Chennai, May 1 (IANS): Reliance Life Insurance Company Ltd leads the 23-member private sector life insurers in adding the most number of individual agents last fiscal, according to the numbers released by industry body Life Insurance Council of India.

The Mumbai-based Reliance Life, part of the Anil Ambani-led group, last fiscal added 47,692 agents taking the total, net of attrition, to 129,693.

Incidentally the company has the highest number of individual agents among all the private life insurers.

"This year the number of new agents may be lower. Our focus will be on increasing their productivity. In India, life insurance agency is taken by individuals as a part-time profession. We would like to make them to take this as a full time profession," Anup Rau, chief executive officer and executive director, told IANS over phone on Saturday.

On the persistency or continuity of life insurance policies brought by the individual agents, Rau said it is now around 60 percent and the target is to take it to 70 percent.

"The persistency rate will be addressed through the initial sales pitch of the agents," he added.

He said the average premium per policy (APPP) under the agency channel is around Rs.23,500 and nearly 60 percent of the total business is brought by the agents channel.

According to Life Insurance Council, the private sector added a total of 345,715 agents last fiscal while 294,949 agents dropped out - taking the net addition to 50,766 agents.

Following Reliance Life on the total number of agents are ICICI Prudential Life Insurance (121,016 agents) and Birla Sun Life Insurance (110,658 agents).

The Pune-based Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance had 89,975 agents under its fold as on March 31, 2016, as against 120,982 agents at the beginning of the last fiscal.

Last fiscal Bajaj Allianz added 30,075 agents while 61,082 agents left the company.

As on March 31, 2016, the total number of individual agents in all the private life insurers stands at 954,997 as against 904,231 agents on April 1, 2015.

On the other hand public sector Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) closed last year with 1,061,560 agents down from 1,163,604 agents at the start of the fiscal.