CU Life and CU Mutual Funds customers, entrusting their money to the capital or mutual funds have significantly increased their wealth within the last five or 10 years.
CU Life and CU Mutual Funds customers, entrusting their money to the capital or mutual funds have significantly increased their wealth within the last five or 10 years. Customers who selected equity-oriented funds, thus accepting higher risk levels, have benefited the most.
Rapid economic growth in Poland, a decrease in unemployment and rising salaries are the cause of an increasingly evident boost in wealth. As a result, millions of Poles seek better ways of growing their savings through various financial institutions' offerings.
"The dynamic influx of money to the funds and the rapid increase of importance of equity-oriented funds prove that Poles are quickly learning about investing, which is very positive by itself. However, the results of a survey conducted on our behalf show that many customers incorrectly perceive various investment forms by focussing too much on the profit and not enough on the risk. It is very important at this point to foster better customer understanding of profit and risk ratio," says Marek Przybylski, general manager of CU Mutual Funds and CU Investment Management.
Due to excellent results achieved over five and 10 years by most of its life and mutual funds, the Commercial Union group is currently promoting its investment products. The campaign includes new informational materials for customers and insurance agents, an advertising campaign. Additionally, in the middle of July, CU Life is launching Bonus VIP - a new single premium insurance product.
"In our promotion we obviously mention the excellent rates of return of our funds in recent years but on the other hand we are trying very hard to promote the idea of long-term investment ie for at least five or 10 years. The results of our funds over the last 10 years include periods of bull market as well as corrections and bear markets, thus they are realistic regarding possible profits in a developing economy. Furthermore, our model of investment services distribution, mainly though experienced insurance agents, is additional security against overly risky short-term investment. The agent usually knows the customers personally and thus is emotionally involved in securing that their investment decisions are rational," emphasises Marek Przybylski.
CU Life offers over a dozen capital funds with varied investment profiles - from the guaranteed fund, safe funds and equity-only funds. It offers special funds for institutions running employee pension programs (PPEs).
The guaranteed fund has been offered since autumn 1992 - thus we will soon know its 15 year return rate which is unique in the Polish financial market. For many years it was the leading CU Life fund and the most willingly chosen by customers because of the guarantee of non-decreasing unit prices. In spring 1997 CU Life introduced three more funds - Stable Growth Fund, Balanced Fund and International Fund - where the 10 year return rates were made public for the first time. Growing customer investment knowledge and interest in equity investment contributed to expansion of the offering in 2000 by adding CU Equity Fund and Dynamic Fund which, thanks to the bull market and excellent asset management, have been the market leaders for return rates over three and five years.
The total asset value of all CU Life capital funds is 13.6 billion zlotys. This has made it the market leader for a long time.
CU Mutual Funds company has been in operation since May 2002. Currently its offer is based on the Commercial Union umbrella fund with six sub-funds. The total asset value of CU Mutual Funds exceeds 2.8 billion zlotys.
Rates of return of Commercial Union Poland Life Insurance Company capital funds at the end of Q2 2007 [%]
| Fund | 3 months | 12 months | 3 years | 5 years | 10 years |
| Monetary | 0.74 | 2.94 | 12.27 | - | - |
| Guaranteed | 1.33 | 5.29 | 17.36 | 33.07 | 159.65 |
| Guaranteed Plus | 1.29 | 4.79 | 15.17 | 25.63 | - |
| Stable Growth | 2.49 | 10.02 | 29.07 | 51.41 | 225.26 |
| Balanced | 7.81 | 29.45 | 77.02 | 143.10 | 324.20 |
| Eurobalanced | -0.69 | 3.45 | 8.49 | - | - |
| International | 5.51 | 18.67 | 41.97 | 76.23 | 120.29 |
| CU - Equity Fund | 16.66 | 63.49 | 165.37 | 357.56 | - |
| Dynamic | 16.54 | 62.06 | 163.81 | 461.48 | - |
| Bonds PPE | 0.11 | 3.28 | 16.09 | - | - |
| Stable Growth PPE | 3.58 | 14.47 | 40.48 | 79.77 | - |
| Balanced PPE | 7.69 | 28.87 | - | - | - |
| Share PPE | 16.38 | 62.12 | - | - | - |
| WIG (main Warsaw Stock Exchange index) | 14.87 | 62.57 | 175.91 | 365.57 | 335.76 |
| Inflation | 1.1 | 2.7 | 5.3 | 10.6 | 56.7 |
Rates of return of Commercial Union Poland Mutual Funds at the end of Q2 2007 [%]
| Fund | 3 months | 12 months | 3 years | 5 years |
| Commercial Union FIO Umbrella Fund | ||||
| CU Deposit Plus | 0.81 | 3.24 | 12.69 | 26.77 |
| CU Bonds | -0.22 | 3.63 | 15.72 | 31.16 |
| CU Capital Security Plus | 4.76 | 23.61 | - | - |
| CU Stable Growth | 6.44 | 27.94 | 58.89 | 133.07 |
| CU Balanced | 8.05 | - | - | - |
| CU Polish Equities | 17.30 | 78.60 | 171.50 | 474.70 |
Commercial Union Investment Management (Poland) is a specialised company which manages assets of CU Life capital funds and the mutual funds of CU Mutual Funds. It has permission from the Polish regulator to manage securities portfolios and offer investment advisory services. It is among the leading asset management companies in Poland by value of managed assets (total 16.6 billion zlotys at the end of the second quarter of 2007).
New Bonus VIP
From 15 July 2007 CU Life will introduce a modified investment insurance offer called Bonus VIP, which will replace the existing single premium insurance products. This insurance will be available in four variants depending on the premium amount. The minimum premium will be 10,000 zlotys. If the premium is over 100,000 zlotys - any amount exceeding 100,000 zlotys is 100% allocated. Premiums above 500,000 zlotys are 100% allocated to the funds selected by the customer. Customers can select and change their investment strategy using 15 free switches in insurance capital funds per agreement year.
Additional premiums of at least 1,000 zlotys can be paid in. Up to 10% of the account value in a given year can be withdrawn free of charge.
-ends-
For further information contact:
Bohdan Bialorucki
Telephone: +48 22 557 43 41
E-mail: bohdan_bialorucki@cu.com.pl
For further information, see http://www.cu.pl/
Notes to editors:
Commercial Union Poland group is part of the international Aviva group - the world's fifth largest insurance, savings and investments group, and the largest in the United Kingdom by revenues. Aviva group operates in 25 countries. It occupies a strong position in the European Union, including United Kingdom, Ireland, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Poland. It also conducts large scale activities in the USA, Canada, Australia and Asia. It services approx 40 million customers and manages assets valued at over £364 billion. For additional information, see the website /