Insular Life, IFC launch Sheroes program

INSULAR Life Assurance Co. Ltd. (Insular Life) has partnered with the International Finance Corp. (IFC) to launch its InLife Sheroes program, geared towards providing products and services tailor-fit to the needs of women, with 54 million of the segment seen as untapped.

Insular Life Executive Chairman Nina D. Aguas told reporters at the sidelines of the InLife Sheroes launch at the Insular Life Building in Makati on Tuesday that servicing the needs of the women segment is a very important initiative as it will not only make the company grow, but the whole insurance industry, as well.

“We believe that the women's sector is important, not just as a market segment, but there are clear needs of women that are not fully addressed. So we are focusing our initiatives on women with the help of the IFC,” Aguas said.

Citing numbers from the Insurance Commission (IC), Aguas explained that if the country has 110 million women, around 54 million remains in need of some form of insurance or protection coverage.

“I think the insurance commissioner said this morning that there are 54 million untapped women. If we are 110 million, that’s clearly almost 50 percent. The women population should be provided for, in a way, if they have not been. I remember him mentioning by 2020. That’s about P217 billion worth of opportunity,” she added.

Maria Noemi G. Azura, EVP and head of strategies for Insular Health Care Inc., said about 78 percent of the units sold under its emergency care line, which provides basic protection for women, under the InLife Sheroes program came from women customers.

“In fact, after 37 days of launch, we observed a warm reception from the women segment because 78 percent of the units sold are coming from the women customers. It is affordable because the price is like P1,750 for a coverage of P100,000 for outpatient services,” Azura said.

She added that other products will be offered under the program soon, with the “Entrepinay” product which carries a maternity-allowance aspect, still pending approval with the IC. Aguas said the current clientele of Insular Life is 50 percent women and 50 percent men, but the coverage for the policies is not very specific to the needs of women, but on the broader spectrum.

Azura said that with the P217-billion opportunity for the segment by 2020, Insular hopes to gain a healthy market share from it.

“The opportunity is P217 billion by 2020; 73 percent of that will be contributed by the life insurance sector and the rest—27 percent— would be nonlife. We would like to gain a healthy market share of that potential,” she added.

In terms of a global scale, IFC’s Women’s Insurance Lead, Gender Secretariat Marieme Esther Dassanou said women’s market opportunity for the insurance industry will grow up to $1.7 trillion by 2030 globally, based on an IFC report entitled “She for Shield: Insure women to better protect all.”