Prudential Eyes 20 Per Cent Contribution From Education Plans

Bernama    March 12, 2010 18:05 PM

KUALA LUMPUR, March 12 (Bernama) -- Prudential Assurance Malaysia Bhd expects a 20 per cent contribution from its education plan business this year compared to 15 per cent last year.

Its chief executive officer Charlie Oropeza said bulk of the premium growth was expected to come from its latest protection plan, PRUmy child, as demand was increasing in anticipation of an annual birth rate of 500,000.

"Today's world is very challenging for expecting mothers and their unborn babies, especially during the growing up period. Thus, we believe the unique feature offered via PRUmy child will help to boost our premium growth for education plans for this year," he told reporters after the PRUmy child launch here Friday.

PRUmy child, which comes with a minimum annual premium of RM600, is the first of its kind child insurance plan that offers coverage during the crucial pregnancy and infancy periods.

It can be purchased for the unborn child as early as 18 weeks into the pregnancy, or for the child who is between one and 18 years old.

The parent must be aged between 18 and 60 to own the policy.

Apart from providing the child with an unprecedented protection before birth, PRUmy child also allows parents to further secure the child's well-being with other riders that linked into medical, accident and critical illness.

Oropeza said the new policy also allowed parents to take charge and build the child's education fund as early as possible.

At the same time, parents could opt themselves from total permanent disability, death or critical illness, whereby the benefits received would, in turn, help to either pay for future premiums or living expenses of their child, he said.

Oropeza said Prudential also hoped to continue recording strong growth in new business annual premium in tandem with the economic recovery.

"We registered a 24 per cent growth last year and intend to do much better this year," he said.

Last year, Prudential achieved a record RM817 million in new business annual premium, of which 85 per cent of the sales came from its investment-linked products.