Philippine Life eyes synergies

MANILA, Philippines -  The biggest challenge now facing Philippine Life Financial Assurance Corp. is how to create synergies among the various companies of the Tanco Group, one of the largest non-bank financial conglomerates in the country.

The Philippine Life is the newest member of the group, a result of the acquisition of Asian Life Financial Assurance Corp. (ALFA) by Banclife Insurance Co. Inc. (Banc Life), the group’s life insurance unit.

Philippine Life executive vice president and chief operating officer Enrique R. Alberto said they are working on creating synergies and partnerships with other members of the Tanco Group.

“While others are focused on introducing investment-linked insurance products, Philippine Life prefers to look inward with the unlimited potentials offered by the diverse client base of the Tanco companies.

“We have to develop products that suit, for example academic and non-academic personnel of the STI group of academic institutions, the Philippine Women’s University (PWU), and i-Academy.

For example, academic personnel can tap the financial resources of Philippine Life to take masteral courses for professional advancement, aside from getting traditional life insurance coverage.

Through the partnership with PWU, a teacher can apply for the distance education courses through loans against policies written by Philippine Life.

Alberto said Philippine Life is the leading insurer when it comes to servicing teachers through salary loans accredited by the Department of Education (DepEd). Of the 400,000 public school teachers covered by the DepEd program, Philippine Life’s 24 offices nationwide servicers 50,000 teachers.

In fact, the insurers boosts of having extended P7.4 billion in insurance and financial assistance to the sector.

“We launched a new product addressing the immediate health needs of students and other academic personnel, particularly the dreaded dengue, through a partnership with the PhilhealthCare Inc. (PhilCare), the health maintenance organization, or HMO, of the Tanco Group.

Meanwhile, pre-need industry leader PhilPlans is working up a package to extend memorial plans for the employees of the life insurer. On the other hand, Philippine Life covers the pre-need products sold by the pre-need company.

Alberto likewise said that another challenge is to increase the earnings share of traditional insurance product vis-à-vis revenues from teacher salary loans.

“We are also setting our sights on new sets of clients, outside of the groups influence,” he added.

Philippine Life has over 300 sales agents with nearly a third selling traditional life insurance products.

“We would like that to surpass 400 by the end of 2012, with the traditional product sales growing by leaps and bounds,” the executive vice president added.

It has an asset base of P41.3 billion and a net worth of P5.9 billion. The insurer has a minimum paid up capital of P175 million, which will be increased to P300 million by yearend.

He added that the insurer’s financial targets were modest this year as they are still laying the ground works for the strong surge next year.