter and resolve the issues. However, instead of sharing the reports with me, they have once again informed me that they would not be able to share the medical reports. Instead they have asked me to undergo another test once again.

Under the circumstances, I have to seek your expert advise and opinion on the following matters -

1. should not the company share the medical reports of the insured with the insured? More so when there an extra loading in the premium?

2. in the absence of the medical reports, the company can unjustifiably levy arbitrarily any premium. Would this not amount to cheating?

3. The premiums were paid in Dec 2005. We are now in April 2006. More than 4 months have passed. Should not there be some time frame within which all policies should be issued? Who will suffer the loss should there unfortunately be any mishap?

4. The premiums were to be partly invested in the mutual funds. Till date the funds have not been deployed. Who is responsible for losses suffered due to non-deployment of funds?

I would appreciate if you could kindly guide me as to how I should proceed in the matter. In case you can take up the matter with Aviva, kindly let me know.

Relevant correspondence is enclosed for your information. Incase you need more information, do let me know.

Yours faithfully,

Marshall Mendonza