MANILA, Philippines - Pioneer Life Inc. is targeting a 60-percent growth in its total premiums in 2011, its top executive said.
From P1.1 billion in 2010, the insurer is looking to increase premiums to P1.76 billion.
Pioneer Life president and chief executive officer Lorenzo O. Chan said the drivers for growth this year would be the expansion of their distribution channels, new products, and the robust economic conditions of the country.
The company is launching four traditional life insurance products this year to cope with the increased demand in 2010.
The life insurance arm of the Pioneer Group will also be introducing one more variable product that has a guaranteed return and principal feature.
Variable products are life insurance policies laced with an investment feature much like mutual funds.
Pioneer Life already offers variable products invested in the equities or securities market: the US dollar fixed income or bond market, and the balanced fund - a combination of equities (60 percent) and peso fixed income (40 percent).
Meanwhile, Chan said that of the total premiums in 2010, P580 million came from the sale of traditional policies, P222 million from variable products, and P311 million from various products such as group insurance, microinsurance, and recurring business.
First year premiums (FYP) in 2010, however, failed to surpass the original target of P121.84 million worth of policies, settling for P120 million.
Policies-in-force stood at 230,000 as of end-2010.
Last year, the insurer made a breakthrough with its partnership with CARD, one of the leading microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the country.
Pioneer would write affordable insurance policies covering roughly 100,000 CARD’s members.
The premiums for these policies are between P250 to P300 yearly.
The premiums covers a bundled array of protection instruments such as P100,000 personal accident (PA), P20,000 burial assistance, and P10,000 property damage coverage.
“We plan to continue expand in this channels in 2011,” Chan said, adding that they are in talks with other MFIs and rural banks, such as Cebu-based Fair Bank.
All told, its retail products or affordable priced insurance coverage amounted to 175,000 policies written.
“With less than 20 percent of Filipinos insured, we have to work harder to ensure that the other 80 percent is served,” he said, adding that their so-called bite-sized insurance products allow them to access the uninsured.
Also in the pipeline are the so-called service centers, which will be able to offer life and non-life insurance products.
The Pioneer Group also has a non-life insurance arm, which offers such protection coverage as personal accident, auto, fire, marine, and property.
In 2009, Pioneer Life ranked 16th in terms of total premium, 18th in terms of FYP and paid-up capital.
Pioneer Insurance, the non-life insurance arm of the group was ranked eight overall among the non-life insurance companies in terms of premiums paid, ninth in paid-up capital, seventh in net premiums written, and fifth in gross premiums written in 2009.