SLAMCI exceeds 2017 AUM target

MANILA, Philippines — The asset management arm of life insurer Sun Life of Canada Phils. Inc. recently exceeded the P80 billion mark in assets under management (AUM) as more of its customers started to invest in mutual funds.

In an interview, Sun Life president and chief executive officer Rizalina Mantaring said its subsidiary, Sun Life Asset Management Co. Inc. (SLAMCI), posted a new record high AUM amounting to P83 billion as of early December.

Mantaring said this is way above the company’s target of P53 billion for 2017.

“For mutual funds that is available publicly, the rate is already P83 billion (in) assets under management. It’s over (our target). For mutual funds, we were expecting growth somewhere in P50 billion but it’s grown really strongly,” she said.

According to Mantaring, the strong growth in SLAMCI’s AUM this year could be attributed to a change in the behavior of consumers.

“I think generally, it’s people understanding really a bit more, appreciating more the value of life insurance for protection, and also appreciating mutual funds as an investment vehicle,” she said.

Meanwhile, she said investment-linked insurance policies also continued to take up bulk or 92 percent of Sun Life’s new business this 2017.

“Investment-linked (policies) is maybe 92 percent of the new business,” she said.

On the other hand, traditional life insurance policies as a percentage of Sun Life’s new business also improved this year to eight percent from the previous four to five percent.