Hi Jerry, I'm Roy - a Prudential Agent at KWSP Penang. It is good to know that you've made the first start on getting your insurance in place.

Please do correct me if I'm wrong, as you seem to be paying very much attention to the CASH value instead of the more important element of insurance which is the COVERAGE/Protection. One day you may want to choose to retire. By that time = no income = how to pay for insurance premium? It'll be from the cash value or the policy that you are paying for 25 years may risk lapse.

I always tells my client life+medical+savings insurance is like a car insurance (except it don't generate cash value). One day if you do not want to pay the car insurance, it'll lapse. That means no more cover. LIFE INSURANCE MEANS FOR LIFE, not 10 years, not 20 years, ie TILL DEATH DO US PART.

Looking at what you have is RM95K (or add another Rm50K if it was accidental) cover for life & RM65K Critical illness. My question to you is why RM 95K or the RM65K?

Should a person be down with a LIFE THREATENING 36 critical illness, he / she may not be able to generate an income for at least 6 mths-1 year. The question is will your company still be employing you if you need to take off for 6 mths to 1 year? Sadly most company needs someone to fill the gap should we are ill.

Your income is approx RM50K/year. This means you'd depleted the RM95k in less than 2 years or worse, deplete it in 6 mths due to no medical cover.

Also, when you are down with any of the 36 critical illness, RM65K will be paid out BUT WHO WILL TAKE CARE of your medical bills? Do note that medical card can only be bought when you are healthy. When one is diagnosed with any of the 36 critical illness, NO INSURANCE will come near you.

Feel free to drop me a PM or give me your contact number. Thanks

Roy Steven Ung - 016-451 5957
Prudential Assurance (M) Bhd
KWSP Penang

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Added on March 26, 2012, 4:27 pmHi. It's fortunate that you survived denggi. I've met people who lost their loved ones due to denggi because they thought that it was just a normal fever! The normal clinic that he went to just gave him antibiotics. When he brought the baby to the private hospital, blood test reveals that its a confirmed denggi and it was too late. Don't play with denggi. It can be a life threatening thing and sadly the baby did not make it.

Coming back, declaration of your health condition when doing the policy is utmost important. Declare EVERYTHING and make sure the agent writes it down on the proposal form. How many times you've been hospitalized etc, or even having a minor chest pain. If need, the insurance company will ask you to undergo the medical checkup to determine if you're still insurable.

For your information, there is always a 4 month waiting period for any specified illness (cancer, tumor to name a few). This is why you need to get it before your health changes.

Yes that is the hassle that we insurance agent must go, ie to get the report etc to ensure that in future the claims will be smooth.

If you want, we can chat over the phone or best to meet face to face with NO OBLIGATION. You decide whether you want to go for it or wait.

Roy Steven Ung, 016-451 5957
Prudential Assurance (M) Bhd
KWSP Penang

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Added on March 26, 2012, 4:59 pmYou can always add on or increase it when the need arises or add on another policy if your policy is not the investment linked policy.

The beauty of the Investment linked policy is that it is a flexible plan that allows you to increase the coverage when you need it (ie when your responsibility increases as you become a dad)

You can also decrease it when your responsibility has lessen (ie, when children all grown up and you don't need that much of cover). Your medical card covers you up to age 70 (the minimum), if that's not enough for life insurance, I dont know what is.

Most of the time Prudential agents are trained to package some form of life cover into the policy as it is vital. CI pays a lump sum and can be very handy for anyone down with a CI.

Whenever someone is down with CI, for example cancer, the treatment is done OUTPATIENT. Outpatient means PAY AND CLAIM, which means you'd have to pay RM8-12k /mth upfront for chemotherapy and claim later. The claim cheques after the bills are submitted will normally arrive within 2-3 weeks.

Regards,

Roy Steven Ung, 016-451 5957
Prudential Assurance (M) Bhd
KWSP Penang

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Added on March 26, 2012, 5:29 pmI will have to be honest to you. Yes you are right about protection is cheaper when you're young and should've bought it earlier. However do note that insurance charge goes up by age IRRESPECTIVE of when you buy it.

