The claim settlement ratio is the share of death claims an insurer paid, out of those it decided. Across the four insurers we hold IRDAI data for, it runs from 96.42% to 99.70%.
That is the number this page is built on, because for term insurance it is the only one that matters much. Everything else about a term policy is a promise to pay a claim your family will make when you are not there to argue for it.
Claim settlement ratios
| Insurer | Claims paid | What the number carries |
|---|---|---|
| Axis Max Life | 99.70% | — |
| Tata AIA Life | 99.45% | — |
| HDFC Life | 99.00% | Has held above 99% for several consecutive years. |
| LIC of India | 96.42% | Settles over 8 lakh death claims a year — by far the largest volume, which makes the ratio statistically the most reliable in the market. |
Individual death claims, FY 2024-25, as published by the insurers from IRDAI data. Captured 15 August 2026.
What the ratio does not tell you
A high ratio is necessary and not sufficient, for three reasons worth knowing before you read too much into a decimal place:
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| It counts claims the insurer decided, not claims made. | A claim still under investigation at year end is in neither the numerator nor the denominator. |
| Volume changes what the number means. | LIC settles over eight lakh death claims a year. An insurer settling a few thousand can move its ratio by a percentage point on a handful of decisions; LIC’s cannot move that way, which makes it the most statistically reliable figure in the table even though it is not the highest. |
| It is a death-claim ratio. | It says nothing about how health, critical illness or disability riders on the same policy are settled. Those are decided under different terms and are not in this data. |
The gap between 99.70% and 99.00% is three claims in a thousand. The gap between either and a policy that is void because of something on the proposal form is total.
What actually decides whether a claim is paid
Two things, and neither is the insurer you pick.
Disclosure at the proposal stage. Nearly every declined term claim traces back to something not declared when the policy was bought — tobacco use, a pre-existing condition, income, an existing policy elsewhere. Declare all of it. A policy issued on a full disclosure at a higher premium pays; a cheaper one issued on an incomplete form is an argument your family has to win without you.
Section 45 of the Insurance Act. After three years from commencement, a life policy cannot be questioned on any ground, including misstatement. Before three years it can. That three-year mark is the single most useful date in a term policy, and it starts when the policy does — which is an argument for buying earlier rather than for buying cheaper.
What we do not publish here, and why
No premium comparison and no ranked list of policies. We hold IRDAI claim data; we do not hold verified premiums, and premiums for term cover are quoted per applicant on age, sum assured, tenure, smoking status and medical underwriting. A table of illustrative premiums for a 30-year-old non-smoker would be a table almost nobody reading it can actually buy at.
Get quotes for your own age and sum assured, from insurers whose ratio you are comfortable with, and compare those. That is a five-minute job and it produces real numbers instead of ours.
Claim ratios move once a year, on IRDAI’s annual data. This page carries the date it was captured.
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