Byline: ANA MARIE MACUJA

Insular Life, the country's first and largest Filipino life insurance company, has surpassed its net income for the year 2006 after posting a net profit of P1.2 billion in the first half of 2007, the same amount which the company earned for the entire 2006.

Ongsingco noted Insular Life remains one of the highly-capitalized insurance firms with a member's equity of over P14 billion against the industry requirement of around P500 million.

Meanwhile, in a press statement, the company said it posted robust growth of 26 percent in total premium income in the first half of 2007. Gross premium from January to June, 2007 amounted to P3.92 billion from P3.13 billion over the same period last year.

First year premium, on the other hand, amounted to P1.67 billion, while renewals and net single premium contributed P2.251 billion to the total.

Wealth Series, the company's line of investment-linked products continues to dominate the best selling products. Wealth Builder, the one-pay investment product is also delivering returns well above company expectations, the company said.

"As of July 30, its year-on-year absolute return reached 56.2 percent for Equity Fund, 28.7 percent for Balanced Fund, and 11.3 percent for Fixed Income," it noted.