For as long as most people in India’s insurance distribution industry can remember, corporate agents, brokers, and other intermediaries had to renew their registration with IRDAI every three years — a recurring cycle of paperwork, fees, and a fair amount of administrative anxiety.
That changed in 2026. IRDAI has moved to a perpetual registration model, effectively ending the fixed 3-year renewal cycle for many insurance intermediaries.
Here’s a complete breakdown of what changed, when, and what it actually means if you run or plan to run a corporate agency, brokerage, or similar intermediary business.
The Legal Foundation: The Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha Act, 2025
This reform didn’t emerge from a routine IRDAI circular alone — it’s rooted in actual legislative change.
The Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance Laws) Act, 2025 inserted a new Section 42D into the Insurance Act, which fundamentally redefined how intermediary registration works.
Under this provision, registrations granted to insurance intermediaries now remain valid on a continuous basis, until IRDAI actively suspends or cancels them — rather than automatically expiring after a fixed term.
What Actually Changed on February 5, 2026
The perpetual registration model took effect on February 5, 2026, discontinuing the earlier system that required a 3-year validity period for Certificates of Registration (CoR) and the accompanying renewal fee cycle. From this date onward:
- A fresh registration or renewal granted after February 5, 2026, results in a Certificate of Registration that is valid indefinitely — no calendar-based expiry date.
- Continued validity depends on paying a non-refundable annual fee and maintaining ongoing compliance with IRDAI’s conduct and reporting requirements.
- IRDAI retains full authority to suspend or cancel a registration at any point if an intermediary fails to pay the annual fee or falls short of compliance obligations — meaning “perpetual” doesn’t mean “unconditional.”
- Ongoing oversight now happens through continuous compliance filings, fit-and-proper checks, and reporting requirements, replacing the old periodic renewal exercise as the primary supervision mechanism.
Which Intermediaries Are Covered by This Change
The new framework applies broadly across India’s insurance intermediary landscape, including:
- Insurance Brokers (direct, reinsurance, and composite)
- Corporate Agents
- Insurance Marketing Firms (IMFs)
- Insurance Web Aggregators
- Common Public Service Centre Special Purpose Vehicles (CPSC-SPVs)
- Surveyors and Loss Assessors
Notably, this perpetual registration model applies to intermediary entities, not to individual IC-38 licensed insurance agents, who continue under the standard 3-year renewal cycle with CPD refresher training requirements, as covered in our IRDAI agent license renewal guide.
Formalising the Framework: The July 2026 Amendment
While the perpetual model took legal effect in February 2026, IRDAI followed up with formal regulatory amendments to implement it in practice.
On July 30, 2026, IRDAI issued the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Insurance Intermediaries) (Amendment) Regulations, 2026, amending five separate existing regulations covering Corporate Agents (2015), Insurance Brokers (2018), Insurance Marketing Firms (2015), Web Aggregators (2017), and Common Public Service Centres (2019).
This amendment formally replaced the periodic renewal system with continuous registration, subject to annual fee payment and ongoing compliance.
Importantly, it also set a clear transition path for existing intermediaries:
- Corporate Agents and Insurance Brokers currently holding a 3-year registration certificate must obtain a new registration certificate by January 31, 2027.
- A grace period extending to March 31, 2027 is available for those who miss the initial deadline, subject to payment of an additional fee.
An earlier circular, issued March 16, 2026, had already laid out transitional arrangements for annual fee payment and CoR issuance during the changeover period, giving intermediaries initial guidance while the formal amendment was being finalised.
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A New Accountability Requirement: Mandatory Salesperson Tagging
Alongside the shift to perpetual registration, IRDAI introduced a related accountability measure to improve traceability in insurance sales.
Effective January 1, 2027, every insurance proposal, policy, and certificate of insurance must be tagged to the specific individual involved in the sale — whether that’s a broker-qualified person, a POSP, a designated person, or another authorised salesperson.
Their name and functional identity, along with the contact details of the relevant branch or office, must be recorded directly on proposal forms and policy documents.
For policies sold entirely through an intermediary’s digital platform without any individual salesperson involved, the principal officer’s contact details must be disclosed instead.
This measure strengthens accountability at the point of sale, ensuring every policy can be traced to a specific, identifiable individual or officer.
