Hush hush. You just "discovered" the secret feature of ILP. Answer is as long as the Medical Card portion can deduct the fees from somewhere, no change in your coverage.

So just make sure the card is feed every month.

The premium "revision", in case you didn't notice, is only a suggestion, regardless of what insurance agents say. So you can choose to follow/disregard, or you can decide to make a big lump sum contribution later in your life to so called top up the "buffer" in the investment portion. The latter is my plan, as currently my investment portion is already bigger than my life assured notional (I just use it as a gauge: ie the surrender value of my plan is greater than my life assured).
So I just continue paying the usual monthly payment via auto-debit to my CC.

Now for the premium revision, it is on a pool basis (the specific medical plan you are on) and not supposed to target any individual person of the pool. The pricing is based on the pool.

(this part is just the devil in me thinking. There are other ways to target you: like rejecting you when you get hospitalized by claiming all sorts of story. So there is no reason logically to target extra 100 rm premium from just you to improve profit. This part is all conjecture on my part and I brought it up just for casual discussion).

Like what others said, you should always have your own personal medical insurance, as it is 2020s and job security is basically a figment of one's imagination.

Now what you can do to liberate/cash out the 10K rm is to get a new medical card first from another provider (pick what features you want but I suggest keeping at least all the old features/limits the same or higher)... once that medical card is effective, you can terminate the 7-year old policy and invest the 10K rm yourself.

However, there is a small risk of your new card not covering your condition that is discovered between now till the effective date of the card (I don't remember the term of the period... something like waiting period etc).

If it was me, for the 10K rm, I don't think it is worth the hassle or risk. I won't do what I suggested above.

I am sure since they just had their annual medical checkup, and with their annual records, you should be able to hunt around for medical card coverage. At worst, just waste a bit of your time and energy interacting with insurance agents.

see if you can just get medical cards that guarantee renewal.... For their age and situation, no point getting ILP or life, as I am assuming they no longer have any dependents need taking cared of.

check whats the balance/value of the investment pot of your ILP.... from what I understand, as long as it is still positive and with sufficient amount, your policy is still in effect.

Try throwing like 1K rm (since your monthly payment is supposed to be 173rm). It could be timing issue/how their batch system run to check if there is enough funds or not.

But the worrying part is the phrase "lapsed". You better call the CS or agent to double confirm that your ILP is still "alive" and in effect.

It's not about needing the cash value.
Cash in is into the fund or place holder. Medical card fee component take out from such fund or place holder. Hence why sometimes you can skip payment because the fund still have cash value to cover any missed payment. It's transparent to their process.

Sometimes, trying to optimize 100% takes too much effort, and we outsiders don't know exactly the internal process. Even agents most probably won't know.

As far as I am aware, you don't have to.

But to enjoy any benefit, you need to read the TnC and see what's stated.
Like mine long ago said if I never claim anything, there is a bonus cash of 500rm every few years. What a joke the incentive. Haha.

This case is different... the policy lapsed because he allowed the fund to run out of money essentially.

The insurer can choose not to reinstate the policy until they are satisfied that your neighbor is healthy.

He is better off shop around for another insurance, if he is not certain this policy can be reinstated.

long ago, I was told by a product manager that the agent gets commission on pretty much everything the insurance made (officially allowed to be recognized as revenue) from the policy sold, as per a schedule table. He hinted that includes the trailer fees from the investment funds.

decide what you will from this info (only disclaimer is that this info was a while back, and I don't know if the situation/rules are the same nowadays).

Thanks for the extra color. To me, it is still a bit confusing as it could be due to the terminology used.

What we can understand is that ILP is a more lucrative to both the insurer and the agents, which is why ILP is sold more actively. Nothing wrong with this, but to keep on claiming medical card is inferior on its own is not right.
The product manager (someone I knew due to my work, and no, I am not from insurance industry) essentially said agents will get rewarded for the revenue generated by the investment funds as well. For better or worse, she mentioned that included trailer fees. I didn't ask further about formula or incentive schemes, as I know every biz activities will have its own profit margin and knowing full details serve no purpose to my work back then.

Now, don't get me wrong. I myself purchased a ILP and I understand the product bundle. But it doesn't mean that agents can simply talk or hide info about said products when asked. that is unethical. Choosing to remain quiet is a different story (I noticed some agents do that here, and that is completely fine as it is a free public forum). Threatening others who are sharing info is outright despicable.

A simple example is like a store selling a full gaming computer system vs selling individual parts. Savvier persons can assemble one themselves, while others choose to get a the full system. No right, no wrong.
(yeah, I also understand that sometimes, a client will choose not purchase the bundle when they find out how much margin the seller is making. Such client always exist, and as sales people, just need to educate the client better: No one does things for free.... Just see the 161% of annual premium as commission for the agent... some just cannot stomach this cost, but they don't realize that such is the market here. either buy or don't buy or find alternatives)

Eitherway, I am not here to break anyone's rice bowl... This is just a public forum, and lets just make it informative at least for all.

curious... your neighbor has another medical card?

I am wondering... basically at the age of 70... getting new coverage vs maintaining old coverage... both is going to be very expensive. If don't have the financial means, it is going to be very burdensome eitherway (ie buy new or maintain old coverage) until some may just give up getting medical insurance.

Hence I think the only real difference is that if one already has medical coverage hitting 70, one can continue to have the coverage if can afford.
If don't have and want new coverage, most probably will be rejected, unless BNM does something like forcing insurers to accept new coverage of certain limitations (similar to how company group insurance works).

edit: nevermind... if one notice the irony, one will notice. If not, doesn't matter also.

This post has been edited by Wedchar2912: Jan 15 2024, 06:15 PM

Ramjade gave honest opinions in his post above (post 4751), and so did your agent.

my own criticism is that the numbers is definitely not be fully accurate, but the overall idea and concept is explained truthfully.



This post has been edited by Wedchar2912: Jan 15 2024, 06:16 PM

confused... 90K premium on a life insurance... I assume the 90K is per annum premium rite? whats the notional of the life insurance for someone so old? term life?

your 1.5K for life insurance... is it term life (at what age will it expire?) or whole life?

if whole life, then no harm to continue cos death is a certainty.

then only consideration is to work out the IRR of the cashflow and see if it is better than say EPF's 5.5% pa type.

If it is or even close, it is well worth the while to continue paying the 1500rm. Cos you know one way or the other, you will get ur worth back....

fully concur with you on all points... that's why i mentioned need to calculate the IRR of the cashflow to have a baseline on whether the payment is decent...
say if the IRR comes up to be 4% pa, then i would say well worth it to keep the policy, as the protection part (ie payment in event of early death) is valuable to him in securing his family's future expenses.

It used to be quite worth it when the yield curve is super steep... nowadays is harder.

if the provider never increase your insurance premium at all until age 70, this seems like a fantastic deal...

i just take the 13.5K rm outflow every year and compound it at 5% pa return, by age 63, the future value of your outflow is yet 1 million ringgit.

ie from 33 years old to 63 years old, you have ur medical coverage, CI coverage and life insurance 1m coverage, while were only paying installment for 1 million life insurance.

not bad. (caveat: can the provider say in 3 years claim medical cost went up and jack up your premium???)