According to the 2003 report on the performance of pre-need companies in the country, total pre-need sales reached P32.74 billion, P5.16 billion (-13.63 percent) lower than what was posted in 2002. Life plan sales increased by 40.64 percent while pension plans suffered major losses posting -19.65 percent in volume. Education plans, meanwhile, started slow but made a comeback (-6.87 percent in volume) in the fourth quarter. Of the 46 pre-need companies in 2002, only 42 reported sales.
Philam Plans, based on its annual report, continues to lead the pre-need industry for the second year in a row with a P7.1 billion in total sales. It has remained in the No. 1 spot in the pension category with P4.5 billion, or 25.65 percent market share, for the past five years. From its No. 3 spot in 2002, the educational plan category is now in the No. 2 slot with P2.4 billion in total sales last year, just .02 percent shy from the top spot. Its life plan category remains steady at No. 5 with P260 million in total sales.
"We see brighter prospects this year. We’re quite proud of our January 2004 performance with P698 million PNP production, 40.43 percent better than the January 2003 performance," says Philam Plans president and CEO Jesus Hofileña, who has been in the field for the last 27 years. "We also dominated in the pension plan category with P426 million in the first-month production, which is +37.41 percent better than in January last year."
Its education plan is also seen as leading the pack with P252 million posted in January, enjoying a 26.16 percent market share. Life plan, on the other hand, remains in the No. 3 spot with P21 million in total sales, an average industry growth according to Hofileña.
Philamlife introduced pre-need products in 1990, which became highly popular here than in other countries such as the US and UK. The company recently held its annual awards ceremony, a part of Philam Plans’ Institutional Incentive Program, with a total of 74 awardees honored.
The most popular pre-need product, adds Hofileña, is the pension plan with almost 50 percent sales. This is due to the plan’s flexibility as they could use pension plans to fund education for people for instance.
"The pre-need industry continued to ride rough waters last year. A lot of other companies didn’t perform well also but Philam Plans managed to recover. The outlook continues to be guarded though and we keep telling our planners to be more active in the first half of the year. Despite the odds, we’re happy as the year started properly for us," states Hofileña.
Hofileña cites various factors when it comes to reaching the company’s goals. Internal factors include the performance or activity of the sales force. "We’ve to become more productive. One of our goals is to make better use of our sales force. And for us to be able to continue to improve and enhance our product portfolio, we’ll have to reconsider re-pricing our existing product line," says Hofileña.
To avoid running the dangers of narrowing the market, they see the need to introduce new product lines including broad market pension and educational plans for kids for as little as P20 a day. "If our existing products don’t do the job, we’ve to introduce new products," he adds.
While a large bulk of their clients come from the upper market, Hofileña notes that there’s an increasing number of OFWs (about 30 percent growth every year) availing of their plans.
"We found out that OFWs have three most common aspirations – to own a home, to take care of their child’s education and to be able to save money to put up a business when they come back," says Hofileña, adding that they are still refining the product innovation that will enable these OFWs to enjoy a pre-need plan specifically designed for their most immediate needs perhaps in the form of a dollar plan or other similar schemes.
Clearly, the challenge for the company now is how to best reach those markets. Hofileña says that they continue to conduct focus group discussions with customers, submit product designs, and so on.
"The Filipinos are basically trusting and like a personal approach to things. It’s not really difficult to sell plans to Filipinos," observes Hofileña. "While price is important, it’s the perceived value of our plans that counts."
Obviously, the ability to deliver on its promises is a major concern for the public. It looks like Philam Plans is doing that exactly what with its consistent rating as one of the country’s top pre-need company.