Insurance company offers pocket-friendly product

CEBU, Philippines - As Filipinos are now more keen on the importance of being insured, now looking at it as a necessity rather than an expense, a leading life underwriter capitalizes on its leadership in the industry by expanding its footprint across the Philippines.

Philippine American Life and General Insurance company (PhilAm Life) is boosting its campaign to promote financial literacy by adding up more financial consultants to reach out to the fertile insurance market in the country.

In an interview with PhilAm Life president and chief executive officer Bobby Madrid, he said that the awareness of Filipinos with regards to getting themselves insured is significantly growing, and the magnifying products are those that provide healthcare benefits embedded with several investment packages under one premium.

Since, health related expenditure tops the priority of every Filipino, Madrid said the company is boosting its network reach and spread awareness on the availability of "pocket-friendly" health insurance product called "Health Invest."

He said this is expected to further pull up the company's leadership in the life insurance sector in the Philippines, while the interest is "ripe" among all market segments.

There are only two major disasters in one’s life–health (sickness) and death, Madrid said, "But if one gets sick, everything is on hold."

This is the reason why the company introduced its extensive health insurance policy product last year–"Life Invest", the first health insurance with an investment and savings component.

Life Invest offers the policyholder financial protection from health-related illnesses, covering 56 critical and common illnesses, such heart disease, stroke, cancer, among others.

At present, Madrid said that 90 percent of the company's premium portfolio is on the non-traditional insurance products like health insurance, and others. Traditional are those retirement package, and others.

In Cebu, the company's director of agencies Rolan Enriquez said that with current 600 insurance agents working for the company, Cebu is growing faster more than the over-all national average.

The country's insurance penetration stood at 16 percent, slowly climbing from stagnating 12 percent in the past several years.

The company corners 20 percent market share of the entire life insurance industry in the country.

PhilAm Life is a subsidiary of the AIA Group, one of Asia’s largest financial institutions located in 16 countries. — Ehda M. Dagooc  (FREEMAN)