AIA to invest $58m in Philam Life to boost Philippines presence

Hong Kong-based AIA Group is investing P3bn ($58m) in its local subsidiary Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co (Philam Life) over the next three years to boost agency distribution, the company has revealed.
Philam Life CEO Kelvin Ang said in a press briefing that the funding will be used to hire and train 5,000 full-time financial advisers that can help bridge the huge protection gap in the Philippines.
"We will invest P3bn over the next three years in building the agency distribution. This is a significant amount — P3bn in terms of our investment — because in the past we have done investment in terms of building the agency more than what we want. This time we are making it bigger. We feel that the market opportunity is enormous," Ang said.
The official said the company needs the $58m investment to hire, nurture, and teach from zero knowledge future full-time financial advisers. Currently, the company has a total of 8,000 full-time and part-time advisers.
IA Group has also invested in other Asian markets, including Hong Kong, mainland China, Malaysia, as well as Thailand.
Philam Life has PHP251.4bn in total assets and served approximately 600,000 individual policyholders and more than 2,200,000 insured group members as of 31 December 2017.
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