some points that i can think of, maybe others can come up with more points, as i'm not a planner.
1. Understand the benefits provided by your company (term life, pa, medical if any).
2. Budget. You can buy the perfect insurance but, no point getting it if you can’t afford it over the long term. Insurance… you practically pay for it for the rest of your life.
3. Other factors should be if you have any dependents, financial obligation (loan), etc. but since you are fresh graduate should be no problem in that department IF your parents are not depending on your allowance. So, you don’t need to rush into getting life insurance yet. No rush, doesn’t mean not do anything about it la.
4. Is there additional need to top up on the medical insurance provided by your company?


I feel this is really ridiculous. If one would really want some guaranteed cash value feature, then go for traditional life insurance. Just agents don’t want to propose these kind of plans for their customers. Non-participating and non-endowment plans are good enough to provide SOME cash value.

Based on my understanding on basic investment, to have investments with minimum GUARANTEED return, this will indirectly increase the cost of managing such assets. Insurance companies, may find it difficult to provide such investment in-house, so will need to engage the services of investment banks.

Then, on top of that, by providing some form of minimum guarantee, it should result in a lower potential upside gain. Sigh, even the so called minimum GUARANTEED sum will eventually still be subject to some form of terms and conditions.

Instead of going to the trouble and incur more cost and definitely will be borne by consumers, just choose balanced or bond funds instead equity funds and make sure the fixed income manager is one hell of a good manager.

You are merely pointing out all the plus points of aia medical.

1. having co-insurance is NOT a bad thing. it usuall results in lower premium.
2. to be honest, you are seriously not gonna hit any lifetime limit of those companies that do offer them. take for example, the common multiple now is 10 times annual limit. seriously, by the time you start hitting 4-5 annual limits, i think one is the verge of death bed.

3. premium payable after age 80 is also very jialat. cover up to 100 or not, is merely a formality... i seriously see no point paying 10k, 20k premium. i like to think that if i live up to age80, chances are i probably either don't need the hospital or i need it too much that i rather not stay in hospital for too long. burdens the family.

life insurance sum assured should not blindly follow STANDARD. just because someone created the statistic behind 'AVERAGE' we start to think EVERYBODY needs an average life insurance coverage. quick check on necessity of life insurance... are you a breadwinner? do you have car loan, house loan? do you have someone who you want to give your house/car to in the event of your untimely demise?

another reason for LOW sum assured must be those agents la, sell endowment plan... sum assured low, premium. seriously, no rationale here, just want to complain about endowment plan.

if i seriously believe i'm alone in this world, i would only bneed disability insurance and medical insurance. because i don't need any death benefit.

another point to note, you pointed out MH17. if i really believe i would die due to an airplane crash, i think i don't need that extra money from my life insurance. cause the airline gonna pay 6-figure compensation anyway.

what about do a quick check

asset + insurance payout

vs

debt obligation + money for your spouse/children (if any) upon the untimely death

i don't know if this is right... but if it were me, i just want my family to be not burden by debt, have a roof over their head, and have sufficient money to live a considerable comfortable though not wealthy life or have the passive income to do so. etc...

those who are in-the-know, they know, they can make an informed decision, they get the pros and cons. Nothing one can do if market condition ain’t good and the funds ain’t doing well. So, can’t blame anyone, but at least one is aware of it.

Now the way you highlighted the benefits of ILP, you have not made it clear the effects of an adverse situation (low fund return, increase of insurance charge due to bad claims experience) on one’s policy. Now, in the sales illustration, there’s this line “Your insurance charge will increase as you get older, it is possible that the accumulated fund value is not enough to pay for your insurance charges…” This line is probably not being well-communicated to the customers.

Sure I acknowledge that some of the funds managed by insurance company are good (some could be rated 5, or at least 4, across the 3 lipper’s criteria). But... the future is unknown. That's the reason why i buy insurance.

except i kiasu, i buy everything guarantee guarantee.

if you look back few pages, you can refer to some explanations on why this guy chose AXA general.

Link

if you are really looking for medical card alone, you can look into general insurance companies. The big names like Allianz, AXA-affin, Zurich will have 2 versions for life and general insurance business. the limits under general insurance tend to be lower. But AXA, TM, Lonpac offering no lifetime limits.