The only difference is that when you start at a younger age, you got more time to build up your cash value. One day when you decide to retire ie no more paying for the premium, that cash value will definitely comes in handy TO PAY FOR INSURANCE CHARGE till your medical / insurance expires.

Once the cash value is no longer able to sustain your policy, the policy may lapse. That is as honest I can be on how insurance works. HTH

BTW, if you don't mind my asking, how old are you now? We do have PruSenior medical which picks up huge bills and covers up to age 80. Premium is reasonable.

Roy Steven Ung 016-451 5957
Prudential Assurance (M) Bhd
KWSP Penang

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Added on March 26, 2012, 7:51 pm

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Added on March 26, 2012, 8:00 pmJerry, there are many types of medical card in the market. Some are non-guaranteed renewal but port folio renewal. This means that as long as they are in this business, they will still provide cover.

It is also depend on what is being attached to the insurance policy. The insurance policy is a legal contract that binds the insurer & assured and can be quite technical and not easily understood by layman.

I would suggest that he gets a second opinion from another agent if he is still unaware of what he had done.

HTH,

Roy Steven Ung, 016-451 5957
Prudential Assurance (M) Bhd
KWSP Penang

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Added on March 27, 2012, 10:50 amHi there. To be honest, it is a very general question. Some people say investing in property/stocks will give you good returns, and yet many get burned.

As for Prudential Investment Linked policies - it is divided into 3 sections. The Basic Unit Account (life/disability/accidents/ci), The Protection Unit Account (medical,waiver,income during disability etc) & The Investment Unit Account.

The premium paid for BUA & PUA, the 1st year, 40% will be allocated into buying you units. As for IUA, 95% will be allocated. That is why the first few years the cash value will not build up that fast unless you put in into more saver. The BUA & PUA premium will only be 100% allocation after the 7th year the policy is in force.

As for the IUA, one can do a REGULAR investment (paying as low as RM 10/mth) or a lump sum top up (min 1K). Most parents would prefer to do regular investment for their children as to ensure that in the event of their sudden demise, or being critically ill, Prudential will take over and pay the saver portion. This saver (along with the medical benefits) will continue until the child is 25 and be independent.

This is to realize the dreams of the parent to have an education fund NO MATTER what happens to them. This is the most important element about ILP - PROTECTION for savings. This method of investing is commonly known as dollar cost averaging. Of course you can also invest in stocks/bonds/properties or any other form of investment, but if something where to happen to the parent, THE INVESTMENT STOPS! The dreams to ensure the child have an education fund may be lost.

Another method of buying into the saver is a lump sum top up as you aim for the lowest and hope that it goes up later.

A very simple example is buying an apple at RM 1.00, to make a profit, you need to sell higher than RM 1.00. Irrespective of whether you invest in Prudential or not, if you do a lump sump top up, always see if when you're buying is it at the lowest possible.

However, with that said, putting money into the saver as a prudent investment, the investor is always advised to study the portfolio of the company, market trends before investing.

If you need to withdraw when your child has grown up, you're able to with ILP but you need to maintain at least RM2K cash value in the ILP. Constant monitoring of your cash value vs the inflation rate is always necessary vs where you want to send your children for education and/or to which field.

Hope with the above it will help you better to decide where to put your hard earn money to.

HTH

Roy Steven Ung, H/P: 016-451 5957
Prudential Assurance (M) Bhd
KWSP Penang

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Added on March 27, 2012, 10:56 amHi, If you're referring to Prudential, the medical covers up to RM75K A YEAR, or RM 750K LIFETIME. Don't forget that the medical inflation will go up, it is also to cater for future.

HTH,

Roy Steven Ung H/P: 016-451 5957
Prudential Assurance (M) Bhd
KWSP Penang

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Added on March 27, 2012, 10:56 amHi, If you're referring to Prudential, the medical covers up to RM75K A YEAR, or RM 750K LIFETIME. Don't forget that the medical inflation will go up, it is also to cater for future.

