If a policy was mis-sold to you, the most useful thing to know is that Indian regulation gives you a fixed, short, non-negotiable window to undo it: the free-look period. Under regulation 20 of the IRDAI (Protection of Policyholders Interests, operations and allied matters of insurers) Regulations, 2024, notified on 20 March 2024, it is 30 days from the date you receive the policy document. Inside that window you can return the policy, state your reasons, and get your premium refunded after only the deductions the law allows.

The reason this matters more than it sounds is timing. A complaint to the Insurance Ombudsman, a consumer forum case, or a mis-selling argument that a policy was not what you were told all take far longer and depend on a far more contested set of facts. The free-look period depends on almost nothing. You do not have to prove mis-selling. You do not have to prove the agent was dishonest. You have to say the terms are not acceptable, return the policy, and not have made a claim on it.

Method and data basis

This guide is built from the operative text of regulation 20 in the Gazette of India extraordinary notification of 20 March 2024, which sets out the period, who it applies to, the conditions, the permitted deductions, the treatment of linked products, and the refund timeline. Where the regulations and older IRDAI policyholder-facing material describe the period differently, the current regulation is followed here, and the difference is flagged below, because it is the sort of thing a mis-selling agent will quote back at you from memory.

Who gets a free-look period

Regulation 20(1) covers two groups: policyholders of life insurance policies, and policyholders of new individual health insurance policies. Three boundaries are worth knowing before you assume you are covered.

  • Individual health policies only. A group or corporate health policy does not carry the free-look period on these terms. The free-look right is a personal, individual-contract right, and it does not travel to a policy bought on a company's behalf.
  • Policies with a tenure of less than a year are excluded. This is the exclusion that catches people, because a one-year health policy is exactly what many people buy. The regulation applies the free-look period to life and new individual health policies "except for those policies with tenure of less than a year". If you are holding a one-year health policy, look instead at the separate cancellation provision in the policy wording, which typically allows cancellation during the term on written notice, with a different refund calculation.
  • Renewals are not new policies. A renewal is not a fresh sale, and the free-look period applies at inception. If you switched or migrated a policy, that is not the same event as buying one, and the free-look period is not the right tool. Renewal and migration are governed by their own rules, chiefly portability.

The two conditions that people miss

Regulation 20(3) has two conditions, and one of them is stated more often than the other.

  • You must not have made a claim. The regulation provides that a policyholder who disagrees with the terms "and has not made any claim" may return the policy. A claim made during the free-look period takes you outside the framework. If you have already used the policy, this is not your route.
  • You must state your reasons. The regulation requires you to state the reasons for the cancellation, and the insurer must process it. But note what regulation 20(4) then says: the policyholder "shall be entitled to a refund of the premium paid" irrespective of the reasons mentioned. So the reasons are a formal requirement you must meet, and they are not a defence the insurer gets to test. You do not need to win an argument about whether you were mis-sold. You need to state why, and the refund is owed.

How the 30 days is counted, and the wording trap

The period is 30 days beginning from the date of receipt of the policy document, "whether received electronically or otherwise". Note the deliberate phrase. Older IRDAI consumer-facing material describes the period as 15 days, extended to 30 days for electronic policies and policies sourced through distance mode. That older framing is where a good deal of the confusion comes from, and it is the framing many agents and branch staff still use.

If you are told the free-look period is 15 days because your policy was printed and handed to you, that is quoting the superseded description. The current regulation says 30 days for policies obtained through any mode. This is one of the cases where knowing the actual text is worth real money. Regulation 20(2) also requires the insurer to inform you clearly and explicitly about the availability of the period, so if your policy pack contained no statement of it, that is itself a compliance failure worth raising alongside your request.

Write to the insurer citing regulation 20, quote the clause, and ask them to confirm in writing the receipt date they are recording and the date they treat as the start of the period. Those two dates decide everything, and they are not always the same date.

What you get back, and what comes off

Regulation 20(4) says the refund is the premium paid, subject only to a deduction of a proportionate risk premium for the period of cover, the expenses if any incurred by the insurer on medical examination of the proposer, and stamp duty charges. "Subject only to" is doing real work in that sentence. Those are the permitted deductions, and an insurer cannot add a service fee, a cancellation charge, an administration fee, or a penalty for having accepted your money.

So the refund arithmetic is worth doing, because it is simple and it is contestable. Take the premium you actually paid, and subtract the risk premium for the days you were covered, any medical examination expense, and stamp duty. What is left is what you are entitled to. If the insurer's number is lower, ask which of the three permitted deductions is being applied and on what basis. A proportionate risk premium has to be calculated on a real period of cover, so an insurer deducting a full month's or a full year's risk premium for a policy returned on day four has an arithmetic problem.

