LIC IPO opened this week: Should you invest?

LIC, the largest life insurer in India, has been in business for more than 65 years. It was formed in 1956 by nationalising and merging 245 private life insurance companies. Until 2000, it was the only life insurer in India by virtue of the ban on private players. LIC accounts for the lion's share of the life insurance market [around 61.6 per cent and 61.4 per cent in terms of gross written premium (GWP) and new business premium (NBP), respectively] as of December 2021. This is due to LIC's monopoly status for more than four decades, a large number of individual agents (especially in rural areas), a wide range of products and a sense of trust created by being Government-owned. LIC's offerings cover various segments across individual and group products. Its group product portfolio offers 11 products and its individual product portfolio presently comprises 16 participating and 16 non-participating products. Participating products are policies where the policyholder receives a variable amount depending upon the profits of LIC whereas non-participating policyholders only get a fixed payout. It has the largest individual agent network among life insurers in India, comprising 13.3 lakh individual agents as