Sun Life sees 5-million client base by 2020

MANILA, Philippines — Sun Life of Canada Philippines Inc. is confident of achieving its ambitious goal to scale up its client base to five million earlier than the 2020 target, a top official of the company said yesterday.

In a press briefing, newly appointed Sun Life chief executive officer and country head Benedict Sison said his company is well on its way to meeting its five million client goal as the number of customers already reached 3.9 million as of end-June this year.

“The goal is to achieve five million by the end of 2020. But at the rate we’re going, its seems to be achievable at a much faster rate. But we’re keeping the 2020 goal,” Sison said.

According to the official, the company’s client base grew exponentially from the 1.5 million clients recorded in 2015.

He said Sun Life’s client base is composed of individual clients, group clients, and the middle income market, which Sun Life has been actively trying to penetrate in the past two years.

“There are several ways to penetrate the middle market. We go to big groups and use online tools,” Sison said.

Recently, Sison said Sun Life launched a partnership with online shopping platform Lazada to distribute insurance products at an affordable price.

“We also partnered with Western Union, those that have a lot of mass market,” he added.

More importantly, Sison said Sun Life continues to push its financial literacy program to make more Filipinos understand the value of insurance.

With these initiatives in place, Sison said the life insurer is confident that 2018 will be “another stellar year” for the company. The official said Sun Life‘s business grew at least 40 percent in the first half.

He also expressed optimism that Sun Life would withstand volatilities currently faced by the market, as long as it “aims to achieve financial security for Filipinos.”

Meanwhile, Sison said Sun Life is also exploring various opportunities in the market, including the establishment of an asset management unit for institutional investors.

“We are looking at other opportunities to service our clients better right now. We are in the retail business and we want to enter the institutional business,” he said.

In 2017, Sun Life of Canada remained the top life insurance provider in the Philippines with P32.11 billion in total premium income. This was higher than the life insurer’s premium income of P31.89 billion in 2016.