The business of Insurance started with marine business traders, who used togather in the Lliyd"s coffee house in London agreed to share the losses to their goods while being carried by ships. The losses used to occur bacause of pirates who robbed on the high seas or because of bad weather spoling the goods or sinking the ship. The first Insurance policy was issued in 1583 in England. In India, Insurance began in 1870 with Life Insurance being transacted by an English company, the European and the Albert. The first Indian Insurance company was the Bombay Mutual Assurance Society Ltd, formed in 1870. This was followed by the Oriental Life Assurance Co. in 1874, the Bharat in 1896 and the Empire in India in 1897

Later, the Hindusthan Cooperative was formed in Calcutta, the United India in Madras, the Bombay Life in Bombay, the National in Calcutta, the New India in Bombay, the Jupiter in Bombay & the lakshmi i New Delhi. These were all Indian companies, started as a result of the swadeshi movement in the early 1900's. By the year 1956, when the life insurance business were nationalised & the life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) was formed on 1st September 1956, there were 170 companies & 75 provident fund societies transacting life insurance business in India. After the amendments to the relevant laws in 1999, the LIC didnot have the privilege of doing life insurance business in India. By 31.3.2002, eleven new insurers had been registered & had begun to transact life Insurance business inIndia