Insular Life: Insuring a bright future for Filipinos

MANILA, Philippines - From the moment you step into the lobby of the Insular Life Building in Alabang or Makati, you know you’re going to have a good day. Surely, it’s not every day that you meet a security guard who greets you “Magandang Araw po,” with a matching cheerful smile. Despite the foul weather outside, the greeting is enough to warm the cockles of your heart.

As you go through the day, you realize that at this revered 99-year-old institution that’s a year shy of turning a centenarian, “Magandang Araw” is more than just a greeting. “It’s a service culture, a commitment for us,” says Mona Lisa dela Cruz, senior vice president and chief actuary, Insular Life Assurance Company. “It’s more than just nice words; it’s not about the day, it’s about making each customer’s day maganda in terms of efficient service, being able to deliver our promises, issue a policy as fast as we can, being responsive to the needs of our customers.”

Proud To Be Filipino

Yes, it’s Maganda Araw, not Good Morning or Good Day, because Insular Life is proud to be the oldest and largest Filipino life insurance company. “We’re proud of our Filipino identity and we want to reflect that in our service philosophy,” Mona Lisa asserts. “We want to insure that we project that consistently at all customer touch points, including the security guards.”

At Insular Life, you’re more than just a customer, you’re part of the family, with everyone making you feel at home. Insular Life has been home to Mona Lisa dela Cruz since she graduated from the University of the Philippines and took her master’s degree at the University of Michigan in the US. “This is my first job and I’ve been with Insular Life for 29 years now. Because actuarial science was my field, I knew from the start that this is where I belong.”

Needless to say, Mona Lisa is very happy with her job. “Being happy is liking what you do,” she declares. “But happiness also comes from being able to help others and finding fulfillment in being able to touch the lives of so many people.”

At Insular Life, if the employees and agents are happy, the customers are happy. Mona Lisa elaborates, “The employees are happy if they’re able to deliver quality service and they have pride in the company they belong to. It’s also the alignment of the personal goals of the employees with the company’s goals. Those who stay have found alignment in their aspirations and the company’s.”

For the employees and agents, it’s a life-long commitment. “It also takes time to build the expertise in life insurance,” Mona Lisa notes. “It takes time to develop employees’ skills to be able to handle the needs of the different market segments in the various stages of their lives.”

It’s a continuous learning experience, honed by regular training programs. On top of that, there are specific programs according to employees’ skills and the requirements of their job. “If it’s risk assessment, there’s training for underwriting; if it’s actuarial, we look for actuarial training programs,” Mona Lisa shares. “In insurance, there’s also an international course administered by the Life Office Management Association. We encourage our employees to take this series of exams so they continue learning. Training is continuous to keep up with the ever-changing environment. Some are sent to conferences abroad to expose us to the bigger world, how things are done in other countries, to benchmark on best practices.”

Caring/Sharing Culture

Insular Life cares as much for its employees as it does for its clients. This caring and sharing culture was evident during the Ondoy disaster when the employees isolated by the floods received emergency supplies of basic necessities that were delivered at their doorstep by the company. Even now, the company continues to help the dislocated employees until they can stand on their own feet.

Of course, happy employees can only give happy service. With the longest unbroken years of service in the insurance industry, Insular Life knows how to make — and keep — its clients happy.

Mona Lisa tells us how: “By being there, showing to our policyholders and customers they’re in good hands, that we prudently manage the money they entrust to us, that we will be able to pay their beneficiaries. We want to make them feel secure that even if they’re gone, the benefits will go to their beneficiaries. To us, it’s very important to make sure all the benefits that we promised will be delivered as they come.”

Boasting an extensive network with offices all over the Philippines, Insular Life makes it easy for policyholders to pay their premiums. “They can walk in anywhere and pay in any of our district offices,” says Mona Lisa. “We are also accepting payments through the bank branches and credit cards, of course. Right now, we’re exploring other payment facilities. We’re about to go into online payments. We’re also tying up with other collection companies.”

Insular Life is currently training agents to become risk management consultants. Says Jesus Alfonso Hofileña, Insular Life executive vice president, “Life insurance is part of the financial services industry though admittedly, we’re not seen as a glamorous industry. We’re unique in that we’re the only product that provides financial protection against risk of loss. Nowadays, everybody has to be properly grounded on the important aspects and practices for personal financial management. And it has nothing to do with the fact that we’re an emerging country or we have a huge poverty base. I remember an employee telling me once that it doesn’t matter how much you earn, it’s how you use that money. As far as she was concerned, no matter what she takes home, she can find a way to make it last. That’s really the core value behind our advocacy to teach people to become financially conscious and effective.”

Hofileña speaks with authority, having been in the insurance industry for the past 33 years. It was just “simple plain vanilla” when he first joined the industry, he says.

He adds with a hint of pride, “I’m very proud to be associated with Insular Life because it continues to give me the opportunity to render community service in my own way to fellow Filipinos. Yes, we’re a business, but the core of it is helping people to help themselves. We have certain skills and expertise that we can use to help people rather than they doing the job all by themselves. That’s what keeps us going and keeps our faith in what we do.”

Insular Life likes to invest in its people. “We encourage them to attend industry conferences,” says Hofileña. “It’s at their own expense but sometimes, we pay for their attendance or reimburse them for a portion of their investment. Essentially, they should invest in themselves so they don’t expect to always be subsidized and will thus take it more seriously.”

From Aparri To Zamboanga

A peripatetic IL salesman, Hofileña travels from Aparri to Zamboanga, where Insular Life has offices. But when he leaves his wife and daughter, he feels secure that they would be all right. “I go to very interesting places like Southern Mindanao where you read alarming news,” he relates. “How can a person like me in conscience get up every morning and leave my family behind and still feel secure enough to be able to do my work? Every time I go out of the house, because I know I have provided for the protection of the future income of my family through life insurance, I have greater peace of mind and I’m able to devote myself to my work without adding any more stress to what I’m doing. I’m not fatalistic, but if one day the law of averages runs out on me, it will not run out on my family.”

These precious words of advice he makes sure to share with IL sales associates: “As an IL representative or sales associate, you must have stock knowledge of all our products. But even before the products, you must have a clear understanding of what the purpose and essence of life insurance is. Basically, life insurance serves three important objectives. One is creation of wealth — even if we’re different in terms of background or experience, all of us have the same financial objective in life. Whatever we do, we’re either in the stage of creating wealth or we’re in a stage of preserving that wealth. And ultimately, we will be in that stage where we will have to think of transferring our wealth or assets to others. That’s where the legacy portion comes in. No matter how we feel about the cost of living today, we still have to set something aside for tomorrow. We always advocate that you have two kinds of savings accounts. One is a short-term savings account that you put in the bank and you expect to spend it sooner than later. On the other hand, you also have to set aside money for well into the future. Before becoming parents, we know our children will go through that cycle of growing up and eventually finishing school, and we already know that if we don’t start saving for their college education today, we may not have enough to fund their education in the future.”

Looking well into the future, Hofileña adds, “You may be experiencing today’s higher cost of living. But you also have to remember that tomorrow’s cost of living will even be higher. So whether I like it or not, I have to take care of both today and tomorrow. I’ll take care of today as best as I can, but if I’m smart, I will set aside part of what I’m making now and save it for the future. If I’m even wiser, I will also use part of my income today to buy life insurance protection because between today and tomorrow, my family will still have the means to go on without me. I don’t want to sound morbid, but we’re dealing with realities here. It takes a very responsible person to recognize that he wants to insure his family against any risk of financial loss.”

Such gems of wisdom from a life insurance company that’s been part of the lives of Filipinos for the past 99 years (and counting)!