Family-owned Philippine Prudential Life Insurance Co. assured its 1.3 million policy- holders that the company remains financially stable and plans to further expand its presence in the country.
Prudential Life president and chief executive George Mercado made the assurance after the Securities and Exchange Commission revoked the license of ailing pre-need company Prudentialife Plans Inc. of the Alba family.
He said the problem of Prudentialife Plans created confusion among policy holders after they mistook it for Prudential Life Insurance.
He said the number of telephone calls and inquiries in their head office and marketing offices finally normalized after the insurance provider issued a letter to policyholders.
Mercado, who was former president of the Philippine Life Insurance Association Inc., clarified that Prudential Life and Prudentialife Plans were two different companies.
Prudential Life is an all-Filipino company founded by the late Don Daniel Mercado in 1963 and is regulated by the Insurance Commission.
Prudentialife Plans, meanwhile, is a pre-need company founded in 1978 by businessman Jose Alberto Alba and is under the supervision of the SEC.
?An all-Filipino life insurance company, it has been serving the life insurance needs of more than 1.3 million policyholders and their families with over P35- billion business in force for 46 years now. We are not connected with Prudentialife in any way,? he said.
Mercado said the company remained financially strong after net income doubled to P29.73 million while revenues surged 123 percent to P491 million last year.
He added that the insurance provider?s premium income reached P491.21 million while investments, especially in government securities, amounted to P260.73 million.
Mercado said Prudential Life was further expanding in areas where it did not have a presence yet.
Prudential Life was issued its certificate of authority in July 1 last year and had already complied with the P100-million minimum paid-up capital requirement for the year.
He said insurance companies were being issued a certificate of authority yearly after complying with the specified standards of solvency set by the Insurance Commission.
The certificate, he added, was an assurance that an insurance company was qualified to transact business and justified its integrity and responsibility to assure the safety and interest of its policyholders.
Mercado added that the legal policy reserves of Philippine Prudential Life amounted to P228.95 million and had paid claims amounting to P60.66 million as of last year.
?With the required legal policy reserves, insurance companies such as Philippine Prudential Life are solvent to pay claims and are financially stable,? he said.
Insurance Commissioner Eduardo Malinis said Prudential Life had faithfully complied with the government?s capitalization requirements and the margin of solvency requirements while its assets, investments, and reserves remained intact. Lawrence Agcaoili
article source: http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/2009/april/30/business2.htm
