22 PRENEED FIRMS GET CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH

AFTER evaluating the financial records of the country’s 22 licensed preneed companies, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) assured the public that these firms can and will meet their obligations to plan holders. In a statement, commission secretary Gerard Lukban said the preneed players are backed up by P62 billion in trust funds, enough to service about 1.5 million plan holders in time for the coming school year. The companies which were given their dealer’s license for this year are AMA Plans, Ayala Plans Inc., Caritas Financial Plans Inc., CityPlans Inc., Cocoplans Inc., Danvil Plans Inc., Destiny Financial Plans Inc., Eternal Plans Inc., First Country Plans Inc., First Union Plans Inc., Grayline Plans Inc., Himlayang Pilipino Plans Inc., Loyola Plans Consolidated Inc., Manulife Financial Plans Inc., Mercantile Careplans Inc., Paz Memorial Service Inc., Philam Plans Inc., Provident Plans International Corp., St. Peter Life Plan Inc., Sun Life Financial Plans Inc., Transnational Plans Inc. and Trusteeship Plans Inc. The SEC, however, also reminded the plan holders to remain vigilant and report any deviation from the terms of their preneed contracts or any unusual delays in servicing their claims. The preneed industry has openly admitted that the global financial crisis is putting pressure on the sector as investments made by trustee banks on the equities market have not been delivering good returns. But notwithstanding the negative impression of some on the local preneed sector, the industry managed to post a 40.45-percent growth in the number of plans sold for January and February this year. The industry sold a total of 48,239 plans for the first two months compared with 34,347 plans disposed of in the same period last year; but in value terms the preneed sector saw a drop to P2.45 billion from P2.53 billion in the same period a year ago.

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