For a unit-linked policy, regulation 20(5) adds a further obligation on the insurer's side: it must also repurchase the units at the Net Asset Value on the date of cancellation. So for a linked product you are entitled to the value of your units as at the cancellation date, and you should check that figure rather than accept a number that looks like the premium less charges. Market movement between purchase and cancellation is a real risk in a linked product, and the regulation handles it by reference to the cancellation date rather than the purchase date. Ask for the NAV on the date you sent the policy back, in writing.

The 7-day clock, which is the part people miss

Regulation 20(6) is the most practically important sentence in the chapter and the least quoted. A request for cancellation during the free-look period "shall be processed and premium shall be refunded within 7 days of receipt of such request". Not within 7 days of approval. Not within 30 days of policy issue. Within 7 days of the insurer receiving your request.

That has two consequences. First, the trigger is your request, so the single most important administrative act is sending it in a form that proves it was sent and proves when. Second, the clock is short enough that waiting is itself a decision with a cost. If you are unsure whether you want to keep the policy, and the deadline is approaching, send a proper request and keep the policy, rather than sending a casual message and hoping the insurer does not act on it. You can decide what to do next once you have the refund, and a refund you hold is a much better position than a right you let lapse.

How to send a request that works

  • Send it in writing to a named address, and use a trackable method. Email to the grievance address with an acknowledgement request, or a registered or speed-post letter. A phone call is not a request, because there is nothing to prove and no date to rely on.
  • State the policy number, the date of receipt of the document, and the date of the request. Then state plainly that you are returning the policy under the free-look period at regulation 20 of the 2024 regulations, confirm no claim has been made, and ask for confirmation of the date they treat as the start of the period. Do not argue mis-selling here. The request works precisely because it does not need to, and regulation 20(4) makes the refund payable irrespective of the reasons you give.
  • Attach the reasons in a sentence or two. The regulation requires you to state them, so state them: the premium was quoted as one figure and the policy shows another, the exclusions were not what was explained, the policy is not what I asked for. Be specific and factual, and note that you are not building a case, you are meeting a condition.
  • Return the original document. Insurers will ask for the original policy document, and some ask for the full set including the premium receipt and the proposal form. Send a scan the same day, keep a copy, and send the physical original by trackable post.
  • Put a date on your own record and follow up at day 8, not day 30. If seven days pass with no refund, the breach is on the record. Then escalate, and the escalation is stronger because the deadline you are invoking is short and specific.

If the insurer resists, in the order that works

Most refusals are procedural rather than substantive, and the usual reason is a date dispute: the insurer says the 30 days started on a date earlier than yours. Answer that in writing with the two documents that settle it, the date of issue on the policy and any courier or email trail showing when you received it. If the insurer says the free-look period is 15 days, quote regulation 20(1) back, in full, and ask for a written response. Also check the claim condition: if the refusal is on the ground that a claim was made, check whether the claim was actually made under this policy and within the period. If the refusal is on any other ground, ask what the ground is, because the regulation does not provide for refusal on any other ground during the free-look period.

Then, if it still does not resolve, escalate in this order: the insurer's internal grievance redressal process, which you are entitled to invoke and which is a prerequisite for approaching the Ombudsman; then the Insurance Ombudsman for life and health complaints, which is free and does not need a lawyer; and then the consumer forum, where a claim for a refund plus the delay can be filed on the basis of the regulation alone.

What is not resolved by the free-look period

Two limits are worth stating so the expectation is right. The free-look period is a no-fault exit, not a remedy for a bad claim experience months later, because the policy has to be within 30 days of receipt and free of any claim. And it is not a route to a partial refund of a policy you have used, because the no-claim condition takes you outside it. If your problem is a declined claim, a mis-sold rider discovered later, or a surrender, the free-look period is the wrong instrument and you should read our guide to escalating a delayed or rejected claim instead.

What to do this month

Find the policies you bought in the last few weeks, not the ones you think you may have bought. For each one, note the date the document was issued and the date you actually received it, confirm no claim has been made, and work out whether you are still inside 30 days. If you are, and the terms are not what you agreed to, send the request this week and keep the seven-day clock in view. Then check the date on every policy you already hold and put a single reminder in your calendar for 25 days after the anniversary of each receipt date, so the next free-look period arrives with a reminder rather than a regret. That calendar entry is the cheapest insurance advice available in India, and the whole point of this article is that most people never make it.