MANILA – The chief of Filipino-owned Insular Life (InLife), a life insurance and a mutual company, said its 2020 business plans look unrealistic now because of the impact of the global pandemic but remains optimistic as it strengthens its digital services.
In a virtual briefing Wednesday, InLife executive chairman of the board Nina Aguas said the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic is “a reality we all face” since it hampered companies’ operations.
“The exact financial outcome of InLife would be continuous work in progress as we slowly begin to appreciate the still unmeasurable impact of Covid,” she said.
At the end of 2019, the company’s net worth stood at PHP39.33 billion with asset base at PHP138.2 billion.
Gross benefits and claims paid reached PHP11.1 billion, legal policy reserves amounted to PHP58.2 billion, and business in-force totaled to PHP356.45 billion.
Aguas said demand for risk protection and health care coverage is on the uptrend, but they do not want to put any figure on their end-2020 results because “we still do not know really the sentiment of the future policyholders or our clients and customers.”
“Even though we’re very optimistic, I would not give out a number to say really that it will be better or it would be worse because I think this is the worst that we’ve seen,” she said, citing that no industry has imagined the current situation happening a year or five years ago.
She advised their policyholders to exercise caution on their investments and in managing risks and assured them “our investment team is continually monitoring this financial market and is ready to take measures and prudent action as opportunities arise.”
Meanwhile, Aguas said InLife is open for a partnership on healthcare services like telemedicine to be able to cater to more clients.
She said they registered an uptake on interest for their healthcare products especially during the quarantine period starting mid-March, which was implemented by the government to arrest the spread of Covid-19.
“We saw a phenomenal rise of those buying prepaid insurance, health coverages, for example, in the early months including today. So we are investing. We’re doing it internally now with no partners but that is not to say we will not do so because the opportunity is clearly there, particularly on the healthcare side,” she added.
During the same briefing, Raoul Littaua, InLife senior executive vice president, said while they registered increased inquiry during the quarantine period, these did not automatically translate to actual sales.
He said they were able to equip their agents to adapt to online selling of InLine products during the quarantine period but customers also need to adapt to the new way like digital selling, electronic signatures, online payments, and online presentations.
“Consumers, in general, also need to do a lot of adjustments,” he said, adding that insurance products are not a simple product of signing up for. (PNA)
