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PRENEED sales continued to decline in February as the
industry’s major product suffered a slump, according to the
Security and Exchange Commission report.
The SEC report said the total
number of plans sold dropped to 39,781 in the first two months of
the year, 7.76 percent lower than the 43, 128 plans sold in the same
period in 2006.
Pension plans products, on the
other hand, posted the biggest decline with 15, 346, a 38.79-percent
contraction from 25,071 plans sold in 2006.
Education plans only sold 5,367
units, a decrease of 6.01 percent from 5,710 last year.
Life insurance, on the other
hand, posted an increase of 54.43 percent to 19,068 from 12,347 in
2006.
In terms of value, the industry
sold P3.53 billion, or an increase of 0.07 percent from P3.530
billion.
In February alone, the industry
sold 19,626 amounting to P1.7 billion.
The problem in preneed industry
is largely blamed by its managers on the sudden spike of tuition in
the country owing to Education Act of 1992 which deregulated the
amount of fees that universities and colleges could collect from
students.
Estimates have placed at 4
million the number of preneed plan holders in the country. The
aggregate total of their trust funds is estimated at P66 billion.
For the last 25 years, about 92
preneed companies had registered with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, the government body that is supposed to exercise
regulatory powers over them.
With preneed falling into a state
of uncertainty, last year’s SEC registration dropped to 32.
--Darwin G. Amojelar
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