85% Indians feel the need to better protect their lifestyle: ING Investor Dashboard Survey

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ING Life India, in its 10th year of operations, today released findings of its ING Investor Dashboard Survey for Q2 2011, indicating that 85% of metro-middle-class in India feels a greater need to protect their lifestyle, which is one of the highest in the Asia Pacific Region

ING Life India, in its 10th year of operations, today released findings of its ING Investor Dashboard Survey for Q2 2011, indicating that 85% of metro-middle-class in India feels a greater need to protect their lifestyle, which is one of the highest in the Asia Pacific Region. Driven by change in family circumstances, unstable income or increased family income, more than 75% of those who believe they have less coverage than they need, have indicated that they intend to purchase additional insurance policy in the coming 12 months. This again is the highest amongst the 7 markets surveyed in the region.
 
Launching the survey, Mr. Frank Koster, CEO ING Insurance Asia Pacific said, “With rising disposable income, better health, education and housing conditions, more and more individuals have lifestyles that they want to protect.”
 
He added, “Insurance policies with savings plans attached are proving to be the product that meets this demand. These policies are proving to be an accessible and popular wealth management product, for Asia’s growing number of mid-income earners.”
 
The survey reveals that within the region, Indians attach high priority to the need to save for children’s education (after need to protect family income). Saving for retirement amongst Indians is the 3^rd priority.
 
Speaking on the survey, Mr. Uco Vegter, Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer, ING Life India said, “The survey correlates with our experience in the Indian market, where we have seen that Indians have a strong desire to give good education to their children. Compared to the region, Indians have the backing of a joint family system, which makes retirement planning a lesser priority. As nuclear family system grows in India, we will see growth in retirement segment too.”
 
While planning for their child’s needs, Indian middle class finds fixed deposits to be the favorite, which Mr. Vegter attributes to the prevailing high interest rates. Life Insurance follows this at second place. The survey further reveals that parents are starting to save for their child early; with over 45% Indians surveyed prefer starting to save for their children when they are between 0 – 3 years.

ING Dashboard
Published for over three years ING Investor Dashboard measures and has been tracking investor sentiment behavior of mass affluent investors across 11 markets in Asia Pacific including China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Japan. For the first time, the ING Dashboard has, from 2011, started tracking insurance purchasing behavior across these 7 markets (China, Hong Kong, India, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Japan) in order to explore the lifestyle choices of Asia’s middle class.
The H1 2011 survey was conducted in June 2011 and involved online interviews with a total of 2,329 mid income respondents  across the 7 Asia Pacific markets. The respondents are aged 25 years and above. In India, the respondents are coming from SEC A and B.
The survey is conducted by international and independent research firm Nielsen.
About ING Life India
ING Vysya Life Insurance Company Limited (ING Life India) started operations in September 2001. ING Life has a pan India presence in over 190 cities, with over 33,000 advisors. ING Life is staffed by more than 6,500 employees. The Company has a diversified distribution platform and includes both Tied Agency and Alternate Channels. The Alternate Channels business within ING Life includes Bancassurance (ING Vysya Bank), Referral Banks, amongst others. Visit the company website www.inglife.co.in  for detailed information on its product portfolio.
About ING
ING is a global financial institution of Dutch origin offering banking, investments, life insurance and retirement services to over 85 million private, corporate and institutional clients in more than 40 countries. With a diverse workforce of about 107,000 people, ING is dedicated to setting the standard in helping our clients manage their financial future.
About Nielsen
Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence, mobile measurement, trade shows and related properties. Nielsen has a presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA and Diemen, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.