Life microinsurance has grown quickly and is well established throughout the Philippines, and as a result, the business case is widely assumed to be strong. The MILK project is working to test the accuracy of this assumption. Our analysis focuses on a cluster of five programs that represent the broad range of life microinsurance activity in the Philippines: CARD, TSPI, Prudential, CLIMBS, and MicroEnsure.

Life microinsurance is among the simplest types of microinsurance in terms of product design. It is also a product line for which the business case is often seen as the clearest. Still, we find unexpected complexity on both fronts. Seemingly “simple” products have coverage that is in fact quite complex, and the seemingly “clear” business case can be ambiguous. This brief presents our initial findings; we are continuing to explore these issues and hope to answer more of the open questions over the next year. In the meantime, we look forward to discussing these issues with you and hearing your thoughts.