Extra Disclosure Requirements for Larger and Foreign-Owned Intermediaries
The broader reform package also introduced heightened scrutiny for specific categories of intermediaries:
- Majority foreign-owned insurance intermediaries must submit quarterly details of related-party transactions and audited financial statements to IRDAI, and publish these disclosures on their company website.
- Intermediaries crossing specified commission-income thresholds (reportedly including those earning over ₹10 crore in commission) face similar enhanced disclosure obligations.
This reflects a broader regulatory context: IRDAI’s own annual report data shows life insurers paid out roughly ₹60,800 crore in commissions during 2024-25 (an 18% year-on-year increase, while total premium grew by under 7% over the same period), and the regulator has separately flagged concerns about a number of insurers exceeding expense limits — making commission transparency a genuine regulatory priority alongside the registration reform.
Why IRDAI Made This Change
The push toward perpetual registration wasn’t a sudden decision — brokers and corporate agents had long argued that frequent 3-year renewals imposed heavy compliance and administrative costs, consuming management bandwidth without necessarily improving oversight quality.
Perpetual registration offers several practical advantages:
- Reduced administrative burden from not having to repeat full renewal documentation and review every three years
- Greater business stability, encouraging longer-term investment in technology platforms and infrastructure, since intermediaries no longer face renewal uncertainty every three years
- Alignment with global regulatory practice, where continuous registration models are more common
- Support for insurance penetration goals — India’s insurance penetration stands at roughly 3.7%, well below global averages, and a simplified, more stable regulatory environment for distributors is intended to help accelerate growth in both urban and rural markets
What This Means Practically If You Run a Corporate Agency or Brokerage
- No more “am I about to expire” anxiety — once registered under the new framework, your registration doesn’t lapse on a fixed calendar date, provided you stay compliant and current on fees.
- Compliance becomes continuous, not periodic — instead of a concentrated push every three years, you’ll need to maintain ongoing readiness for fit-and-proper checks and reporting requirements at any time.
- Budget for the transition deadline — if you currently hold a 3-year CoR, mark January 31, 2027, as your target date to obtain your new registration certificate, with March 31, 2027, as your absolute fallback, with an additional fee.
- Prepare for the tagging requirement — from January 1, 2027, ensure your sales processes can properly attribute every policy to the correct salesperson or principal officer, since this becomes a mandatory disclosure requirement.
Timeline of Key Dates
| Date | Event |
| 2025 | Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance Laws) Act, 2025 enacted, inserting Section 42D |
| 5 February 2026 | Perpetual registration model takes effect; 3-year CoR renewal system discontinued |
| 16 March 2026 | IRDAI circular on transitional arrangements for annual fee payment and CoR issuance |
| 30 July 2026 | IRDAI (Insurance Intermediaries) (Amendment) Regulations, 2026 formally issued |
| 1 January 2027 | Mandatory salesperson/principal officer tagging requirement takes effect |
| 31 January 2027 | Deadline for existing 3-year CoR holders to obtain new registration certificates |
| 31 March 2027 | Final grace period deadline (with additional fee) for new registration certificates |
Frequently Asked Questions
Does perpetual registration apply to individual insurance agents too?
No. This reform applies to intermediary entities — corporate agents, brokers, IMFs, web aggregators, CPSC-SPVs, and surveyors/loss assessors.
Individual IC-38 licensed agents continue under the standard 3-year renewal cycle with CPD training requirements.
Does “perpetual” mean my registration can never be cancelled?
No. Perpetual means there’s no fixed calendar expiry date, but IRDAI can still suspend or cancel a registration for non-payment of the annual fee or non-compliance with conduct and reporting requirements.
What happens if I hold an existing 3-year Certificate of Registration?
You must obtain a new registration certificate under the updated framework by January 31, 2027, with a grace period until March 31, 2027, available upon payment of an additional fee.
What is the salesperson tagging requirement, and when does it start?
Effective January 1, 2027, every insurance proposal and policy must be tagged to the specific individual salesperson involved (or the principal officer, for purely digital sales), along with their contact details, to improve accountability and traceability.
Why did IRDAI move away from the 3-year renewal system?
The change reduces recurring administrative and compliance costs for intermediaries, encourages longer-term investment in technology and infrastructure, aligns India with global regulatory practice, and supports the broader goal of improving insurance penetration through a more stable regulatory environment.