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Pioneer Life

About the Project
Project Name: 
OFW Family Savers and Wellness Club
Type of Facility Project: 
Innovation Grant
Pays d’opération: 
Philippines
Région: 
Asia and the Pacific
Project Thematic Focus: 
Insitutional models and business processes
Product: 
Life - endowment
Type of Risk Carrier: 
regulated insurance company
Type of Distribution Channel: 
Faith-based organizations
Project Description: 

 

 

The project combines financial and risk management education with a product that bundles savings with life and accident microinsurance. The program and products will be offered through Wellness Clubs set up in schools and churches. The built-in savings, through small “bite sized” amounts, and insurance cover, combined with education on savings and insurance, is a non-intimidating approach to create a culture of informed risk management and awareness of the benefits of savings and insurance.

The clubs will be initiated by the church in every diocese of target provinces; a network of school coordinators and parish leaders will form the community of financial wellness facilitators that will support the implementation of the program.  Facilitators will also help impart the key learning of the modules and increase club membership on a wider scale and at a faster rate.

Click here to view the Product Description of Pioneer Life.

Consortium Members: 

Beneficiaries: 

The project targets families of migrant workers – children and adult dependents – who are part of a migrants´ association at churches and schools in selected provinces within Luzon and Metro Manila. Through financial literacy sessions, the project shall educate 250,000 migrant families, with an average monthly income of $350 and provide access to microinsurance and savings products.

Lessons from the Project
Learning Agenda: 
  • Among the proposed program benefits, what is the most appealing feature that convinces customers to join the Clubs?
  • What is the impact of financial literacy training on the behaviour/attitude of the target beneficiaries towards insurance and savings?
  • How efficient is the church as a delivery channel to reach the target group?
  • How valuable is the insurance benefit? Which feature of the microinsurance product is the most important to policyholders?
  • How valuable is the benefit of the savings product to the target group? What drives them to save more?
Premiers enseignements tirés: 
  • Getting the distribution channel right is much more important yet much more challenging than product design and marketing.
  • Understanding the inner workings of the distribution channel’s structure and dynamics is critical for leveraging the support of the system to gain the trust of the market and increase take up.
  • The distribution channel must commit sufficient human resources to support the dissemination of information and the receipt of requests in order to complement the insurer’s efforts.
  • Dedicating a few staff to manage the project in the field increases the likelihood of success.
  • Monthly meetings to monitor the performance of migrant desk coordinators are integral to the success of the programme. 
  • The training of trainers conducted in three dioceses seem to have created positive results but with challenges.
  • Families of overseas Filipino workers seem to be more inclined to purchase products with short or medium term returns. 
  • Inability to pay is often the reason given by attendees for not joining the clubs.
  • Preliminary feedback coming from the distributors, and first-hand experience in the first half of 2011, suggested that the medical reimbursement feature is attractive to the target market.
  • The sudden growth of club membership can be attributed to the sustained promotional activities conducted by Pioneer.
  • Incentives and bonuses are critical to encourage migrant desk coordinators, who are church volunteers, to promote membership and top-ups. 
  • Adding more benefits and services, and increasing promotion activities are ways to improve saturation rates. 
  • New activities have to be introduced to the launches so that attendees do not become tired of predictable activities. 
  • Club members still preferred traditional transactions (paying over the counter) as opposed to mobile money in the form of G-cash or Globe cash payment systems.

Learning Journey: 
Learn more about the lessons that Pioneer Life is learning in this project.
About the Organization
Relationship with the Facility: 
Innovation grantee
Country of Head Office: 
Philippines
Region : 
Asia and the Pacific
Type of institution : 
Insurance industry
Participation in Microinsurance: 
Risk carrier
Organizational Overview: 

Pioneer Life Inc. is a leading life insurance company in the Philippines. A member of the Pioneer Group, which has been in operation for more than fifty years, Pioneer Life´s core business is to provide its clients with suitable financial options to secure what matters most to them. Pioneer makes itself relevant to its customers by identifying their particular needs and providing products/services and distribution channels suited to their unique requirements.

More about the Organization
Websites: 
Pioneer Life
Quotes: