More than just business

"At the heart of everything we do is our mission to provide financial protection for people and help them achieve financial security. Our work (selling life insurance) is about humanity at its most emotional level."

This is how Peter Coyiuto, president of First Guarantee Life Assurance Co. Inc. (First Life) views his business and is exactly the way he wants his 100 sales agents to view their job. He actually sent this personal quote to this writer in a text message.

As if the quote was not enough, Coyiuto stressed that no consumer product sold in the market could elicit as much emotional reaction (caring, loving and taking care of a loved one’s future needs) as selling a life insurance policy, which, however, depends heavily on the income potential and priorities of a buyer.

Usually, he said, a buyer would not mind paying for a consumer product repeatedly and regularly as against the less frequent amortization of an insurance policy as they fall due in a quarter, a year or even longer.

"Look at the cigarette industry for one. People know it is bad for the health, and yet they (especially the masses) do not mind paying P1 for a stick or even more each day because they think of it as a need that must be addressed immediately. This is why cigarette sales in 2006 hit P110 billion," he said.

An insurance policy—which insures the customer or his loved ones in the future—is payable every quarter or semester yet customers (the same cigarette consumer) would not invest in it because 1) he does not have the cash to pay for it as it falls due; and 2) he does not see the need for it now.

"But when an accident, death, ill health or incapacity to enroll children to school comes, that is when they realize they needed the policy, yet they still would not get one, even if they had the money," he explained.

"Those who bought policies for their loved ones are showing their true character, the concern for their security and love for the recipient. That is why I said that life insurance is humanity at its most emotional level," he said.

Despite being in the insurance industry since 1958, through the Prudential Guarantee—First Life is still struggling to achieve its vision of becoming "the country’s leading life insurance company in terms of quality of people, products and services; growth and innovation while adhering to ethical standards in the way we operate our business."

It was renamed First Life in 1989 after it acquired Corregidor Life in 1987. It started with a capital P5 million which rose to P400 million in 2006. For this year, the company is expecting revenues to hit P1 billion.

Coyiuto wants his company to be top 10 in three years and top 5 in 10 years not just in revenues but in terms of quality sales force and quality products.

"We do not grow our company by gobbling up other companies to become bigger in size. Our growth is measured in how we nurture our sales force and come up with the best quality products for our very discriminating clientele," he said.

Coyiuto also measures growth and success in terms of cases (life policies) generated per month by his existing 100 sales agents.

"How can the biggest insurance company with over 2,000 agents claim to be successful when they only generate less cases per agent per month than our company," he said.

In the Philippines , he said, 90 to 95 percent of the total industry sales of P50 billion policies in 2006 came from 3.5 million individuals. The 10 percent balance in revenues came from eight million lives covered under group insurance policies.

Because of the low penetration of insurance companies in the local market, several multinational insurance companies have left and continue to do so, opting for countries with higher dispensable incomes and better appreciation of what insurance can do for their future, he said.

By contrast, insurance companies have covered five million (of the six million population) of Hong Kong or at the rate of two to three policies per individual thereby enjoying brisk revenues of $10 billion (versus the Philippines’ $1 billion); Singapore with three million people have four million policies sold last year; Taiwan with 20 million people sold 30 million policies worth $20 billion.

Still First Life is sticking with the Philippines because "we are already here; this is our comfort zone and selling insurance to the Philippine market is our expertise," Coyiuto said.