I give you an unbias opinion.as someone who did research on both.
ILP
Good stuff
1. Premium holiday
-if you pay for few years already, you can take premium holiday means no need to pay for few months
-if you forget to pay on time it's ok cause they will minus your investment to pay for your medical bill
2. Ability to add on waiver
You can opt to add in waiver if in the event you got critical illness (you must meet the criteria of the critical illness as it usually exclude early cancer basically and if you get you are usually half dead, or your quality of life will be severely affected) then the insurance company will absorb the premium until the end of your term
3. You can downgrade your plan if you are tight on financial but if you are already on bare minimum, you can't downgrade anymore.
Bad stuff
1. Return cannot match FD/EPF. What this means is by taking standalone and investing the difference into FD/EPF for the same term, you will get more money than what ILP will give you (basically using your investment to pay for the Medical part and still have left overs Vs going via ILP). Not to mention you are 56 now so you can treat EPF like a savings account which give out 5%p.a.
2. If their investment is not performing (like majority of the time) you will be asked to top-up/increase premium. Failing to top-up/increase premium means your policy is cut short (unable to sustain until the age you want).
Whether you take standalone or ILP, medical insurance premium will increase with age. You cannot run from it. Embrace it With ILP, you cannot feel it (supposedly) cause they take your investment and pay for it. But if the investment cannot sustain, then as mentioned they ask you to put in more money.
With standalone, you see how much it actually cost.
Reason I went with standalone
1. Do not mix investment with insurance.
2. I am not going to pay for crappy investment return which cannot beat FD or EPF. Just pathetic IMO.
3. By going with standalone, I can make my own ILP by getting the best value of money for medical insurance, critical illness insurance Vs being tied down to one company.
4. No need top-up when ILP investment not performing.
5. I roughly know how much I will be paying for insurance as it's shown on the system.
6. I am good paymaster as I am able to pay my bills on time and in full eveeytime. I don't need any premium holidays.
Btw never trust agent/seller who tell you ILP are level premium. That's what ILP hope to achieve but in reality they ask you top-up every few years or ask you to agree to increase the premium. Failing to top-up or agree to increase the premium results in your insurance sustainability decreases. Don't belived me, just Google site:forum.lowyat.net top up insurance and you will see for yourself or site: reddit.com top up insurance Malaysia.
But up to you. Hope it's helpful.