Insular Life plans to hire 4k agents
INSULAR Life Assurance Co. Ltd. announced it aims to double the number of its agents to 8,000 this year as it aims to attract new clients and meet the growing demand for life insurance products.
Insular Life President and CEO Raoul Antonio E. Littaua said in a news briefing the Covid-19 pandemic heightened awareness on insurance products, which they expect will turn into a “higher demand for both life and health protection products.”
“We need to really expand more aggressively in the agency channel because you will see a direct relation between new business-premium income growth and the growth of your agency channel,” Littaua told reporters last Thursday.
Littaua revealed that they currently have 4,000 agents but he said they needed to expand more. Hence, the insurer launched a recruitment campaign the firm calls it the “Inlife Agency Model,” or “I AM” to encourage more Filipinos to pursue the financial advisor career.
Under the new model, the insurer will be offering the “most attractive commission” and a flexible agency structure to empower financial advisors to grow their insurance business based on their desired career path as it aims to target young women professionals, members of the Generation Y (Millennials) and Generation Z, high net-worth individuals and returning overseas Filipinos to join the life insurance business.
Littaua promised these financial advisors will enjoy a one-of-akind compensation package in the industry.
“They [would be] provided with the blueprint to succeed in the business through our industry-leading in-house learning academy,” he added. “They are also enabled with the latest digital end-to-end sales tools and are afforded with foreign travel opportunities as part of our comprehensive agency recognition program.”
The insurer said its model also features a customizable life insurance product with investment component to provide higher protection benefit equivalent to a minimum of tentimes the annual regular premium or the policy’s fund value, whichever is higher.
Called “Wealth Assure Plus,” this product provides faster fund growth because of its low insurance cost, the insurance firm’s documents explained. At the same time, it is anchored on different investment outlets locally and globally.
This product may be personalized through attachment of various needed benefits, set-up of preferred payment and payout options, and access to fund selection to suit different risk appetites and investment horizons, the insurer said.
Insular Life placed 12th among life insurance companies last year after recording P1.42 billion in total New Business Annual Premium Equivalent (NBAPE), the unaudited quarterly reports submitted to the Insurance Commission (IC) revealed. A life insurer’s NBAPE is computed by obtaining the sum of the value of first-year premiums from products newly sold in a specific year (or the initial annualized premium) and 10 percent of single premiums written.
According to the IC, it adopted NBAPE as an international standard to more accurately measure the life insurance industry’s sales performance.
Meanwhile, Insular Life also reported that Covid-19-related death claims in the first quarter this year declined by 7 percent to P94.4 million compared to the same period in 2021.
The insurer said individual death claims for the first three months of the year accounted for P206.5 million for 543 policies, of which 229 were Covid-19 related.
“Even as Covid-19 peaked in January due to infections brought about by the Omicron strain, we recorded fewer Covid-related death claims,” Littaua said. “However, we remain vigilant and observe all safety protocols but, at the same time, we remain hopeful that things will get better.”
The life insurer said it paid a total of P682 million individual claims in the first quarter of the year, mostly coming from maturity benefits and anticipated endowments.