MANILA, Philippines - Largest Filipino life insurance company, Insular Life, reported a 162-percent surge in new business premiums as of June 2013 versus the same period last year. The number of policies issued also jumped by 52 percent.
In a statement, Insular Life chairman and chief executive officer Vicente R. Ayllon said they continue to leverage on the favorable market conditions and the higher interest of the public for long-term investment opportunities, savings and risk protection. “Our strategy of seizing sales and investment opportunities while ensuring long-term sustainable growth continues to payoff for us and our policyholders. As we generate higher premiums, we are also able to insure more people, thus, spreading the benefits of life insurance to more of our countrymen.
“However, premium income is just one measure of a company’s strength. A better gauge, one that is of value to policyholders is the ability of the company to fulfill its obligations to its clients. And in this area, we are most reliable. For the first six months of the year alone, Insular has paid a total of P3.1 billion in total policy benefits which includes dividends, claims, surrenders maturities and survivorship benefits,†Ayllon reported.
“Other indicators of a company’s strength are net worth and policy reserves. A high net worth means a company has the resources to pay for its obligations. Policy reserves is the amount of money set aside to pay for future claims. Insular’s net worth has reach P30 billion, among the highest in the industry. Insular’s reserves to business-in-force ratio is also the highest ratio in the insurance industry†Ayllon said.
Insular Life has also complied with and easily passed all the annual requirements of the Insurance Commission, the regulatory body of life insurance companies in the Philippines, in terms of margin of solvency, capital investment, reserve investment, minimum statutory net worth and risk based capital ratio.