Securing Your Future
Whenever the topic of conversation turns to insurance, I can ’t help but feel a pang of sadness over the fate that befell my insurance agent. When she prematurely passed away, it turned out that she did not have the insurance coverage appropriate for her cause of death. I clearly remember her last visit to my office. She was excitedly offering me one of her company’s latest products, an insurance policy designed for women that allows policyholders to avail of the full amount of the policy if they are diagnosed with one of the diseases that normally afflict women. She was feverishly endorsing it to all her women clients—but failed to arrange for one for herself.
This made a strong impression on me about insurance companies’ continuous efforts to adapt and evolve with the needs of their clients. Nowadays, consumers look for specialized features that meet their needs. It is therefore important for companies to continue to anticipate and develop new products to match those needs in order to maintain or expand their share of the market. As our writer Ton Reyes highlights in our Cover Story (pages 14–17), insurance companies that are able to follow changing consumer preferences are better able to survive economic downturns.
 |
| Less than 12% of the country’s population enjoy some form of insurance coverage |
Investing in an insurance policy is still not among the average Filipino’s priorities. Available data from the country’s Insurance Commission reveals that per capita expenditure on insurance was less than P500 in 2000. Less than 12% of the country’s population enjoy some form of insurance coverage. While the prospects are promising that the uninsured majority will have the capability to invest in insurance in the future, given better medium-term economic prospects, the burden of insuring the majority of the population now rests on the government. The public sector must make sure that state-owned insurance companies are feasible and sustainable until such time that the population can already afford private insurance companies’ products.
In this issue, we are featuring other “forward-looking” stories, including as the articles on mutual funds (pages 10–11), biogas (pages 20–22), telecommunications and multimedia (pages 24–25), and cord blood banking (pages 28–29). The last is of special interest to me. When one of my friends gave birth in the U.S. in 2002, she related to me how she had her son’s umbilical cord deposited in a cord blood bank as insurance for future needs. I am pleased that only a few years after, the service is already available in the Philippines—clear proof that Filipinos are up-to-date with global developments.
NONETTE C. CLIMACO
Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
| 
