For Allianz PNB Life (AZPNBL), its first decade in the Philippines is less about looking back than demonstrating what comes next: helping Filipino families become financially stronger, better prepared and, in the company’s words, more “Panatag.”
The insurer marked its 10th anniversary with a recent media briefing and highlighted a sharp acceleration in business alongside new financial solutions and community partnerships aimed at building resilience at both the household and community levels.
AZPNBL posted P4.59 billion in New Business Annual Premium Equivalent (NBAPE) in the first half of 2026, up 98 percent from the same period last year. The company ranked third in the Philippine life insurance industry based on consolidated NBAPE, according to the latest Insurance Commission data.
For President and CEO Joe Gross, the figures are more than a business milestone.
“Our strong first-half performance and continued customer growth are proof that our purpose continues to resonate,” Gross said, emphasizing that growth reflects the increasing trust Filipino families place in the insurer to protect what matters to them.
That growth has also been supported by the company’s bancassurance relationship with Philippine National Bank, with nearly 500 Financial Solutions Specialists now serving customers through PNB branches nationwide.
Making long-term planning more accessible
A key part of firm’s next chapter is Allianz Secure Save, a life insurance and savings solution designed around the financial realities and aspirations of Filipino breadwinners.
The product combines life insurance protection with professionally managed investments, allowing customers to build funds for goals such as education, retirement and other long-term family priorities. It offers five- and 10-pay options, as well as a Guaranteed Issue Offer, intended to make protection more accessible.
The broader idea is straightforward: financial resilience is not simply about having money today, but about protecting the plans attached to that money. That message became particularly relevant during the briefing’s discussion of what resilience actually means for Filipinos.
Moving beyond the “resilient Filipino” narrative
Catherine Scerri, executive director of child-rights organization Bahay Tuluyan, cautioned against viewing Filipino resilience simply as the ability to endure hardship.
Filipinos are remarkably resilient, she said, but resilience can become problematic when it encourages people to accept difficult circumstances rather than work toward something better.
For Bahay Tuluyan, which is approaching its 39th year of working with children, young people, families and communities, resilience means giving people the capacity and opportunity to shape their own futures.
That philosophy is reflected in MoveNow, an AZPNBLinitiative with Bahay Tuluyan for vulnerable young single mothers. The program combines employability training, financial literacy, life skills, parenting support, childcare and psychosocial services.
The approach is deliberately holistic. Training alone, Scerri explained, is of limited use if a mother has nowhere safe to leave her child while attending classes or lacks the immediate support needed to complete the program.
The ultimate goal is independence—not simply assistance.
Bahay Tuluyan’s experience suggests that investment in mothers can have effects that extend well beyond the individual. Scerri pointed to research indicating that investments in mothers can generate significant social returns for their children and communities.
Preparing communities before disaster strikes
If MoveNow focuses on resilience within the household, AZPNBL’s partnership with the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF) takes the same principle into communities.
PDRF President Rene “Butch” Meily said the organization was established after the devastating 2009 Tropical Storm Ondoy floods to bring businesses together with government and civil society during disasters.
Its work involves companies from critical sectors such as water, power, telecommunications and logistics, using their resources for preparedness, response and recovery.
Through Project Talaghay, AZPNBL and PDRF are supporting risk awareness, early warning systems, local capability-building and community-led disaster preparedness.
The emphasis is increasingly on preparation rather than reaction, he tells the media during a fireside chat
For Meily, that matters in a country where hazards are becoming harder to predict. Heavy rains can now trigger flooding in a matter of hours, while communities continue to contend with typhoons and earthquakes.
He encouraged families to discuss practical contingencies before emergencies happen: where family members will meet, where evacuation routes are located and where emergency supplies are kept.
“It’s a question of when something is going to happen to you,” he said, underscoring the need to prepare for disasters rather than assume resilience will simply carry people through them.
Climate risk is becoming a business issue
The conversation also moved into territory that is increasingly relevant to the insurance industry: how climate change could reshape risk, affordability and access to protection.
Gross said Allianz is seeing stronger and more frequent storms and increasingly disruptive flooding. While AZPNBL is a life insurer, meaning its core claims are not directly priced around property damage from disasters, climate-related changes can still affect mortality, health and other risks over time.
At the wider Allianz group level, climate risk is already a major concern, particularly in property and casualty insurance, where extreme weather can directly translate into claims.
The bigger challenge, Gross said, is affordability.
If climate risks continue to intensify, insurance could become prohibitively expensive in some markets—or potentially unavailable altogether. That would leave households and businesses exposed precisely when protection is most needed.
For insurers, the response therefore cannot simply be to increase prices. Better underwriting, more efficient distribution and lower operating costs will be necessary to keep products accessible.
From promise to proof
Zanne Magararu, AZPNBL’s chief marketing officer and chief of staff, framed the company’s sustainability work around the same principle as its insurance business: resilience.
“Insurance and sustainability are connected by one purpose,” she said. “Resilience.”
That connection gives the company’s community initiatives a business logic beyond traditional corporate giving. Financial protection helps individual families prepare for uncertainty, while partnerships such as MoveNow and Project Talaghay aim to strengthen the social and economic foundations that allow communities to recover.
For the company, that shared-value approach is becoming part of its identity as it enters its second decade.
The challenge now is translating the idea of being “Panatag” from a marketing promise into something tangible: a family with savings, a breadwinner with protection, a mother with a pathway to employment, or a community that knows what to do before the next flood or earthquake arrives.
After 10 years in the Philippines, Allianz PNB Life is betting that resilience—and the peace of mind that comes with being prepared—can be both a social mission and a sustainable business proposition.
(MAIN PHOTO (from left): Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF) President Rene “Butch” Meily, Catherine Scerri, Bahay Tuluyan Executive Director, Allianz PNB Life President and CEO Joe Gross, and Zanne Magararu, Allianz PNB Life Chief Marketing Officer and Chief of Staff).