Manulife eyes micro insurance

Malaya Business Insight
BY Angela Lorraine Celis
November 10, 2011

AFTER the Insurance Commission approves its proposal, Manulife Philippines, an American firm, will start selling what it calls micro insurance specifically for the low income group.

The proposed product will have life cover value ranging from P10,000 to P20,000, according to Indren Naidoo, president and chief executive of Manulife. He declined to specify the premium rate but declared that the cover is valid for as short as a month to three months.

As is the practice, the insured is paid double the value of the cover if he dies in an accident.

"We’re hoping to get approval from the regulator this month," Indren Naidoo said.

"After we get the approval, we will sign up our first contract in Davao. We want to keep our promise that we will sign up our first client before the year is out," Naidoo said.

Naidoo added Manulife expects to penetrate the market that rarely has access to insurance products.

Based on government data, the penetration rate for life insurance in the Philippines was only 13 percent as of 2010.

"Part of our overall obligation is to expand life insurance for the less fortunate," Naidoo said.

The initial targets of the company’s micro insurance product are Cebu and Davao. Eventually, Manulife will move to other areas.

Naidoo also announced yesterday that as of end-September, Manulife Philippines’ total premiums had grown around 20 percent.

"The reason for our success is really the expansion of our agency network, particularly in … Davao, Cebu, Baguio, and more recently in Iligan and in Quezon City," Naidoo said.

"We’re really happy that we’re a large sales force of 3,000 agents, growing around 31 percent over the same period last year. That shows that our expansion strategy is working," he explained.

Manulife Philippines’ total new business for the first nine months of 2011 was 54 percent higher than for the same period last year.

"We’re very happy with that, particularly when you look at the half year, when the market was growing only 29 percent. So we’re extremely happy with the way we’re growing," Naidoo said.