Rethinking insurance: How InLife is leading innovation and reimagining life and health protection for Filipinos

There was a time when buying insurance meant setting aside time for paperwork, visiting a branch, meeting with a financial advisor, and waiting for an application to be processed. For something designed to provide peace of mind, the experience could sometimes feel intimidating.

But the way Filipinos live has changed. People now bank, shop, book appointments, communicate, and manage many aspects of their lives through their phones. They expect services to be simpler, faster, and easier to access—and insurance is no exception.

For InLife, formerly known as Insular Life, this changing behavior has prompted a bigger question: How can insurance protection work better for the way Filipinos live today?

The answer has been more than simply going digital. It has meant rethinking the insurance experience, developing new ways to provide protection, and continuously listening to what Filipinos need.

“We believe there is something powerful about being Filipino and protecting fellow Filipinos. We place the same value on family and preparation for the future, and understand the different challenges Filipinos face because we experience them ourselves. That shared understanding inspires us to keep finding better, simpler, and more meaningful ways to protect Filipinos throughout their lives,” said InLife Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Bancassurance Officer Gae L. Martinez.

Innovation Starts With Making Life Easier

Over the years, InLife has invested in digital tools designed to address customer pain points and make insurance more convenient.

Its pioneering Automated Underwriting System has made life insurance applications faster. Through the InLife App, policyholders have easier access to their policies and services. Financial Advisors also have the InLife Super Compass app, an all-in-one digital sales and productivity tool designed to simplify sales activity management. Meanwhile, Ella, InLife’s AI-powered digital assistant, helps customers find policy-specific information whenever they need it.

These technology initiatives respond to a simple reality: people have less time for complicated processes and expect greater convenience from the companies they deal with.

For InLife, innovation means removing unnecessary friction from the experience of getting and managing protection. It also means looking beyond technology and rethinking what insurance solutions can do to make Filipinos’ lives easier.

For instance, to help Filipinos assess their retirement preparedness, InLife developed the country’s first-ever Retirement Readiness Index. The Index measures retirement preparedness across six factors: life stage, personal finances, health, pension program participation, retirement sentiment, and social support.

To help Filipinos prepare for retirement, InLife also launched Retire Assure, a retirement product designed around an increasingly important need as Filipinos live longer: having a reliable source of income during their retirement years.

Retire Assure is designed to provide guaranteed income from age 60 up to 100, with flexible payout options and no medical exam requirement. The product aims to help Filipinos build a more secure and worry-free retirement.

These developments reflect a broader shift in how InLife approaches insurance: understanding the financial realities Filipinos face and creating solutions around those needs.

The same thinking can be seen in Stackbit, an affordable and flexible insurance product designed for young Filipinos and emerging customers. The product allows protection to be built up bit by bit. Starting at just ₱10, customers can choose from three stackable coverage options, allowing them to get protection that fits their needs and budget.

With its low entry price and simple, accessible format, Stackbit makes insurance easier to understand, start, and incorporate into everyday financial habits without requiring Filipinos to make large financial commitments before they are ready.

More recently, InLife launched InLife Global Care for Filipinos seeking more flexible healthcare protection and a way to supplement their Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) coverage.

InLife Global Care provides coverage for major illnesses and medical needs, with access to healthcare services and treatment options locally and abroad. The product is designed to help ease the financial burden of costly medical care while giving Filipinos greater peace of mind for themselves and their loved ones.

Innovation Also Means Looking Beyond Insurance

InLife’s innovation extends to how it responds to broader needs affecting Filipinos.

Through InLife HealthCheck, the company brings health and wellness support closer to members of the Amorsolo Circle, InLife’s program for high-net-worth policyholders.

InLife HealthCheck is a preventive wellness tool designed to encourage proactive health monitoring. It allows users to obtain a snapshot of more than 30 wellness indicators through a simple 60-second video selfie using a mobile device.

By detecting blood flow beneath the skin, the feature helps individuals track key health metrics early, making routine wellness monitoring more accessible before symptoms appear. However, it is not a medical device and should not be considered a replacement for clinical diagnostic tests.

The Biggest Innovation May Be the One Customers Don’t See

Some of InLife’s transformation happens behind the scenes.

The company has adopted Agile ways of working and established Mission-Based Teams (MBTs), bringing people from different functions together around specific customer and business needs.

This approach matters because a customer’s experience does not belong to just one department. Life insurance involves sales, underwriting, customer relations, technology, and other functions. A customer question can reveal an opportunity to improve an entire process, while a recurring frustration can point to something that needs to be redesigned or created.

Two of InLife’s products, Retire Assure and Stackbit, are products of these Mission-Based Teams.

That is why listening has become an important part of InLife’s approach to innovation. Customer feedback and satisfaction measures provide insights into what works, what does not, and where the experience can be improved.

The result is a continuous cycle: listen, understand, improve, and build again.

InLife: A Company That Keeps Moving Forward

After almost 116 years of protecting Filipinos, InLife continues to reinvent and transform itself.

The name is shorter and more modern, but it also reflects a more agile, modern, and customer-focused organization while honoring the trust and heritage built over more than a century.

More importantly, InLife’s approach to innovation continues to come back to one question: What do Filipinos need next?

Because innovation is about seeing a need, listening to people, and finding a better way forward. After 116 years, InLife continues to evolve its approach to helping Filipinos prepare for the future.

Learn more about InLife through its official website: InLife Philippines.