Philam Plans still tops

PhilamPlans Inc., the pre-need company of Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co. (Philamlife), managed to retain its leadership in the industry last year. However, it failed to hit its bullish target of P10-billion sales level set in early 2003.

In the first month of 2004, Philam Plans sold plans worth roughly P699 million to start the year still in the lead, and taking 25.49-percent market share. In the same month last year, it managed only P497 million.

For 2003, it sold P7.1 billion taking a leading 21.7-percent market share. In 2002, its pre-need price (PNP) stood at P8.1 billion selling a total of 75,980 plans. The entire industry sold P32.74 billion in the same period.

Jesus G. Hofilena, Philam Plans president and chief executive officer explained that the weak economy, new and stricter regulations imposed by the regulatory agency, poor public perception of the industry, and higher prices of plans due to the new regulations, were the major reasons for the relatively weaker performance of the company and the entire industry.

Nevertheless, Hofilena said that 2004 would see Philam Plans taking an aggressive posture as early as the first half of the year when traditionally, sales are strongest in the second semester.

"We will raise our bar with an ambitious P1.3 billion in new sales or total sales of P4.1 billion for the whole of 2004," the Philam Plans president said.

The aggressive stance will be backed by the introduction of new products designed for broad and specific markets. That includes a dollar-based product it plans to introduce within the year.

So far, only PETPlans Inc. and Platinum Plans Philippines Inc. have successfully introduced a dollar-based plan. In the life insurance industry, dollar-backed products are selling like hot potatoes.

Last year, it was the leader in the sale of pension plans for the fifth consecutive year. It sold P4.5 billion in PNP for a 25.65-percent market share. It came in second in the education plans selling P2.4 billion for a 19.22-percent market share.

However, it settled for sixth best seller of life plans accounting for only an 11-percent market share with P260 million in sales.

Philam Plans raised prices of its products by an average PNP of P133,000 which is considered the third highest price hike in the industry. Unofficial survey show that the highest increase reached P166,000.

It reportedly has the second largest sales force of 20,000 nationwide. "We will be repackaging and increasing the compensation for our agency force this year." – TPT