SunLife GoWell Press Conference at Ascott Hotel

Just last week, Mr. A.R. Bautista invited me to witness the launch of Sunlife's Go Well Campaign in Ascott Hotel, BGC. The agenda was about the launch of Sunlife's Partnership program with Fitness First. I was truly interested in this campaign since I keep myself in shape to maintain my heavy eating. 

Sunlife first introduced Go Well as part of its newest insurance product, the Fit and Well. Since then, it has branched out with its fitness activities, even going so far as offering fitness classes open to everyone. 

Go Well now has its own website at https://www.gowell.com.ph/ where it offers top notch fitness advice to health and wellness aficionados or even those who want to enter a journey of fitness. The website offers rewards and prizes for people who simply want to learn more by reading the articles. 

Exclusive members on the website get better chances at winning points for the rewards. They also have other privileges such as exclusive high level workouts. However, a good number of community workouts are offered for free to everyone.

According to Ms. Riza Mantaring, Sunlife has consistently shaped itself to be a partner in the Filipino's quest for good health through fitness. In this small way, she hopes that the company can help people achieve peak health. 

According to Ms. Jaymie Pizarro, the facts showed that Filipinos believe that they are living healthy physically and emotionally, yet they don't get regular exercise. This disconnect will truly manifest in the lifestyle of Filipinos. Also, Sunlife helps obviate this problem by providing people with an affordable health care insurance which covers prevention, cure, rehabilitation and diagnosis.

 Mr. Mark Ellis of Fitness First talked about the new partnership of Sunlife with Fitness First. They will offer community workouts in their premises for Sunlife and Gowell customers. They guarantee safe and effective exercising with the help of professionals. He also talked about his motivations for getting fit. He noted that he initially wanted to get fit for the sex appeal; but as he got older, he started to value the importance of exercise for wellness.

The event was ended by the MOA Signing of Sunlife and Fitness First for their GoWell campaign. Under the agreement, Fitness first will host Sunlife community workouts in their gyms and provide exclusive workouts to Gold members. 

Sunlife has truly expanded from an insurance company into one that has a diversified product scale. With this in mind, it is notable what the company has achieve in its time in the Philippines.

Sunlife Sinag Awards 2016 at the Makati Shangri La

Last month, Mr. AR Bautista of AB Comm Events invited me to the annual awards day of Sunlife Philippines Inc. called the Sinag at the Makati Shangri La. This event consisted of honoring and recognizing the achievements of media personnel among the print, radio, online, and written mediums. Sunlife chose winners based on the regions of the Philippines. They also chose winners from unique sectors such as the youth.

Sunlife also recognized the special role of journalists in society and the risks they face. In connection with this, they awarded all the participants with accident insurance. This is just one way that Sunlife hopes to give back to the community as part of its CSR.

It didn't end there. Sunlife also awarded students with cash prizes from the Sinag Student Awards competition. Students from top universities in the Metro submitted their written works on important topics. Sunlife then chose the ones with the best content and delivery then awarded them with Php 10,000 in cash.

These activities show Sunlife's commitment to helping out journalism in whatever field and sector. With Sunlife, your future is not only secure. They also help out in a person's personal growth, be it in business, writing, or other fields. Now that is truly a selfless way of giving back.

The story in pictures:

Ms. Riza Mantaring, President of Sunlife - introducing the winners for the various categories of journalism

The awarding ceremony being conducted

Aya Laraya's 4th Talk by Sunlife: The Relevance of Insurance to a Person's Estate

Once again, I was invited by Mr. Arnel Bautista to the Sunlife personal finance series, which by the way is nearing its end. At this time though, we talked about the complexities of the consequences of death, particularly when it comes to finances and the estate. While it sounded pretty depressing, the topic was something Filipinos needed to know and discuss in detail to facilitate money matters related to this stage of human life.

According to Mr. Laraya of Pesos and Sense.com, a person transmits properties upon his death. Usually families would quarrel and bicker on how to distribute the properties if there is no clear plan in doing so. We see families torn apart from the lack of foresight and planning that could have made things smoother for the estate. Hence, he emphasized the need to start early and plan ahead. Since a person has about a Php 13 million estate that can be exempted from estate tax, steps can be taken to ensure that the heirs of a deceased can maximize the amount and extent of properties that can be passed to them while minimizing tax liability. The speaker also recommended commencing legal acts and formalities to transfer the estate as opposed to illegal ones. He argued that the risk from resorting to tax evasion will only serve to increase tax liabilities in the form of surcharges and penalties.

