The early history of insurance is hidden in the mists of antiquity. The objective of the study is to know the consumer awareness on insurance policies and preference towards new policies marketed by the private insurance companies and to state the level of satisfaction. The study was conducted in Coimbatore city with 100 respondents through convenient random sampling method. Tools and techniques used were simple percentage, chi-square and spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. The study resulted that most of them are aware of the policies and are invested in medi-claim and retirement benefit plans and are satisfied with the return value and security provided.The last 10 years have witnessed robust growth in business terms. Life insurance premiums have seen a tenfold rise from Rs. 26,250 cr in the year 2000 to about Rs. 2,61025cr in year 2011. Hence introduction of more number of ne schemes will have a good reception among the investors.