HTH,

Roy Steven Ung H/P: 016-451 5957
Prudential Assurance (M) Bhd
KWSP Penang

This post has been edited by roystevenung: Mar 27 2012, 10:56 AM

Case 1: If you have not claimed before, your agent will have a list of clients who is eligible for upgrade. The upgrade is able to cover up to age 80 or 100. The upgrading exercise is until end of June.

This upgrade is by invitation only and the good thing about being invited is that the superior terms in your old policy will be upheld!

For example long term medication take home drugs are not covered under the new policy, but your old policy does cover.

I'll pm you with details on how to get this done.

Case 2: PruSenior med is a standalone plan that offers your mum coverage of RM 225k until age 80. Declare the health condition and if it is accepted, then lucky you.

If not, well its better to know now by declaring rather than having the policy without proper declaration, paying the premium and 5 years later found that its a pre-existing condition and insurance no cover. The premium is not cheap for elderly people, so it is important to declare

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Added on May 9, 2012, 7:53 amIf you don't have enough $ to pay for insurance, pray for your health remains healthy and accident free. Because if those were to be adversely affected, not only one will not have enough $ to put food on the table, he/she might have to resort to borrowing from friends, family.

Depending on your age setting aside RM 5 a day is able to get you a decent medical cover, even though basic.

To answer your query on TB. If you don't have any medical cover, then sorry, nothing is claimable.

But if you already had TB, it is best to provide declaration (during inception) on the existing condition, ie, whether you're still on medication, which hospital you go to etc.

The point here is that irrespective of the medical condition, proper health declaration will ensure that the claims is not rejected due to pre-existing illness.

HTH

This post has been edited by roystevenung: May 9 2012, 07:53 AM

Have you calculated the ROI as of todate vs the projected cash valu when your dad got that policy? How much is the coverage and the term? Pls give details if you want second opinion.

Alternatively you can scan the plan with the projected cash values to my email for calculations.

Have you got a medical & life & critical illnes plan?

The projected cash values are not guaranteed, true, but it pays to know how far off are the projections vs the actual. If the projections are on par with the actual and your dad is okay with it, then by all means continue with the plan.

You can get in touch with the agent to look at the cash value, or look at the annual statement.

If the projected cash values are way off, then ... well you may have a more convincing case to put that money else where if you're only looking from the 'investment returns' portion.

Personally if you want to look into the investment portion for insurance, do a top up saver when the funds are low. At the moment with KLCI on its peak, its time for profit locking/taking... not investing.

This post has been edited by roystevenung: Jul 24 2012, 08:52 AM

We get the commission rebates back to our income, hence it's like buying at discounted rate. The claims are generally using the card except for the pre-hospitalization & post hospitalization (before admission & after discharge for the followup treatments).

Pre & Post is based on reimbursement basis, so it is necessary to keep all the receipts/doctor reports for the claim process. If we as agents are bed-ridden with serious conditions there are bound to be colleagues/leaders that can help us with the claim process.

There is no such thing such as 'claim for insurance first'. The event of hospitalization or outpatient treatment must occur before the claim can be honored.

Most of the time if in doubt whether it is possible to claim, do call the agent 1st. For example, anything related to pregnancy, tooth (whether it involves surgery or not - unless it is necessary to be performed and caused by an accident) is not claimable. A list of exclusions are normally attached to the product brochure.

There are many types of insurance, some only cover life & Critical illness and doesn't include any medical.

The policy document is needed in the event of major claims, otherwise the claim process will be delayed waiting for the replacement of the policy document.

Yes, do review the policy once every 5 years for medical inflation.

Does it comes with a medical card? Also try to increase on the accident, if your budget allows but priority is the medical card.

Or just buy because he keeps asking them for the business...

Taiko, sorry but I don't do will & estate planning.
Maybe you can talk to the people below this link http://www.mywill.com.my/will_writing.asp

and share with us for any tips on how to lari from tax :-)

I hope no IRB officer is reading this thread

This post has been edited by roystevenung: Aug 15 2012, 02:31 PM

Investment Link doesn't necessarily mean you'll get profit. The agent commission for 6 years are approximately 120~140% (depending on the product). That is why on the 7th year onwards only you're able to see the cash value increasing.