Enter the need for insurance. I've always thought that Insurance was relevant only for healthcare needs and unexpected contingencies. At this seminar, I found that insurance can also be used to leverage the liquidity of an estate. According to the provisions of the National Internal Revenue Code, life insurance, if the estate is the beneficiary, is exempt from estate tax. The speaker posited that insurance may actually be used to pay for the taxes incurred by the estate while serving the dual function of indemnifying the heirs. Talk about being multipurpose! Furthermore, life insurance can easily be claimed provided that the beneficiaries present the certificate of full payment. Compare this to the illiquidity of bank accounts (provided under the law) pending the settlement of the estate. With life insurance, you can have the cash needed to advance the costs.

With these precepts in mind, there should be no need to resort to extralegal methods to achieve the purposes of tax avoidance. The beneficiaries can be rest assured that insurance will facilitate the distribution of properties.

Special thanks to Mr. Arnel Bautista and Sunlife Philippines Inc. for the invite.

The story in photos:

Sunlife: an afternoon with Mr. Aya Laraya on the importance of managing money and debt

Once again, Sunlife Philippines Inc. extended an invitation to attend a talk on money management, hosted by Mr. Aya Laraya, an investment and finance guru. The topic for the afternoon was about debt and the proper attitude toward it. I'm not usually beholden to crippling amounts of debt.  Nevertheless, I took the talk as an opportunity to learn that debt can be used as an instrument to increase one's financial standing and potential.

Debt simply means: the use of other people's money, usually for a fee. However, not all debt is supposed to be considered bad or given a negative connotation. There are good ones such as business receivables, credit, and collateral which are usually used in the ordinary course of business. Furthermore,  equity investment such as IPO's and partnership shares can be used to generate working capital for the operation of an enterprise. Thirdly, there are also investment instruments such as bonds, stocks, and deposit substitutes which are intangible investment instruments for the purpose of generating wealth.

While good debt is taken advantage of to boost income, there are also forms of debt that can debilitate productivity. These are in the forms of bad debt. Bad debt is generally used to finance consumer spending and short term gratification such as luxury items and non-essentials.

According to Mr. Laraya, a good informal rule for controlling the amount you borrow is to use a month's salary. Furthermore, you can also tell your credit card provider to decrease the credit limit in order to curb the temptation to spend more. Lastly, using the debt to fund more productive ventures is a better way to reconsider consumer spending.

 I also learned about good informal rules in gauging loan amounts. In business loans, a good rule to follow is to borrow not more than 50% of owner's equity. While in housing, having 35% of income amortization is the limit for monthly payments.

Also, there are 3 ideas which can be used to ask whether a person should enter into debt. One is measuring how much one owns. The second is the size of the debt; and the third is how much a person can pay.

Lastly, in order to gain freedom from debt, a person must do three things:
1.Eliminate the credit card as a means of quick cash.
2. Create a payment plan in negotiating debt.
3. Switch to more efficient means of living.

Debt is truly a powerful thing, whether for its good or bad aspects. Albert Einstein truly nailed the concept of debt when he said that the most powerful force in the world is compound interest.

Realizing big dreams must start with small steps. Mateo Guidicelli partners with Sunlife to bring the Sunlife Prosperity Card

Sunlife has been known help people save and invest for the future through their insurance, investment, and financial plans. They have also been known to help out people who want to make it big financially or maintain their financial status. Given this premise, it it no surprise that one of the biggest names in the acting industry, Matteo Guidicelli, has come to endorse Sunlife as his choice for financial investments and instruments. According to him, he wants to be practical in planning his preparations for the future; hence, he has enlisted the help of one of the best financial planners in the country: Sunlife. 

Since he strongly believes in the Sunlife brand, he has decided to endorse it as well. He makes it a point to only adhere to brands that he trusts and believes in; particularly those with a good and established reputation in the respective industries these are in. While he admits that he only has one Sunlife plan for now, he will make it a point to invest more in the future. 

