New Delhi, March 17 -- Life insurance companies have posted disappointing numbers for February. Life Insurance Corp. of India Ltd (LIC) is the biggest drag here. It still accounts for nearly one-third of the industry's total annual premium equivalent (APE) based on FY25 data till date, so any significant drop in its performance has a big impact on total industry data.

When LIC's APE fell by 23% year-on-year in February, it led to a 6% drop in the metric for the overall industry. The number of policies sold was down by 32% year-on-year to 1.84 million in the individual segment, but a big 24% year-on-year increase in average ticket size mitigated the impact on overall value.

The life insurance industry seems to have become an unexpected c...