As a high-net-worth individual (HNI) in India, your wealth showcases your years of effective investing and entrepreneurial endeavours. However, to preserve that legacy, you will need more than expert asset allocation; you will need a strategic approach to insurance. With the Indian insurance industry rushing forward, and the 2024 and 2025 Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) regulations now in effect, you also have many ways to secure your family, assets, and the future.
Why HNIs Should Consider Insurance
Your investable financial portfolio is likely between Rs 5-10 crore, but it might come with risks not covered by standard insurance products. Your lifestyle, which may entail international travel, rare artwork, or business liability, will require specific protection not provided by typical insurance products. Fortunately, reforms from IRDAI, including the 2024 Master Circular on Insurance Products, have created more options for HNIs, made the market more flexible, eliminated age limits for insurance policies, and reduced the waiting period for pre-existing condition coverage to three years. This can now allow you to make a decision that considers all three parts of your insurance policy: health, life, and property, to protect your ongoing legacy.
Customisation: Personalised Protection for Your Unique Circumstances
Customisation helps you create an insurance portfolio that fits your lifestyle and the risks you face. Have a collection of vintage cars, or a condo by the ocean? Standard plans may not often address unique perils such as flood or theft of collections. By working with wealth advisors, you can create riders or standalone covers to bridge these gaps. For example, a high sum assured term life insurance can be helpful in legacy building, with flexible premiums and payout options, as part of an efficient tax planning process for estates.
Advantages and Disadvantages
The value proposition of customisation is its specificity. It can offer a net/net basis risk acceptance that leaves no gaps. In 2025, with the rise of India’s affluent being recognised, specifically trained insurers are ensuring that HNI plans are being offered with a sum assured of Rs 100 crore or amounts beyond. You can even add well-being and whole wellness benefits to your plan, like AYUSH treatments, without sub-limits, due to the encouraging amendments made by IRDAI to the insurance industry. There are a lot of practical considerations, including time and effort to amend policies, and underwriting with units of customised insurance will be much higher. Although customisation introduces separation in policies without extra added value. Specialised Private Bankers are the experts who manage such fragmentation.
Aggregation: The Efficient Coverage Model
Aggregation means bundling multiple covers, such as life, health, and thanatology, into simple packages. A family-focused health policy could be an integrated health coverage, with high limits in some areas, and outpatient benefits with wellness options, reducing administrative complexity. The IRDAI issued several clarifications or modifications in 2025 and is open to bundled aggregation coverage types, while authorising multiple claims across insurers on benefit-based policies. It is also releasing new sector structure forms. It would fit you if you were focused on simplicity through a busy schedule.
Benefits and Drawbacks
Aggregation has advantages and conveniences that could save you 10-15% on premiums through economies of scale. It is well-suited for HNIs with interrelated risks, like business owners trying to protect personal and corporate risks. However, aggregated plans may not meet some niche aspects of individual asset protection, like cyber liability for tech assets involved with internet banking and investing or tailored valuations for fine art, which could create gaps in coverage.
Identifying Optimal Coverage
Customisation works well for highly unique risk, for example, global mobility risk, or philanthropy, while aggregation provides highly efficient and effective protection for general family planning; a hybrid approach is often the best option for highly tailored, risk-specific protection. A hybrid approach can first provide the family planning basics in aggregate, and then targeted elements individually, such as family cyber insurance. As per the 2025 data, 60% of HNIs prefer the mix, as advised by the advisor; this hybrid approach usually works best. Private bankers can provide a risk assessment and recommend a balance of aggregated and customised coverage while satisfying the IRDAI guidelines, by giving reasonable protection for the insured.
Conclusion
The insurance industry in India is expected to grow 123% by 2030, driven by digital innovation and various regulatory factors. Now is the time to start acting. Ask your wealth advisors to take a fresh look at your portfolio. Whether you prefer customisation for tailored coverage or aggregation for convenience, the goal is still to have durable protection. Insurance is more than just being insured; having insurance means being covered, for you and your loved ones, for peace of mind you can sustain for generations.