It is all mentioned in the brochure, the allocation rate. Also, don't be misled into thinking that the word "Investment link" is pure investment. When anything that has insurance in it, there is bound to be insurance charges (the insurance charge will increase by age).

People buy insurance for the PROTECTION value, not investment value unless you specifically monitor the funds and do top ups/switching/saver periodically.

The investment link policies returns does not declare dividend (hence the returns no need to declare tax, hint to WMK).

The cash values can be withdrawn anytime, but do note that if you withdraw, and when the insurance charges goes up at older age, the policy may be at risk of lapsing if the premium paid + cash values in the policy is not able to sustain the insurance charges.

Duly note, I'm NOT asking you to cancel the policy as you can never get the same amount of cover for that amount as insurance charges goes up by age group.

What about medical card? Do you own one? That is more important as we are not able to foresee when we are going to fall seriously sick.

The medical card or any form of insurance needs to be there before anything happens in order for the insurance company to pay for the claim.

The coverage of RM78K isn't really that much but I do suggest you still continue with it as one day when your responsibilities increases (get married with dependents) you can increase on the cover.

This is the beauty of the Investment Linked Policy, it is a flexible plan that can be amended at anytime (provided we are still insurable) and not having to take up another policy to incur admin/policy charges.

Insurance for life or Critical Illness is meant for income replacement should the dreaded occurs. Touchwood, how long do you think RM78K can last if we're down with Critical Illness (bedridden and not able to generate an income for life?) vs the current expenses/commitment that we are having?

By the way, when was the last time you sat down with an agent to do a policy review on the medical card? Older medical cards have a lifetime limit of RM 150K while the newer ones comes with a minimum of RM 500K, due to the medical inflation at private hospitals.

Do contact the agent that sold you that policy if you haven't done so or if you have doubts on the policy. Insurance is a very very long time commitment, and will need to pay till the end of the term, medical card up to your age of 70 or 80.

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Added on August 15, 2012, 4:22 pmIf have a heart attack, needs to do a heart bypass and it'll cost Rm 80K, the hospital bill needs to be paid in order for the doctors to write the reports in order to claim for the RM 380k.

In the middle of the night someone comes to with parang, slash here slash there, go to hospital. Wait, can't claim cos the above is not TPD.

Hypothetically speaking, okay? Take note, I didn't mention the heart attack happens to you, so TOUCH WOOD

Anyway, would like to want to wish you & all the LYN a Selamat Hari Raya (Maaf, Zahir, Batin).

This post has been edited by roystevenung: Aug 15 2012, 04:22 PM

Prudential Equity Fund NAV in Sep 2011 was RM 2.90480
Today: RM 3.602260

http://www2.prudential.com.my/fundpriceV2/daily.php

At least got extra duit raya

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Added on August 15, 2012, 7:55 pmAiyo taiko don't be angry that we earn the 6 year commission. For as long as we are in this business we will service the client one. If you live up to age 80, and we also panjang umur we will service you, okay?

I got a client last year Sep took a policy for baby, to date already 4 times claim already. We also need to go to see the client to get the receipts (for pre & post follow ups), handle the claim etc.

Not that easy to earn money in this business :-)

This post has been edited by roystevenung: Aug 15 2012, 07:55 PM

Yes, we're fighting for better retirement benefits. At the moment no retirement age but if you don't produce the minimum quota, its ground for termination.

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Added on August 16, 2012, 7:17 amAiya, you just do a basic life RM 10K without everything else to just open an investment link account. Then monitor and dump / switch / withdraw according to the market on the fund of your choice.

RM 10K life for 6 years is peanut's shell income for the agent.

This post has been edited by roystevenung: Aug 16 2012, 07:17 AM

You should call your agent to inquire whether the policy is able to sustain if not paid for one month. Only the agent or the customer service is able to check for you the policy status.