SEC trims number of pre-need firms to 33

The number of pre-need firms licensed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to sell securities to the public has dwindled from 42 last year to 33.

Commission secretary Gerard Lukban said only 33 were able to comply with the requirements imposed by the SEC for renewal of their dealership license while the rest have either stopped selling plans or are still in the process of completing the requirements.

Pre-need firms are required to maintain at least P100 million in capital.

Among the companies that are not licensed to sell pre-need plans are Platinum Plans Inc., Celestial Memorial Plans, East Asia Plans, FCM Plans Inc., Garden of Memories Memorial Plans, Gillamac Life & Pension Plans, Pension & Retirement Plans Corp., Samson Memorial Plans, and Special Plans.

Authorized to sell pre-need plans are Ayala Plans, Berkley Plans, City Plans, Classic Plans, Cocoplans, Destiny Financial Plans, Eduplan Phils., Eternal Plans, First Country Plans, First Union Plans, Grayline Plans, Himlayang Pilipino Plans, Ideal Pension Plans Corp., Legacy Consolidated Plans, Lifetime Plans, Loyola Plans Consolidated, Manulife Financial Plans, Mercantile Careplans, Millenium Education & Pension Corp., Paz Memorial Service, Permanent Plans, PET Plans, Philam Plans, Primanila Plans, Primeplan International Corp., Provident International Plans, Prudentialife Plans, Pryce Plans, Sun Life Financial Plans, St. Peter Life Plan, TPG Corp., Transnational Plans, and Trusteeship Plans.

The SEC has stepped up its monitoring on pre-need plan firms to ensure their compliance with existing regulations.

The SEC will now conduct on-site audits on pre-need companies to confirm the veracity of financial information submitted to the corporate watchdog agency as part of additional measures being adopted to ensure tighter supervision over the industry. On the SEC’s priority list are pre-need firms that offered open-ended plans, particularly as the enrollment period for the coming school year has started.

There are about 11 companies that offered open-ended funds, which pay the tuition of a beneficiary regardless of the amount due. After 1992, when tuition fee increases were deregulated, many pre-need companies stopped selling open-ended plans and instead offered fixed-value plans.