There are a lot of questions around the accuracy of COVID-19 case and death data being reported by the governments on a daily basis. However, other related data could offer insights into the impact of COVID-19. The data on life insurance claims due to death as reported by the insurance companies indicates that the value of claims increased by 36% in the first three quarters of 2020-21 compared to the same period in 2019-20 and this increase is reported by most of the insurance companies. The COVID-19 pandemic that began last year has brought upon loss of lives and a large-scale impact on health across the world. Although India has the second-highest number of COVID-19 cases, the fatality rate has been lower than many other countries badly affected by the pandemic. While there are apprehensions on the reliability of the information being provided by the government authorities on a daily basis, trends observed in other sectors are analysed to ascertain the impact of COVID-19. One such sector is the Insurance sector. Insurance policy offers financial protection and assistance in wake of any death, loss or financial need. As per the latest information available in IRDAI’s ( Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority of India) Handbook of Indian Insurance Statistics 2017-18, the Insurance Penetration for Life Insurance in India in 2017 was 2.76%, compared to the global average of 3.33%. The insurance penetration for non-life insurance is much lower at 0.93%, whereas the global average is 2.8%. While the penetration of insurance is lower, it does make up for a sizeable number in view of India’s huge population. As the data Indicates, the idea of insurance in India is more synonymous with Life Insurance– as financial security in case of death or during old age. The number of those opting for non-life insurance coverage is comparatively lower with a good proportion of it due to the government rules & regulations (as in the case of Motor vehicle insurance). However, thanks to the corporate & employer initiatives and also an increased awareness, the uptake of health insurance are growing every year with the rising costs of private healthcare. Even in this space, most of the policies are part of employer benefits or government-sponsored health schemes. IRDAI’s website provides information as part of ‘Public Disclosure’ by the respective Insurance companies in the country. We take a look at the latest information provided until Q3 of 2020-21 i.e., till December 2020 and analyse the trends during this period, compared to the previous years. The value of Death Claims settled by LIC up to Q3 of 2020-21 up by 32% As per the information shared by the public sector Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), during Quarter 3 (Q3) of 20-21, a total of Rs. 7.54 thousand crores were paid out against the death claims. Compared to the same quarter last year (2019-20), this is an increase of nearly 81%. This growth rate is way higher compared to the earlier years when it was only 5% and 8% respectively Apart from the substantial increase in the total value of death claims settled by LIC during 2020-21, a more significant trend is in regard to the number of claims made. Bucking a year-on-year decreasing trend observed in the previous year, a total of 8.16 lakh claims were made by the end of Q3 in 2020-21 compared to 6.97 lakh claims during the same period in 2019-20. This is reversing of the trend observed in the previous three years, where the number of claims due to death was lower than their preceding years. On the other hand, the value of claims settled due to policy maturity did not show a greater increase compared to earlier years. Other insurers like SBI Life, ICICI-Prudential etc. also report an increase in the claims due to Death Apart from the public sector LIC, many other Private Insurers also reported an increase in the amount of ‘Insurance Claims’ due to death in the first three quarters of 2020-21. There are 23 private insurers offering Life Insurance policies. Similar to LIC, even they are required to make public disclosure, the details of which are available on the IRDAI Website. As per the information provided by the private insurers (who have updated details up to Q3 of 2020-21), here are few observations. In most of the cases, there is a higher increase in the claims during Q3 of 2020-21 compared to the same quarter in 2019-20. As observed in the case of LIC, the proportion of the increase in 2020-21 is more than the increase observed in earlier years in the case of most of these private insurers. However, the trend is not uniform across the insurers, some of the insurers reporting fewer claims like Pramerica and Shriram Life. IDBI Federal released its data for the entire year of 2020-21.