The pursuit of knowledge through education will always open opportunities most especially for those who are not afraid to learn. This can very much describe the journey of Benedict C. Sison into becoming Country Head and CEO of Sun Life of Canada (Philippines), Inc.
In an interview with the BusinessMirror, Sison said he believes that strengthening financial literacy efforts as well as connecting with consumers are stepping stones that would help broaden the reach of insurance in the country.
He pointed out that the country’s insurance penetration numbers still remain on the lower end as compared to its Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) neighbors like Malaysia with a 3.3 percent insurance penetration and Thailand with 3.6% and Singapore with 6.6%, among others.
The Insurance Commission (IC) earlier reported that the country’s insurance penetration rate stood at 1.76 percent as of the third quarter of 2018.
The numbers show that the insurance industry in the country still has a lot of work to do in terms of increasing the number of Filipinos with some form of insurance, and Sun Life is not willing to shirk this challenge.
Sison explained that insurance companies would need to go beyond educating Filipinos on financial terms and concepts like saving, investing or being insured, but more importantly make them experience how it really works.
“One of the lessons that we learned in providing financial literacy campaigns is that teaching financial concepts is not enough. You need to give them an opportunity to practice what they’ve learned, to access financial products at affordable rates,” Sison said.
According to Sison, Sun Life has a four-pronged approach in line with ensuring that their financial literacy campaigns are efficient and effective, with the company making it understandable, as well as desirable, easy, and in the end should become a habit for Filipinos.
“Once it becomes a habit, that means your financial literacy has worked,” he added.
He explained that people should be made aware that insurance is not only useful in line with death benefits, as some people would say, but has living benefits as well. He was quick to add that insurance can be used for annuity, for estate planning, and even for making loans.
The bigger challenge of growing financial literacy efforts in the country was one opportunity that Sison wouldn’t let pass as this was one task that made him embrace being in the life insurance industry.
“I think it was the promise of a bigger challenge that made me join Sun Life…For me, the challenge there was moving from FMCG [fast moving consumer goods] to financial services in a market where financial literacy was just developing. So I saw that challenge as a wonderful opportunity,” he said.
The importance of education
Staying in a household with 13 other siblings, Sison learned early on the value of education as his parents instilled in his mind at a young age that education is the only inheritance that they can impart to their children.
“I’m very privileged to come from a big family. I come from a family of 14 siblings, eight boys, six girls, one dad and one mom,” he said.
This made him more resourceful, and better adept at handling various different personalities, which proved to be an asset in the career world.
“I had to deal with 13 different personalities, so you tend to be able to just deal with it. Maybe that’s where I learned teamwork, leadership, and perseverance,” he added.
Sison graduated magna cum laude from the University of the Philippines with a bachelor of science in business administration degree, and continued to pursue activities that would continue to increase his knowledge in various industries.
He also earned a master of business administration in finance and accounting degree from the University of California shortly after.
Words of wisdom that resounded with Sison coming from his father was that “no amount of difficulty can prevent you from achieving your goal, so long as you put your heart into it and believe that it can be done.”
The passion to learn more also led Sison to play his hand at different industries which at present led him to become the Country Head and CEO of Sun Life.
He became an internal auditor for Teledyne Inc. early into his career in the United States (US), after which he became audit manager for ConAgra Foods Inc., working for the company for about 20 years, and making his way up to become the ConAgra International Foods Group’s finance director for Asia Pacific until 2010.
Coming from an industry where you had to sell tangible products, it was very much new to Sison when he was offered a position in the insurance industry, wherein you had to sell intangible products. But he wasn’t scared at all to learn the ropes.
“[I said] no way, I have no experience in life insurance. I have no background in actuarial science…[But they said] skill sets are transferable, what’s important is your capability and your potential. That’ s what they emphasized to me, are you willing to learn? And they saw that I was willing to learn,” he said.
He joined Sun Life Philippines in September 2010 as Vice President and CFO where he was responsible for the overall financial strategy of the company and its subsidiaries. In 2018, Sison was named Country Head and CEO of Sun Life.
“If someone is willing to bet on me, then why not, right? I never shirk challenges,” he added.
The challenge of breaking the cycle
Sison shared that a way for Sun Life to achieve its goal of having a financially prepared generation is when they are able to help break the cycle of financial burden and dependency which is happening to most Filipino families.
“When your parents are not able to plan for their future, they end up depending or being a burden to their children, so [when this happens] the children will not also be able to plan for their future. Then they end up being a burden to their children as well, so there’s a cycle. Whereas, when you start them now [on being financially secure], you are able to cut that cycle of financial burden and dependency,” Sison said.
In line with this goal, Sison pointed out that the company is tapping millennials as well as the younger generation, helping prepare them at an early age in achieving financial security and independence.
“We also want to reach out to the younger segment of the market. It’s very important to educate the young and the millennials because it’s our way of attempting to raise a financially prepared generation,” he added.
He said that preparing the young for a financially secure future is Sun Life’s contribution to nation building.
And to get through to them, he explained that the company will have to embrace digitalization since this is the platform that the younger generation prefers.
“We have no choice but to embrace digital transformation. We look at it in two ways, one as an enabler, and another one as a new source of business or new distribution channel. That’s how the millennials want it, so you better be in their world to be able to do business with them,” he said.
In store for 2019
Sison expressed optimism that Sun Life would maintain its top ranking position in line with being the best life insurance company in the Philippines for this year and hopefully in years to come, as he further pushes financial literacy efforts of the company under his leadership, as well as making their clients “clients for life.”
“2019 is a critical year, as we prepare for 2020. We will have to sustain our leadership in the market. We have been a leader for the past seven years, so I am confident that we will end the year on top,” Sison said.
The year 2020 was pointed out to be a major milestone for Sun Life as it will celebrate its 125th anniversary, with it being the first insurance company in the Philippines to achieve such a milestone.
“In other words, we are the longest standing insurance company in the Philippines. 2020 is also the year when we will achieve our goal to have five million clients,” he added
Under its R1SE PH campaign, Sun Life aims to have five million clients by 2020 in line with its efforts to increase its market share and helping more Filipinos. The program was launched in 2015 starting at 1.5 million clients, growing to 3.8 million as of September 2018.
“At the center of everything that we do is the client. So any initiative that we introduce will have to benefit them. What we plan to do this year is to deepen our relationship with our clients with the objective of making them our clients for life,” he said.
Sison believes that the company’s lifetime partnership with its clients will differentiate them from other insurance companies.
“We just don’t like to sell products, we’d like you to be our clients for life. That’s what we are planning to do. We want to get closer to our clients and deepen our relationship with them. We want to know what they need so we will be able to address it. And this can only happen if our relationship deepens, if it goes beyond the customer-buyer relationship,” he added.
He also explained that the insurance industry is expected to sustain its double digit growth this year, on the back of an improving outlook for the Philippine economy, adding that the government’s infrastructure build-up program or its “Build, Build, Build” (BBB) will help the insurance industry have assets to invest in.
“The BBB will support the growth momentum of the country. It is beneficial to us because insurance companies have long-term liabilities, so we are looking for long-term assets to invest in. The BBB is long-term, so it’s a perfect match for us, and perfect opportunity to invest. We support that,” he said.
1 comment
What’s Taking place i am new to this, I stumbled
upon this I’ve found It positively helpful and it has helped me out loads.
I am hoping to contribute & help different customers like its helped me.
Good job.