Sunday, January 28, 2007

SEC renews license of 29 pre-need firms

By Jenniffer B. Austria

The Securities and Exchange Commission has renewed the license of 29 preneed companies, allowing them to sell pre-need plans this year.

The commission issued 30 dealer’s licenses last year.

Grayline Plans, which is missing from this year’s list, has not yet complied with the commission’s requirements for dealer’s license.

Pre-need companies that were allowed to continue selling pre-need plans this year include Ayala Plans Inc., Berkley International Plans Inc., Classic Plans Inc., Cityplans Inc., Cocoplans Inc., Destiny Financial Plans Inc., Eduplans Inc., Eternal Plans Inc., First Country Plans Inc., First Union Plans Inc., Himlayang Pilipino Plans Inc., Ideal Pension Plans Inc., Legacy Consolidated Plans, Loyola Plans Consolidated Inc., Manulife Financial Plans Inc., Mercantile Care Plans Inc., Millennium Plans Inc., Paz Memorial Plans, Pacific Plans Inc., and Permanent Plans Inc., Philam Plans Inc., Primanila Plans Inc., Provident Plans International Corp., Prudentialife Plans Inc., St. Peter Plans Inc., Transnational Plans Inc., and Trusteeship Plans Inc.

The commission said the companies have complied with the reportorial and trust fund requirements.

The number of pre-need companies has gone down in the last few years due to declining sales.

The commission earlier reported that sales of pre-need companies dropped to 217,930 in the first nine months of last year, down 23.3 percent from 284,307 policies year-on-year.

Pre-need education plans, life plans and pension plans suffered double-digit declines in sales. Education plans incurred the biggest decline , with 30,930 units sold from January to November, down 34.3 percent from 47,126 units year-on-year.

Sales of life plans fell 31 percent to 72,525 policies from 106,621 policies and those of pension plans dipped 12 percent to 11,449 policies.

The industry sold P17.5-billion pre-need policies, down 7 percent from P18.9 billion in 2005.

http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=business3_jan17_2007

No comments: