Pre-need Firms: Time for Capital Build-up
Ms. Doris Dumlao has an article on inquirer.net on pre-need firms, published on February 28 at 2:58 a.m.
She said SEC Chairwoman Fe Barin gave some more time to the 24 pre-need firms licensed for 2009 to build up their capital. She gave a deadline of up to April 15. Danvil Plans is one of the 24 pre-need firms listed in the article.
Here’s the link to Ms. Doris Dumlao’s article: Pre-need firms to get relief package.
Pre-Need Philippines: Kabado Na Naman?
Pagkatapos na ma-assure tayo na licensed pre-need dealer for 2009 ang Danvil Plans at isa siya group of pre-need firms na willing to increase their capital, ito naman ngayon…
Nakakakaba yong sinabi ni Jose Miguel M. Vazquez, Federation of Pre-need Companies of the Philippines president, noong February 20 tungkol sa business na pre-need.
Nag-research uli ako ng news ngayong umaga about pre-need sa Internet noong nakita ko sa ABS-CBN news kagabi yong pagsasalita ni Vazquez habang ini-interview siya.
Ini-extend kasi ng SEC mula February 15 hanggang April 15 yong deadline ng mga pre-need companies para dagdagan ang capital nila.
Ang sabi ni Vazquez ay kailangan pa nila ng mas mahabang time para isipin kung magpapatuloy pa sila na mag-business. Iisipin daw nila kung profitable pa raw ba ang business na pre-need. Ano ba yon?
Vazquez’s exact words:
“Is it enough time? Probably not, since each company is assessing whether to continue, should continue and can continue. It is not just a question of capital. Each company is reviewing whether there is still a future [in this business] and this cannot be determined in such a short time.”
According sa news na ito of Business World online, the group said some pre-need companies were considering stopping operations and were just trying to pay plan holders due to their huge trust fund deficits.
In the same TV news, nagsalita rin si Philip Piccio, the head of the PEP Coalition. Ina-accuse niya yong mga pre-need companies na sinasadya raw nilang ipakita na nalulugi na sila kahit hindi para hindi nila ibigay yong full values ng pre-need plans.
Source:
BusinessWorld February 21, 2009
Danvil Is Still Berkley on Pre-need Federation Website
Just like Danvil Plans, the Philippine Federation of Pre-Need Plan Companies Inc. (PFPPCI) doesn’t also update its website. The latest post on the site was posted two years ago. Is this one of the signals of the difficult conditions of the pre-need industry? They don’t have people to update their web sites, or they don’t have something to say?
Anyway, according to what’s on the website, as of 2007, there are 48 members. But when one looks at the list of members, there are only 29. These are:
1 Ayala Plans Inc.
2 Berkley International Inc.
representative: Alan Michael Rafe, president
alternate: Daniel Villanueva evp, CFO
3 CocoPlans Inc.
4 CAP Pension
5 CAP Assurance
6 Destiny Financials
7 East Asia Plans
8 Eduplan Inc.
9 Eternal Plans
10 Excel Memorial Life Plan
11 First Union Plan
12 Himlayang Pilipino Plans
13 Ideal Pension Plans
14 Loyola Plans
15 Mercantile Care Plans
16 Manulife Financial
17 Paz Memorial
18 Permanent Plans
19 Philam Plans
20 PETPlans
21 Primanila Plans
22 Provident Plans
23 Prudentialife Plans
24 Redeemer Life Plan
25 St. Peter Life Plan
26 Sun Life Financial
27 TPG Corp.
28 Transnational Plans
29 Trusteeship Plans
The following firms are not listed, but they are included on the home page’s flashing ads:
30 AMA
31 Classic Plans
32 Gillamac
33 Lifetime
34 Millennium
35 Platinum Plans
36 Pryce
It’s interesting to note that the three failed Legacy pre-need firms are not on the list.
Same with Pacific Plans. It’s not in the list. However, according to Chino S. Leyco’s article in the January 28, 2009 issue of “Manila Times,” Noel Oñate, the businessman who acquired Pacific Plans from the Yuchengcos, was elected to the board of the PFPPCI on January 27. Oñate’s company Abundance Providers and Investments Corp. bought Pacific Plans in December 2008 for 250 million pesos.
The one we see speaking on television speaking for the pre-need industry these past weeks, Juan Miguel Madrigal Vazquez, has been president of the PFPPCI since 2005, possibly earlier. I can’t find info on when he was elected president. His educational and professional background is on the site. He’s the president and CEO of Permanent Plans.
Daniel Villanueva: Founder and President, Danvil Holdings
After Berkley International became Danvil Plans in March 2007, I started researching on the Internet who this Mr. Daniel Villanueva is. Who is this man who single-handedly took on the acquisition of Berkley for 1.25 billion pesos? Does this man have the ability to lead Danvil so that by 2010, I could get my money and so that other pre-need planholders could also get theirs in the years to come?
Until now, there are only a few notes on the Internet about Mr. Villanueva that I’ve read.
One is an article by Elizabeth Sanchez-Lacson on Inquirer.net on April 11, 2007. This article said that Mr. Daniel Villanueva held top positions in the life insurance industry for many years, including:
president of John Hancock Life Insurance Corp.
project consultant Arthur Andersen Business Consulting
president of PT-NIAGA-CIGNA Life Insurance in Indonesia
senior vice president for operation of Lincoln Philippine Life Insurance Co.
executive vice president and chief finance officer of Berkley International Plans
Sanchez-Lacson said that Mr. Villanueva helped run Berkley and its marketing unit Family First for 7 years, administering 60,000 active plans, trust fund assets of 3.8 billion pesos and planholder liabilities of 3.2 billion pesos. She also noted that much of the growth of Danvil is credited to Mr. Villanueva.
She also said that Danvil Holdings was incorporated in November 1996 as a real estate corporation, and later also as a financial service corporation.
The second article is on the web site of prudentialife. It says that Mr. Villanueva received an award from Nenita Agustin, senior vice president of Philippine Prudential Life Insurance Co., for being one of the top producers in 2007.
Now this one leaves a question in my mind. Why would Mr. Villanueva receive an award from Prudential as a producer? Was Mr. Villanueva a general agent of Prudential? Did Danvil incorporate a Prudential life plan into Danvil’s products in 2007? I bought my Danvil plan in 2000 and I didn’t buy any other Danvil plan after, so I didn’t know that Danvil sold Prudential Life plans.
Perhaps this explains a complaint by someone named Huggs on pc-tipid.com. He says that his friend bought a Prudential Life plan from Danvil, but they could not trace the OR of his first payment when they called up Prudential Life.
From my research on Danvil and Mr. Daniel Villanueva on the Internet, all the bad things associated to Danvil arise from its aggressive marketing and sales tactics in the malls. Many of those commenting are calling Danvil a scam because of these tactics, especially customers forced or pressured by sales agents into swiping their credit cards. They also interpret the changing of the name from Family First to Danvil as one scam tactic.
With regards to any bad thing said about Mr. Villanueva, I found none.
This is in contrast to the case of Legacy’s Celso de los Angeles Jr. when I researched about him after planholders were informed that Danvil’s pre-need plans were being bought by Legacy. Try researching Mr. De Los Angeles and you’d be surprised at various kinds of unsavory things said about him both in his personal life and professional life, even before Legacy collapsed. It was really providential that the 2008 Legacy deal did not push through. I applaud Danvil for this. In my very first email to Danvil after the Legacy deal announcement, I mentioned those things said about Mr. De Los Angeles.
About claims, I haven’t read about or heard of any Danvil planholder whose plan have matured in 2008 complaining on the Internet that Danvil failed to pay his/her claims. What about you? Have you heard or read about someone not receiving his/her 2008 maturity proceeds from Danvil?
Pre-Need News — Philippines: Key Points
Here are some pre-need news during the month of February 2009 that could interest Danvil planholders:
1. Four more pre-need companies are nearing bankruptcy, according to Philip Piccio, president of the Parents-Enabling Parents Coalition (PEP), a group of parents fighting for their open-ended plans with Pacific Plans. Piccio named Pryce Plans as one of the four, but didn’t name the three other pre-need firms in trouble.
2. SEC chairwoman Fe Barin told congressmen that SEC issued 2009 licenses to only 24 of more than 50 pre-need companies.
3. The proposed transfer of pre-need regulation from the SEC to the Insurance Commission has been approved by members of the House Committee on Banks and Financial Intermediaries. The transfer is included in a pre-need draft by Aurora Representative Juan Edgardo Angara.
4. Jose Miguel M. Vasquez, president of the Philippine Federation of Pre-Need Plan Companies (PFPPCI) and Permanent Plans, denied they invested in companies abroad which later became bankrupt because Philippine law prohibits them.
5. Cocoplans President Caesar T. Michelena said his firm has informed planholders that their trust fund, worth over P1.5 billion, can pay claims worth P500 million over five years. It is interesting to note that Cocoplans was the only pre-need firm that released trust fund figures during this particular pre-need meeting of more than 10 members.
6. ABS-CBN News obtained documents showing that preneed firms have a deficit of almost 47 billion pesos in trust funds. It says that 11 pre-need firms have been losing since June 2008 because of the fall in the rates of return from 12 % to only 6% for their investments in government securities, in blue-chip stocks and other financial instruments. Another reason is the drastic drop in sales of pre-need plans.
7. PFPPCI President Vasquez said pre-need companies can increase their capital over the next three years under relaxed SEC rules or stop selling new pre-need plans and undergo restructuring.
8. Parents Enabling Parents (PEP) Coalition, an organization of owners of Pacific Plans open-ended plans, said that none of the pre-need firms under rehabilitation such CAP and Pacific Plans has been punished for mismanagement.
9. PFPPCI President Vasquez will ask the SEC and the Central Bank to allow the pre-need industry to invest up to 10% of their total investments in dollar-denominated securities. Currently, the pre-need industry is allowed to invest only in peso-denominated securities.
10. The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, through its secretary general Ernesto Herrera, has called on legislators to pass without further delay the Preneed Industry Code to protect pre-need planholders.
11. A list of 19 pre-need firms willing to increase their capital in 2009 to cope with difficulties in the financial markets is included in Salve Duplito’s article on Inquirer.net Money Smarts. One of them is Danvil Plans.
It’s interesting to note that there are 6 licensed pre-need firms for 2009 that are not in this list. They are:
AMA Plans
Caritas Financial
CityPlans
Destiny Financial
First Country
In the case of AMA Plans, it’s new in the 2009 pre-need dealer’s list, so it’s safe to assume its capital is adequate. It is also interesting to note that Pacific Plans and Ideal Pension Plans are not licensed to sell in 2009, but they are included in this list of pre-need firms willing to increase their capital.
The article said that Philam Plans didn’t sign the 19-firm agreement because its trust fund is more than adequate to pay its planholders.
Advice From Journalists to Planholders:
1. Know your options.
2. Avoid panic. Negative news will worsen the pre-need firm’s operations.
3. Do your own research. Ask SEC about your firm.
Danvil Plans, Other Pre-Need Firms: Updates
Just like you, I got so bothered when I read on Inquirer.net that 4 pre-need firms are about to collapse. Philip Piccio, president of PEP Coalition, named one of the four as Pryce and then challenged the SEC to name the 3 other firms. One top SEC executive denied there are 3 other failing firms, but the other one confirmed it.
And this after the collapse of 3 Legacy pre-need firms, and long before them, the collapse of CAP and Pacific Plans. Although Pacific seems to be okay now, since Noel Oñate’s Abundance Providers Investments Corp., the new owner of Pacific, promised to buy back Pacific plans at 15% yearly interest. Piccio and his group, however, plan to pursue their case against the original owner of Pacific.
These are some info that I gathered as of today, February 14:
1. On SEC website, Danvil Plans is one of the 24 pre-need corporations with 2009 dealer’s license. Compared to the list of September 2008, the pre-need firms removed were:
Ideal Pension
Legacy
Pacific Plans
There is one new firm on the list: AMA Plans.
On another page there are three other firms with 2009 dealer’s license:
IMG Insurance Brokers
Prudentialife Market Resources, both linked to Prudentialife and
Jardine Lloyd Thomson Insurance Brokers, linked to Philam Plans
2. Philip Piccio, president of the Parents-Enabling Parents Coalition (PEP) who is campaigning for
Pacific Plans open-ended educational planholders, was generous enough to reply to my text about Danvil. He texted back that Danvil Plans is not one of the 4 pre-need firms about to collapse.
3. Jack of Danvil Plans in Makati said that Danvil is very stable. Jack was the one who answered me on the phone when I called the Danvil office in Makati on February 13. I asked him if he knows about the 4 pre-need firms being mentioned about to collapse, and he said that he doesn’t know. He said that what he knows is that Danvil is stable and that it has been paying claims as of date. I asked him why Danvil is not updating its web site, and he said that he will relay my concern to management.
4. According to a list provided by Salve Duplito on her article on Inquirer.net Money Smarts, Danvil Plans is one of the 19 pre-need firms who have signed a document expressing their willingness to increase their capital in 2009 to cope with anticipated difficulties due to low investment rates in the financial markets. The bigger pre-need firms are on the list.
5. My conclusion is that the 4 pre-need firms being reported about to collapse includes Ideal Pension because I read one planholder complaining that Ideal Plan has not given him the proceeds of his plan which has matured in 2008. The other one would be Pryce Plans, which most everybody knows by now has already collapsed way back in 2007. But in fairness to Pryce, it’s doing its best to give something to its planholders. My friend who is a Pryce planholder is getting some benefits through Pryce’s other companies, such as hotel stays, etc. She has also received some amounts of money for tuition.
As for the other two pre-need firms, I’m still checking. I’ll update this article again today after I get home from church. Happy Valentine’s Day to all Danvil planholders.
Pre-Need Corporations With 2009 Dealer’s License as of January 28, 2009
1 AMA Plans Inc. (pension)
2 Ayala Plans Inc. (education, pension)
3 Caritas Financial Plans Inc. (pension)
4 CityPlans Inc. (pension)
5 Cocoplans Inc. (education, life, pension)
6 Danvil Plans Inc. (formerly Berkley International Plans, educational, pension)
7 Destiny Financial Plans Inc. (pension)
8 Eternal Plans Inc. (education, life, pension)
9 First Country Plans Inc. (pension)
10 First Union Plans Inc. (pension)
11 Grayline Plans Inc. (pension)
12 Himlayang Pilipino Plans Inc. (education, life, pension)
13 Loyola Plans Consolidated (education, life, pension)
14 Manulife Financial Plans (educ pension)
15 Mercantile Careplans (educ life pension)
16 Paz Memorial Services (life)
17 Permanent Plans (life, pension)
18 Philam Plans (educational, life, pension)
19 Provident International Plans (life, pension)
20 Prudentialife Plans (educational, life, pension)
21 St. Peter Life Plan (life)
22 Sun Life Financial Plans (educational, pension)
23 Transnational Plans (educational, pension)
24 Trusteeship Plans (educational, life, pension)
Additional List of Pre-Need Firms With 2009 Dealer’s License as of January 28, 2009
IMG Insurance Brokers Corp.
Prudentialife Plans Inc.
Jardine Lloyd Thomson Insurance Brokers Inc.
Philam Plans Inc.
Prudentialife Market Resources Corp.
Prudentialife Plans Inc.
Removed from the Licensed Dealer List of January 2009
Ideal Pension Plans
Legacy Consolidated Plans
Pacific Plans
Listed in the February 2007 list, but no longer licensed since 2008
Classic Plans
Eduplan Phils
Millennium Plans
Primanila Plans
PrimePlan
sources:
SEC List of Pre-Need Firms With 2009 Dealer’s License
Article by Salve Duplito on Inquirer Money Smarts
Our AIG Credit Cards Will Soon Be Acquired by EastWest Bank
A letter I received today from AIG PhilAm Savings Bank announced the acquisition of AIG Philam Savings Bank, Philam Auto Finance and Leasing and PFL Holdings by EastWest Bank.
EastWest Bank is a subsidiary of Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC), one of the country’s top conglomerates. FDC owns Filinvest Alabang Inc. which is developing the 244-hectare Filinvest Corporate City in Alabang and Filinvest Land which operates the wildly succesful Festival SuperMall, Cyberzone Properties and Filinvest Asia. FDC also owns Pacific Sugar Holdings Corp. which runs three sugar companies.
The letter says that the acquisition will be completed in the second quarter of 2009 after the completion of regulatory approval. EastWest has 80 branches across the country.
The letter also assures holders of AIG credit cards that the transition will be orderly and will not affect AIG credit card transactions.
EastWest Bank also announced this acquisition on its web site. It said that the purchase will increase EastWest’s number of branches to 89 units, 54 in Metro Manila and 35 in other cities. EastWest will become the 6th credit card issuer in terms of number of credit cards in force and amount of card receivables.
How will this acquisition affect cardholders like me? I am curious about how they will handle AIG credit cards, which have higher interest rates. EastWest credit cards charge only 2.25% for gasoline, supermarket and drugstore purchases and 2.75% for others while AIG cards charge 3.5% for all kinds of purchases. Will EastWest leave AIG cards as a separate card brand or convert them to EastWest cards?
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