AIA also have standalone medical.

edit: To give you more details, i think AXA is not bad because they have high annual and lifetime limit, plus they cover up to 80, plus, given their coverage, the premium is pretty OK.

AIA is kinda expensive, but cover up to 100, also no lifetime limit.

This post has been edited by adele123: Sep 11 2014, 12:51 PM

With the information you have provided, I have no idea which Zurich medical card you are referring to. Can you please provide the product name as well?

Also, if you have the brochure, usually it’s very obvious in the table whether there is/isn’t lifetime limit and co-insurance. both the example below doesn't have co-insurance (based on the information from the website) and one has lifetime limit, one doesn't. it's really easy to notice the lifetime limit in the table. if it's new proposal, please ensure the agent gives you such information.

medicalife 210
or is it
flex medical

As for your second question, I think you might be confused.
1) MRTA – this insurance provides death/TPD benefit. It is essentially life insurance but the amount payable in the event of death/TPD is equivalent to your house loan outstanding balance amount. Nothing to do with your house, physically speaking.
2) Fire/houseowner/burglary insurance – depending on which type of insurance you get, your house will be covered for fire, theft or lightning strike on the house and/or content. Not too familiar with this area but that is the general idea. If in doubt, ask. If in doubt of the agent, then ask somebody else.

Answering before ExpZero

TPD means total and permanent disability. So, what layman calls as disability. However it does have to fulfill condition as set out in the policy contract. It is defined in the policy contract.

The name... Is probably varies among company. Basically just provide regular income, be it annual or monthly, upon confirmation of TPD.

Actually most companies will have similar product, but usually as a rider (means must ride on a life insurance), cant standalone.

Btw: i dont have insurance agent to recommend, sorry about that. But many lurking around in this forum. My policy is with hone leong assurance.

1. No idea. Though i checked prubsn medic essential. Seems to fulfill your requirement. Just the way you look at it is not how usually insurance company describe it. But i think there should be others out there.

2. Not true. Yes... MEDICAL CARDS give cash allowance when admitted to gov hospital only. Since conventional medical card already covered for other expenses related to private hospital.

The USUAL is actually purchase a SEPARATE rider that provides additional cash allowance upon admission to private AND gov hospital. So, no, prubsn is not the only one doing it. It's just NOT included in the conventional medical card benefit.

3. Unheard of.

4. I believe normal medical card is sufficient. That's me, coming from someone who doesn't have kids. You might want to look at those offering coverages for juvenile critical illnesses but those are like super specific illnesses, like kawasaki, severe asthma (note, it's severe), etc. One would need to fulfill conditions set out by insurance company before one can claim.

Nah... Those will not be covered under insurance unless hospitalised. Most likely possible with good employee's benefit.

I think it's just AIA 'beautifying' the name.

Makes it sound more professional and they probably get their agents to do house loan and PRS as well, both are available through AIA.

I would like to point out aia is not the only one with medical card without co-insurance.

1) Check with your agent if you can increase your CI without changing your premium payable. 40k/80k/80k seems a bit low.
2) Investment returns is NOT guaranteed to be between 3-8% p.a. it is only illustrated at 3% and 8%.

Quotation 1:

a) 36 Critical Illness (some call it early pay, some call it in a more technical term, accelerated CI).
Comment: GE has early stage CI cover as well. maybe just the agent didn't put it in or not applicable to this plan, etc... will let the GE agent here elaborate

b) medical... it is unlimited lifetime limit la... if choi choi someone kena one hospital bill 800k each year, for 2 years, that 1.6mil still can be claimed. cause anything exceeding basic claim from the 'rider'

but if choi choi someone kena hospital bill 200k each year for 11 years, then yes, the basic medical card would have been exhausted after 10 years. then out of that 2.2mil, at the 11th year hospital bill of 200k, first 90k customer will bear, 110k company will bear.