Matteo's new endorsement for Sunlife is in the new Prosperity Card: a reloadable card that grants its owner access to any of Sunlife's financial instruments be it insurance, mutual funds, VUL's, or bond funds. It comes at the starting investment rate of Php 5,000 and is reloadable at anytime from any of Sunlife's Asset Management Offices located in the Metro and the Provinces. This card can be transferrable, hence it can be given as gifts on special occasions such as weddings, birthdays, and anniversaries. Matteo himself admitted that he gave the card as gifts to the members of his athletic foundation. 

According to Sunlife Asset Management President Valerie Pama, the card is an intsrument that can help the youth who want to grow their money by spending for sound investments rather than worthless luxuries. While she acknowledges the fact that the youth are very much interested in investing their money, most of them don't know how to execute it. Hence, enter Sunlife, a company who can guide them in making the right choices for their money.

To cap off the launch of the New Prosperity Card, Sunlife launched a TVC wherein they showed Matto having two personas, one who was a bad boy spender while the other was a good guy investor. The girl was made to choose over these two; and she ended up choosing the frugal Matteo who learned to invest for the right things in life.

Matteo is truly a dedicated and focused careerman who has learned to be cautious when it comes to dealing with the more important parts of his life. Since he knows that he's already getting older, he has made it a point to focus on the right things such as his athletics and his projects. He also puts aside his earnings for his investments, with Sunlife being one of them.

The Story in Pictures:

Matteo with Sunlife's leading executives during the roundtable discussion on the new Sunlife Prosperity Card

Matteo explaining his work ethic and dedication to his craft.

The new Sunlife prosperity card at a starting investment of Phip 5,000.

Photos courtesy of Mr. Ralph Huertas of http://www.uberliciousph.com/

Be a Sunlife Advisor Now! The quintessential guide to achieving your financial freedom!

Last August 17. 2016, Mr. Brian Macasa invited me to witness the launch of Sunlife's Be a Financial Advisor campaign at the famed Aracama restaurant in BGC. This event aimed to tell members of the media and bloggers about the benefits of following your passion while doing something that is also financially rewarding. The organizers presented two of the seasoned advisers from Sunlife who have achieved and seen much in life.

The speakers were composed of Ms. Arianne Serafico and Ms. Agnes Cuaso. Both of them were initially into different fields. Ms. Cuaso was a former commerical model who was in print media and catwalk modelling; while Ms. Serafico was an NGO worker who initially wanted to focus on her passion to help others. Both of them discovered that their occupations were not sustainable enough to help them achieve their dreams. For Arianne, it was getting to fly to the us to attend a class in the prestigious Stanford University about business management. For Agnes, it was about being stable to raise a family. But, with the help of Sunlife, both of them were able to intertwine financial stability and their passions. According to both of them, being with Sunlife gave them the flexibility of time and effort. Through the standardized trainings and mentorships, both of them were able to become better at advising others about the importance of investments and saving for the future. Furthermore, Sunlife has become excellent partners in helping them secure the finances to do the things that were truly important to them. Arianne, on one hand, was able to raise more than 600 thousand pesos from her business with the help of the skills she learned from investing and working with Sunlife. Agnes, on the other hand, was able to take care of her 1 year old son through the flexibility of time granted by work as a financial advisor.

After the program, the hosts gave us bloggers a Q and A about the importance of investment and the different instruments available to their disposal. Also, the hosts told us that Sunlife isn't all about investments. It is also a growing family that a person can share his hopes and dreams with.

Truly, I can say that being a financial advisor with Sunlife is a career opportunity that I would like to tap into someday so that I may learn how to manage my money and investments wisely.

Truly, Sunlife can be a wonderful partner in providing people with opportunities to enrich themselves and help them attain the things that matter most in their lives. With this to take home, I truly hope that other's dreams are reached with the help of Sunlife. Be a Sunlife Advisor now! 

You can contact Sunlife Financial Philippine through their FB page at https://www.facebook.com/sunlifefinancialadvisorphilippines/?fref=ts

The story in Pictures:

The hosts interviewing the speakers for the night.

A Sunlife promotional folder detailing the joys of investing in Sunlife

The hosts with Ms. Agnes Tuazon and Ms. Arianne Serafico, the speakers and bonafide Sunlife Financial Advisers

A promotional stage for Sunlife

The Sunlife quiz show with the participation of employees from different offices in BGC

The bloggers enjoying the nachos and the quiz night