Sun Life premiums balloon to P9.6B in 9 mos

MANILA, Philippines -  Sun Life Financial Philippines (SLFP) is poised this year to outperform its 2010 performance in terms of premium income.

At the end of September this year, total premium income rose to P9.6 billion, which is already higher than the premium income of P7.3 billion in the same period last year.

Total premium income last year reached a record P10.6 billion.

Fueling the strong surge in sales is the impressive 40-percent growth in first year premiums.

“Our weighted first year premiums increased by over 40 percent,” Rizalina G. Mantaring, Sun Life Financial president and chief executive officer, said.

For the whole of 2010, its first year premiums amounted to P1.62 billion, tops among the 34 players in the country’s life insurance industry.

Mantaring explained that of total first year premiums, close to 80 percent of sales are variable unit-linked (VUL) sales while single premiums were less than 15 percent of new business.

Principal contributor to the strong sales growth in the first nine months of 2011 is the 3,500 agency force supported by aggressive advertising and brokerage expansion.

“In the past two years, we have invested heavily in training and technology to further upgrade the quality of our industry-leading advisors and this has paid off for us. In fact average sales per advisor have continued to increase,” the SLFP chief executive said.

She added that the insurer continuously upgraded its backroom, and have consistently rated highest on the overall customer experience, resulting in high customer retention and repeat sales and referrals.

But next year, Sun Life expects to outdo this year’s output as its bancassurance component gets into full swing. Bancassurance, or cross-selling allows a life insurance company to sell policies within a bank partner’s branch network as well as access into the bank’s client base.

In early February this year, SLFP and the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) formed a joint venture bancassurance company, Sun Life Grepalife Financial Inc. (SLGFI). Grepalife Financial is a member of the Yuchengco Group, which includes RCBC.

However, the deal was only consummated last October.

At the end of 2010, Grepalife Financial reported premiums at P3.6 billion, with a significant portion already a product of bancassurance arrangements between RCBC and Grepalife.

“We expect to bring the same technology and knowhow to the SLFP joint venture and make it a significant contributor to the SLF group’s sales and profits next year,” Mantaring added.

In 2010, SLFP ranked close second overall among the life insurers behind the Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co. (Philam Life) in terms of total premium income.