British insurance firm banks on Cebu’s growing market

Divine Furagganan, senior vice president and chief executive officer of Pru Life UK, (center) discusses the firm’s new product, Prulink Elite Protector series in a press briefing at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Cebu City.
CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON

Banking on Cebu’s robust economic performance, British life insurer Pru Life UK continues to be bullish about the local market’s capacity to avail of life insurance and investment products.

Divine Furagganan, Pru Life UK senior vice president and chief agency officer, said this was apparent last year when they introduced to Cebu PRUlink elite protector 5.

“Economic growth here in Cebu brought about by the growth in services, business, and real estate gave the Cebuanos a big capacity for investing, for saving, and also for expenses,” she said during the launch of the PRUlink elite protector series on Monday at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Cebu City.

Dubbed the PRUlink elite protector series, this follows last year’s launch of PRUlink elite protector 5, which was considered among the company’s best-selling products in 2016.

“But it wasn’t enough since it was only for five years to pay. This time around, we are launching longer-paying periods for the series, which are Pru Elite 7, 10, and 15,” Furagganan said.

Broader market

The company official said they are doing this to serve more people and cover a broader market, noting that the new products, which are set to be available by next month, are more affordable, most especially to the millennials, which consist majority of the company’s market.

While Pru Elite 5 was initially targeted for the upper middle class market, Furagganan said even high-earning people would prefer longer paying periods to accumulate more savings. Thus, they came up with additional variants.

Fastest growing region

The Central Visayas economy, which Cebu plays a major part in, grew by 8.8 percent in 2016, sustaining its position as among the fastest growing regions in the country.

“Therefore, we are very confident that the Pru Elite Series will be welcomed very well by Cebuanos,” said Furagganan.

Pru Elite 5, which was launched in March 2016, has a minimum premium requirement of P200,000 annually or P17,000 per month and is payable within five years.

“Not everyone can afford that. We needed to have products of longer paying period, but smaller in terms of minimum premium requirement,” Furagganan explained.

Pru Elite 7, payable within seven years, only requires P150,000 every year or P13,000 a month as premium; Pru Elite 10 has a requirement of P100,000 each year or P9,000 a month; while Pru Elite 15 only requires P75,000 annually or P6,000 each month.

Furagganan said the series also has high premium allocation, unlike previous unit-linked products introduced by the insurer many years ago.

Similar products gave only 10 percent premium allocation to a policyholder’s funds, increasing each year. But for Pru Elite 5, for example, 70 percent of a policyholder’s premium goes to their fund on the first year.

“This obviously gives more value to our clients and that is why we are confident that this will do well in the market just as the Pru Elite 5 did well in the market last year up to this year,” said Furagganan.

Optimistic

Meanwhile, the company is also optimistic about investments even at a time when economies across the world are facing various kinds of uncertainties.

Anthony Garces, Pru Life UK president and chief investments officer, said it is always a good time to invest.

“However, we always say to our agents that we have to be mindful of certain market risks,” he pointed out.

Even in the Philippines, there are some concerns that would affect the financial markets, which is also true in the United States, Europe, and the rest of Asia.

These include political uncertainties in the country, as well as Fed hikes in the US, Trump’s “tantrums,” “Brexit,” terrorist threats, and weakening growth of economies in the world, among others.

But Garces said he hopes their new series would encourage clients to invest regularly, stressing that in order to address these uncertainties in the market, it would be good to have that discipline to invest.

“It might not be a good time to come in, but after many years, when the market recovers, it would benefit your funds or investments,” he said.

Now on its 21st year in the Philippines, Pru Life UK has expanded its reach to over 80 branches nationwide with a workforce of more than 17,000 agents, and is one of the top five life insurers in the country.