India, Feb. 17 -- Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued detailed draft guidelines on mis-selling financial products. The focus was largely on insurance products that were bundled with loans, and sold forcibly, with manipulations and nudges through advertisements, and messaging. From the draft, it seems that the banks and their staff, as sellers, and agents, as their representatives, were the main culprits. However, a recent survey reveals that buyers are as much responsible as the agents (sellers) for the myths and fallacies around insurance. There were knowledge gaps, misunderstanding, and a surprising lack of intent to learn and know on both sides of the table.

Although the survey's sample size is quite low, and includes 300...