Beneficial Life offers new microinsurance product at P3-a-day premium payment

BUSINESS MIRROR
FINANCE
WEDNESDAY, 25 JULY 2012 19:36
JUN VALLECERA / REPORTER


BENEFICIAL Life Insurance (BenLife) has started offering a microinsurance product involving premium payments as small as P3 a day but with a potential payout as large as P50,000 for accidental death.

BenLife is offering the product in partnership with Smart Telecommunications through whose platform premium payments may be made.

The product is called InsureTxt, covers death caused by natural calamities and is available to all SMART and Talk N’ Text subscribers.

All InsureTxt transactions, from registration to payment and renewal, are done through text messaging.

The partners presented the product before Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima and Insurance Commissioner Emmanual F. Dooc who were pleased this was specifically targeted at poor Filipinos who could not afford the more expensive insurance cover.

Purisima said the product was a much-needed advancement in the insurance field and was a welcome development for those in the lower classes of Philippine society.

For his part, IC Commissioner Emmanuel Dooc, also saw the launch of the  mobile micro insurance service of Ben life  as very timely.

“With the onset of the typhoon season, everybody can potentially be a victim of tragedies such as floods, landslides, road accidents, etc.,” he said.

This was clearly evident among officials at the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) who on Saturday, July 21 reported on a rash of road accidents along EDSA.

“Mobile microinsurance, as exemplified by InsureTXT, is simply a great idea whose time has finally come,” Dooc said.

“It must be done because Filipinos need this kind of service, and because we can now offer it – thanks to the help of private sector partners like BenLife and SMART,” he said.

Asia Microinsurance Conference, InsureTxt was presented by BenLife and SMART officials to the regulators as their collective response to the challenge of increasing insurance penetration among Filipinos, particularly those living below the poverty line.

“Mobile phones represent the easiest, most cost-efficient way to offer insurance to Filipinos. Through our partnership with SMART, we now are able to reach out to the over 50 million Filipinos on their network,” said Enrique Fernadez, chairman of BenLife.

BenLife also bared full compliance at end of the year to the mandate for insurance companies to increase capitalization to P1 billion by 2020 or eight years ahead of schedule.

According to Fernandez, BenLife’s early compliance underscores the company’s commitment to the industry, to the efforts of government and to the Filipino people.