Philam looks at Vismin yuppies as major market
The Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co. (Philam Life) is now looking at Visayas and Mindanao as its major market for the next couple of years.
This is the thrust the insurance company is taking on a much intensified way starting this year, said Philam Life chief executive officer (CEO) Ariel G. Cantos in a press conference.
Cantos and other top officials of the insurance firm were in Cebu Tuesday to grace the blessing of its 16-storey PhilAm Life Center building at the Cebu Business Park.
While the company has been enjoying brisk growth in the last few years, Cantos said the bulk of its business and premium holders are more concentrated in Metro Manila and Luzon.
About 75 percent of the company's revenues are generated in Metro Manila (50 percent) and the rest of Luzon provinces (25 percent).
He added that one way of turning around the pie and make Southern Philippines its major market is to tap the younger breed of income earners and educating them on the importance of investing early.
Although the Philippines' insurance penetration is already at 41 percent level according to the Insurance Commission (IC), Cantos said majority of these premiums are invested in "sachet insurance" or the microinsurance organizations whose gross are underinsured.
Cebu and the rest of the Southern Philippine markets he said is a fertile ground for insurance companies, and PhilAm Life he added has its platform in place to effectively tap this growth ground.
The robust Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), which fuels the improved monthly income of the young generation and the tremendous growth in tourism, are two of the economic drivers that make Southern Philippines an attractive area for business concentration.
Aside from luring and educating the millennials for wise future-proofing through insurance investments, Philam Life is also making steps to lure the younger working community to consider a career as financial advisors.
Thus, Philam Life is also growing its number of financial planning force to include hiring millennials to help them educate the market, and empower the next generation to be financially secured.
In Cebu alone, there are 600 to 700 Philam Life financial advisors and this is expected to double in the short term, Cantos concluded
As of 2016, PhilAm Life registered over 700 thousand plan-holders.