PruLife to focus on protection products as pandemic continues

PRULIFE UK’s focus on selling protection products rather than investment-linked offerings helped the insurer improve its standing in the industry last year and made it “weather-proof”, its president and chief executive officer Antonio G. de Rosas said in an online briefing on Thursday.

“We wanted this company to be weather-proof. Savings and investment products do well only when markets do well, but protection products do well whether markets do well or not,” Mr. De Rosas said.

The insurer’s new business annual premium equivalent (NBAPE) rose 3.7% to P7.95 billion in 2020 from a year earlier, making it the top among local players in the category. The NBAPE measures the value of regular premiums from sold products and 10% of one-time premiums written for a given year.

Mr. de Rosas said they also focused on their own agency as most banks already have their own partnerships with insurance firms.

“First thing we did was we fixed our agency structure and compensation system so that agents will be encouraged to perform and moreover be promoted,” he said.

Moving forward, Mr. de Rosas said he continues to see opportunity for growth as the country’s insurance market remains untapped. He said their digital investments could help them reach their goals.

“Because of our geographical nature, a lot of people who can be insured are in remote islands and it will be hard to access them through sales agents, that is why we are investing a lot in technology,” he said.

Mr. de Rosas added that they are exploring bringing down the cost of premiums to make them affordable.

“Right now, it’s only the middle class who can afford this product and we’d like to democratize that and even offer products which are “sachet” in nature so that they can reach even those who are actually in the Class D and Class E markets,” he said.

Pru Life recorded the third highest net premiums worth P30.98 billion in the life insurance industry in 2020. It was fourth in terms of assets with P117 billion. — LWTN