ExpZero correct me if i'm wrong. i like to ascertain my understanding on this product which i find very interesting.

c) the premium waiver should not be on the child. no insurance sense at all. i think the premium waiver rightfully should still be on the father

Quotation 2:

a) Accident Medical Reimbursement of 2k is kinda low-ish. and redundant cause most likely medical cards will have emergency outpatient benefit as well. well, mine does

b) Accident death, disability, comment 1) & 2) below.

c) so i heard from ppl in the industry, allianz has the cheapest medical product. note, i'm referring to medical only, other products, i have no idea, maybe cheaper, same, expensive, really don't know.

d) also... 3k a year for a child's insurance seems like a lot of money. don't let agent scare you of kiasu about child's policy... doesn't need to cost that much

General comment...

1) you don't need 100k life insurance on a child's life... zero is ideal. maybe as low as possible. money only needed to cover funeral expense. remember, parents do not depend on child for income... a child has insurable interest in parent's life, but not vice versa.
2) worry about disability risk - there are riders that pays annual/monthly income amount upon disability (of the child)
3) my insurance gives only 600k lifetime limit. i'm not sure if it's enough... but the joke is... by the time you claim 2-3 annual limit (say annual limit around 100k) one might be on the verge of death... how much you can make use of anyway?

This post has been edited by adele123: Oct 8 2014, 10:04 PM

please read this LHDN public ruling

I have gave you a link, which is directly from LHDN website. You might want to read Example 1, 2 and Point #7.

As for everything else, my answer is ‘I don’t know’.

I don’t understand your question. Have you read example 2? I think that's what you are asking.

Anything related to your company, I really don’t know aside from the link. I don’t know tax. You need an accountant with a sensible insurance knowledge or insurance person with sensible tax knowledge.

Just reminder: Pre-GST, you need to pay 6% service tax if under corporate.

Post-GST, I have no idea.

There arent any medical insurance designed especially for juvenile. Pretty much the same thing sold to adults and kids

Though most if not all insurance company offer juvenile critical illness. Which i personally think is not very useful due to the few number of diseases covered and due to the specifics of severity of disease to make the claim.

For starter look for medical insuramce. That's necessary.

As for life + medical + pa, etc... All insurance companies have them. Is really hard to suggest a 'good' and 'best'. Best would be get a good agent and explains the pros and cons and not hiding fine prints, t&c.

i think it's better you just post your question that you have on this insurance plan.

there's something known as persistency bonus which is a additional 10% commission. my understanding is that, persistency bonus is not a sure thing, obtainable once target is reached. Maybe full time agents can shed a light on this, as i am not.

This post has been edited by adele123: Oct 26 2014, 09:53 PM

Just look around for good medical plans. Really they sell the same medical insurance to adults and kids. The question is usually whether one would get just the medical insurance or with the life insurance portion, which btw, that’s how most agents are selling it to you.

Few points to take note while buying medical insurance.
1) Annual limit and lifetime limit. I think annual limit is more important.
2) Outpatient dialysis and cancer (Personal opinion: I feel this is important because of the long term nature and/or the high cost)
3) Room & board. If you are very particular about having a single room, do make sure room & board is enough to cover roughly the cost of single room rate.
4) Panel hospital. Location and preferred hospital.
5) Cashless (with medical card) or reimbursement basis (no medical card). I notice some insurance companies have the latter option.

Not sure what else to note.

Actually it's quite common, even in other parts of the world. Though according to my reading (based on input by experts), it is less common now than it was...

Medical card cover all diseases except otherwise stated upfront that it will be excluded and any pre-existing diseases, etc. So, it does cover. But keep in mind medical card covers if you are hospitalised. Out-patient procedure are only covered for certain events such as accident (emergency only?), cancer and dialysis.

Now, for some (not all, some just reimburse as charged) medical cards out-patient dialysis and cancer has its own separate limit. If cancer/dialysis lifetime limit is 100k, then you used up that 100k, then it’s no more claims for cancer/dialysis, even though you could be having lifetime limit 1mil or unlimited on your medical card.

If you are more worried about cancer/dialysis (due to family history), try going for medical card that says as charged for outpatient dialysis/cancer treatment.

PS: If there’s family history, there’s a chance one will be excluded or loaded… that doesn’t work in your favour too…

PPS, something to ponder about: Now note that it refers to outpatient cancer treatment. Now if I were to do it in-patient treatment?