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By Likha C. Cuevas-Miel
Reporter
Preneed sales for the month of
March experienced double-digit
growth from last year as life plans more than doubled its sales
during the period, the Securities and Exchange Commission said on
Tuesday.
Data showed that sales of preneed
products went up by 21.5 percent to 18,324 compared with a year ago.
Among the three products, life plans sales surged by 159.3 percent
to 12,953 year on year while pension plans dropped by 38.8 percent
to 4,468. Educational plans suffered the biggest fall at 67.6
percent to 903 compared with a year ago.
On a month-on-month basis, plans
sold in March inched up by 2.15 percent with life and education
plans experiencing an up tick of 6.5 percent and 2.2 percent,
respectively. Only sales of pension plans contracted, registering a
drop of 8.6 percent against the February level.
In peso value, sales of all
preneed products dropped by 24.4 percent to P1.3 billion year on
year with educational plans leading the decrease by more than half
at 54.4 percent to P188.7 million, followed by pension plans at 41.1
percent to P842.6 million. Life plans defied the trend by posting
110.1-percent growth with P476.6-million worth of sales.
Compared with February figures,
preneed sales contracted by 8.8 percent in March with pension plans
falling by 23.3 percent. However, education and life plans posted
increases of 31.7 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively.
Preneed companies’ initial
collection from its clients also fell in March by 38.9 percent to
P136.3 million from a year ago. The decrease in initial collections
of pension plans fell by 47.1 percent to almost P83 million followed
by education plans that decreased by 39.3 percent to almost P25
million. Life products experienced growth at 9.23 percent to P29.4
million year on year.
Life plans led pre-need sales
from January to March, contributing 69.4 percent of the industry’s
total sales of 52,671. This was followed by pension at 25.5 percent,
while educational plans remained the smallest, shoring up only 5.1
percent of total. Compared with first quarter sales last year, life
plans was the only segment that advanced its total contribution to
total while that of the two products continued to dwindle.
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