Pre-need industry swings back to P1.8 billion profit

MANILA, Philippines — The pre-need industry saw its bottomline return to profitability as of end-September amid an increase in the number of plans sold, the Insurance Commission (IC) said.

Latest data from IC showed that the net income of the industry reached P1.79 billion from January to September, a reversal of the P7.11 billion in net loss in the same period last year.

The 2022 net loss was largely due to significant benefit payments for pre-need policies.

This, as the premium income of the sector improved close to 10 percent to P16.7 billion from P15.43 billion following the 13-percent jump in the total number of plans sold.

Pre-need firms sold close to 600,000 pre-need plans, most of which are memorial plans.

Further, the IC noted that investments in trust funds reached P124.23 billion while pre-need reserves, which is the amount reserved for benefit payments for all pre-need plans sold plus benefits already payable, stood at P119.14 billion.

As mandated by the pre-need code, pre-need providers keep a reserve to cover benefit payables.

Meanwhile, the IC said the difference between investment in trust funds and pre-need reserves soared by nearly five-fold to P5.09 billion.

With these, the industry saw its asset base increase 10 percent to P147.86 billion while liabilities inched up six percent to P126.21 billion.

Similarly, total net worth went up by 43 percent to P21.65 billion.

Latest pre-need figures covered a total of 18 firms.