INSURANCE firm Insular Life (InLife) is eyeing to recruit 400 new financial advisors in Cebu as it expands its business.In the Visayas, Raoul Littaua, InLife president and chief executive officer (CEO), said the insurance firm plans to sign up about 712 new financial advisors this year.Littaua was in Cebu on Friday, Sept. 16, 2022 to open InLife’s 55th branch in the country located on M. L. Quezon Ave. corner Patalinghug St. in Lapu-Lapu City.The CEO said they consider Cebu as the bailiwick of InLife and that the Visayas’ operation accounts for about 25 percent of the firm’s total sales a year.“We’re excited to welcome and bring more opportunities for the Cebuanos. We have been here in Cebu for 84 years now. We recognize the strength and potential of Cebu to become a financial hub,” said Littaua.“By expanding our business in the Visayas and other key cities in the country, we hope to bring new earning opportunities to more people, especially to young millennials and members of the Generation Z. This expansion also aims at bringing InLife’s high-value financial products to more Filipinos, so that they can secure their future while fulfilling their dreams,” he added.Littaua said the new financial advisors will benefit from the new InLife Agency Model (I AM), which provides a more flexible agency structure and the most rewarding competition package in the industry to date.He added that foreign opportunities are also part of InLife’s comprehensive agency recognition program.Insurance penetrationInsurance penetration in the Philippines remains low compared to other countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), according to the Insurance Commission.But IC Commissioner Dennis Funa noted that the “the insurance penetration rate has been increasing consistently and continuously over the years.”“We are somewhere in the middle in the Asean rankings. The biggest hurdle is the growth of the middle-income sector which can easily afford the insurance premiums,” Funa said as quoted in a report.InLife, the country’s largest Filipino-owned life insurer, more than doubled its net income in 2021 on the back of strong operational results.InLife’s net income of P4.7 billion is 168 percent higher than the P1.8 billion it achieved in 2020 while its total revenues of P23.1 billion is up by 43 percent from P16.2 billion in 2020.The company’s strong financial results helped it maintain its high industry rank as among the top five life insurer, the only Filipino-owned company to do so.In a report released by the IC recently, InLife’s net income of P4.7B is third best, and its net worth of P47.8B is second overall, while its assets of P154B, is fourth among 31 life insurers. (with KOC)