Family First eyes RP as regional base in SE Asia

Family First Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of W. Berkley International, plans to make the Philippines as its regional base in Southeast Asia despite the many complaints it received in the past two months in its Philippine operations.

Likewise, it will be establishing similar pre-need operations in Indonesia with an initial capitalization equivalent to P10 million. A total of P150 million will be infused into its proposed Indonesian operations by yearend.

William R. Berkley, chairman of W. Berkley International, said they are not bothered by the "just 23 complaints" (lodged in July and August) of deception and fraud raised locally which he claims were started "by a discharged employee."

"What is 23 complaints compared to the 10,000 calls we receive everyday. Just yesterday (Sunday), we closed 72 new accounts," Berkley said, adding that sales have increased by 11 percent in the first seven months of the year.

He said they received at least 200 complaints in the past two years. Family First has been in operation for less than four years.

Berkley said half of their sales force is undergoing training and that the other half will take the same training later. The company has a sales force of 750 most of which are involved in direct marketing in shopping malls and telephone marketing (telemarketing).

It has a customer base of 45,000 and a trust fund worth P500 million all invested in government securities. Total investments of Berkley International is worth over P1 billion.

Sales had slowed down in the past two months due to bad publicity and the retraining program. However, the company believes that poor sales "have bottomed out and that we expected it to pick up by the end of the month."

Berkley International is the mother unit of both Family First Inc. and Berkley International Life Insurance Corp. It is part of the US-based W.R. Berkley Corp. with total assets worth $5 billion.