Philam Life to strengthen agency staff

MANILA, Philippines—Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co. is further strengthening its agency staff through an aggressive recruitment campaign following the company’s move to new headquarters in Taguig City.

Philam Life officials said their new offices at the Net Lima Building in Bonifacio Global City should improve jobseekers’ view of joining the company as well as provide a much-deserved better workplace for current employees.

“We believe in maximizing efficiency while spending on the right things,” Philam Life president and chief executive Rex Mendoza said. “In our new head office, the staff (members) enjoy state-of-the-art facilities, better security and a healthier and greener environment. We wanted to show our people how important they are to us.”

Philam Life, which sold its prime property along UN Avenue in Manila to SM Development Corp., completed the transfer to the new, rented space last April. Part of the new headquarters is a lounge-cum-office dubbed Premier Center, which is dedicated to agents.

Mendoza said the firm was continually expanding its agency force by recruiting experienced agents as well as nurturing prospective financial advisers through “business opportunity programs ” (BOP).

“We have transformed the way we invite people to join our roster of financial advisers,” Mendoza said. “We have institutionalized our recruitment process (through the BOP) while another program allows advisers to immediately invite their friends (to join up) and still another is in full swing to attract top-class recruits from other fields.”

According to Ariel G. Santos, Philam Life chief agency officer, the company had at least 6,500 agents as of last March. Recruitment has been brisk with 2,559 financial advisers signed up in 2011, 2,923 in 2012 and 1,935 in the first four months of 2013.

The company reported a 39-percent jump in first-quarter new business with annualized new premiums (ANP) pegged at a consolidated P1.13 billion.

Mendoza said Philam Life itself accounted for P695 million in new business while its bancassurance arm—BPI-Philam—chalked up P431 million.

Mendoza said the group’s first-quarter performance built on the achievements of the past three years when ANP grew 255 percent to P3.8 billion in 2012 from P1.5 billion in 2009.

He said the company continued to benefit from the growth of policies that were tied up with investments or the so-called unit-linked products (ULP), which in 2012 accounted for 90 percent of total premiums.

“Given the unprecedented growth of the Philippine economy amid increasing investor confidence, people are more inclined to purchase higher yielding investment products,” he added.