Pre-need industry records 18.5% drop in Q1 sales

Still reeling from controversies facing several pre-need firms, the industry recorded an 18.5-percent decline in its total sales for the first quarter of the year.

Based on data culled by the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Non-Traditional Securities Department, total sales of pre-need firms dipped to P6.94 billion compared with P8.51 billion a year earlier.

The number of plans sold dropped by 8.5 percent to 107,043 from 116,983 with education plans and pension plans recording a 36- percent and 35-percent decline in their sales, respectively.

Sales of life plans, however, grew 141 percent to P1.62 billion from only P674.21 million.

Pension plans continued to account for bulk of total with sales reaching P2.86 billion or 40 percent lower than the previous level. Sales of education plans tumbled 20 percent to P2.45 billion from P3.07 billion.

Philam Plans continued to dominate the sales of pension plans with sales hitting P562.67 million for a total of 4,278 plans sold. Prudentialife Plans came in second with sales of P510.79 million followed by Lifetime Plans Inc. (P431.6 million).

In terms of the number of pension plans sold, Mercantile Plans Inc. led the list with a total of 7,946 units sold for an aggregate value of P62.38 million.

Philam Plans was also the top seller of education plans with sales of P1.27 billion for a total of 9,427 units sold. On second spot was Berkley International Plans Inc. with a total of 3,949 units sold valued at P421.51 million. Ranking third was Prudentialife Plans with a total of 1,463 units sold valued at P215.78 million.

The Alba-owned Prudentialife Plans, on the other hand, led the pack of life plan issuers with sales of P775.51 million followed by St. Peter Life Plans with sales of P448.1 million for 20,218 units.

Initial collections from these plans reached P721.48 million or 23.2 percent lower than the previous year’s P940.72 million.

The pre-need industry caters to clients who resort to pre-need plans as saving mechanisms to answer future needs of either themselves or their beneficiaries.