Catch them young! seems to be the new mantra for life insurance player Max New York Life, which is bullishly looking to tap the child insurance space with innovative products and programmes like the I-genius scholarship.

Beginning this year, the company has earmarked 80 per cent of its marketing spend on promoting child benefit plans and insurance products and plans to concentrate on the segment for the coming years.

"As far as insurance is concerned, the single largest motivator for insurance, after life, is children. So we thought this is an important space for us to partner with. The category fittment is very high," Max New York Life Insurance Director and Chief Marketing Officer Anisha Motwani said here.

Quoting surveys, she said that one of the major reasons for parents to begin financial planning is the well being of children.

"When you talk about financial planning, the first reason is for children... About 60 per cent of parents, we figured out, are setting out 50 per cent of their income for children -- their education, their well being," she said.

Setting the road for the new focus, the company has begun with the the I-genius scholarship programmes, under which it distributed Rs 2-crore worth of scholarships through talent contests held across the country.