Is it still worth to invest with Insurance Companies in the Philippines?

 I just wanted to share my experience with an Insurance company that went under liquidation in 2018. Sometime in 2013 when I went to SM Pampanga for shopping an agent came to me asking if I have a credit card. And the moment I told her I do, she didn't allow me to go on my purpose until I visited their office somewhere on the ground floor of the mall. To make the story short, I was forced to use my credit card to buy a policy from them.

After 5 years, I was able to complete paying my policy and when it is about time for me to take my money from them, that was the time the Philippine Prudential and Insurance Company went under liquidation. Five years after, there were still no specific date on when we will get our claims against PPILC.

The latest update from Insurance Commission, which is the governing body on the Insurance Companies in the Philippines is about Notice of Sale | Philippine Prudential Life Insurance Company, Inc. (PPLIC). 

So if you will ask me if I will ever take a policy again from any insurance company in the Philippines, my answer would be, a Big No. Just check out the website of Insurance.gov and you can see that more and more Insurance companies have gone under liquidation.

Just a short history of insurance companies in the Philippines. According to insurance.gov.ph, not long after, in 1906, the first domestic non-life insurance company, the Yek Tong Lin Insurance Company, was organized. Shortly after, the Insular Life Assurance Co., Ltd., the first domestic life insurance company in the country, was established in 1910.

Due to the fast-paced growth of the insurance industry in the Philippines, the Philippine Legislature, on December 11, 1914, enacted Act 2427, also known as the Insurance Act. This Act took effect on July 1, 1915 and repealed the provisions of the Spanish Code of Commerce on Insurance. Under the Insurance Act, the Insular Treasurer, in addition to his official title, was designated as the Insurance Commissioner ex-officio. The government agency which supervised insurance business in the country was called the Insurance Division of the Bureau of Treasury.

The viability of the insurance market in the Philippines encouraged more foreign insurance companies to open shop in the country. In 1939, the Union Insurance Society of Canton appointed Russel & Surgis as its agent in Manila, transacting business limited to non-life insurance.