I will be abit real on a few things. In principle, overseas hospitalisation sounds good but unless you get the rarest of rarest disease, seeking medical treatment overseas is not a fun experience.

Being away from home, away from most family member, away from familiar food etc. The good thing malaysia medical facilities is really not bad for the price point. Look, our fellow indonesians friends do frequent malaysia for treatment.

The thing about ILP is like a all-in-one plan (i use nasi lemak as analogy for today). When you eat nasi lemak you want the basic, rice, cucumber, sambal, ikan bilis, maybe1/4 egg. For the ILP you can add on egg, chicken rendang, squid if you feel like it. But everything you add on there is price tagged to it.

Standalone is standalone. Some maybe got some add-on, but usually very limited.

Other explanation on the add-ons (the eggs, chicken rendang or the squid) where i would like to give another point of view but Ramjade criticised the premium waiver rider.

------LONG EXPLANATION-------
Premium Waiver Rider (disclaimer, i didnt buy this on my own policy, some strongly believe in it, i'm half half, leaning towards saving some money and not paying for it)

Let me explain how it works. In the event of CI or TPD, the insurance company will help you pay the premium on. so example your premium is RM3,000, then they help you pay RM3,000

So let's say you bought an ILP plan, RM3,000 is the premium, then touch wood, one day kena CI, then the company pay the RM3,000 premium on behalf of you.

what's the catch?
1) you get charged some charges when you add on this benefit. just like you tambah telur for your basic nasi lemak.
2) the premium waiver does not mean you dont need to pay a single cent. now this part where most agent can't explain

in many post before, there's some explanation by different poster that actually while the premium you pay for the ILP is level, you will expect it to increase when the company increase their rates (not because you got older, because the claims experience deteriorate). now go back to this RM3,000 example... so every month the insurance company will still charge you what they call insurance charge, regardless of whether the person is paying his premium or he kena CI / TPD where the company is paying on behalf.

when the insurance company increase the rates for medical plan, what they mean is they increase the insurance charge. so when your RM3,000 premium is not enough to cover these charges, you will need to increase your premium. SO, even if there's one person who kena CI or TPD and wants to continue with the medical plan, that person actually need to pay an increased premium. say example the final premium is RM3,600 per year instead of RM3,000 per year, what happens is that person need to pay RM600 on his own, the RM3,000 will still be paid by the company.

Then you will be like.... "WAH insurance company cheat me...told me dont need to pay, now i need to pay". before you go there... when you bought the insurance, what you buy is the company pay RM3,000 on your behalf, NOT RM3,600. so they pay you according to what they charge you also.

so is the premium waiver still important? some view it as yes... at least you dont have to pay that RM3,000.

BUT they only pay if i kena late stage CI or TPD, when i'm like "one leg into the coffin". is it valuable? Let me explain who this is for... the idea of a premium waiver is that if you are sick or TPD, you dont need to pay premium on your own as you may be unable to work or bear the financial burden. but if you are NOT that sick, that also means eventually you will be able to work again, earn a living and continue to pay premium.

so there's a reason why most company premium waiver covers late stage CI and not early stage CI. anyway, everything has a price, even if another company say, "OK, we cover for early stage CI", that just means consumer pay more

higher probability of happening means higher chance insurance company need to pay a claim means it's more expensive.

insurance company not a charity...

Jargon: Late Stage CI means more serious CI condition, this is the simpler coverage. Early Stage CI means not as serious but still serious, usually insurance companies now have the option to attach Early CI coverage but not for their premium waiver, just if you want a lumpsum pay out upon this early stage CI.

---EXPLANATION OVER-----

Are you 100% certain on this? I have purchased a policy at RM3,000 and now paying RM3,440 per annum. There is a Premium Waiver Extra rider. Are you 100% certain this is limited only to the RM3,000 initially? Wouldn't the PWE rider cost increase once I had begun paying higher premiums?

Or are you referring to a situation where the premiums are increased AFTER you kena TPD/CI and have been claiming from the PWE?

If you look at your policy wording, the premium waiver covers an exact figure (RMxxxx/year), it didn't say "cover your annual premium".

Are you 100% certain on this? I have purchased a policy at RM3,000 and now paying RM3,440 per annum. There is a Premium Waiver Extra rider. Are you 100% certain this is limited only to the RM3,000 initially? Wouldn't the PWE rider cost increase once I had begun paying higher premiums?

Or are you referring to a situation where the premiums are increased AFTER you kena TPD/CI and have been claiming from the PWE?

Actually, you might be wrong.

I just looked at my annual statement for ILP.

2018:

U102 IL Premium Waiver Extra Rider
Amount of Benefit
RM2,400

2023:

U102 IL Premium Waiver Extra Rider
Amount of Benefit
RM2,640

-----------

So that means the premium increase from RM200 to RM220 was reflected in the Premium Waiver Extra Rider's coverage.

What I believe is not covered is potential FUTURE increase in premiums due to rising cost of riders (as a result of repricing) or weaker than expected investment returns.

------------

However what confuses me is this:

The fee waiver is useless. It only cover the basic CI and TPD. If you have TPD, you are basically vegetable. Again thanks to my agent for pointing it out. Her client had stage 2 cancer or something like that, because of waiver only cover the basic 36 illness, the client didn't fulfilled the waiver condition and forced to continue payin for it. Yeah I was tempted by it too when I heard about it. Only one agent had taken the time to tell me about the waiver. The other agents were like oh if you have xyz disease, they will automatically waive you (not true, as mentioned you need to fulfilled the waiver definition and condition).

You can designed your own CI plan which is better than what is included in ILP. I know as I have looked into it. I recommend moneyowl from Singapore. They offer better plans for CI than what Malaysia side offer. Downside is you need to travel down and sign all the documents there and it's priced in SGD. I have not look into life or TPD so cannot share my knowledge on that. Moneyowl is not commission based and they are able to offer you multiple insurance from different providers. You also don't need to pay them for consultation. I consulted with them via Microsoft teams for 2h+ and was satisfied with the plan they came out for me. (50% Cheaper than what Malaysia have to offer for same protection with multipayment, their premium is fixed and you got option to grab life, TPD and CI). Dont take my word for it. Kindly compare with what Malaysia side have to offer and you will see it for yourself.

I favour standalone for the following reasons:
1. Pure insurance. Never ever mix investment with insurance.
2. ILP return sucks. Well majority. Take your time and look though all the investment. You will be surprised they cannot even beat EPF returns over say 10 years. Yes there are few rare cases but as mentioned again basically lousy returns. So basically you are paying extra for lousy returns when you can put the savings into EPF and then use part of it to pay for the insurance in the future and get more than what the ILP can give you. Does that sound like value for money for you? It doesn't sound like value for money to me.
If you are even braver, rather than dump into EPF, if you dump it into QQQ or CSPX, you will get more than EPF returns. (that's what I am doing I am getting min 10%p.a Vs what they can give me)
3. You are paying extra. All the ILP have ongoing fund fees of around 1.5-1.8%p.a (unit trust annual management fees). Over long time, the 1.5-1.8%p.a add up. That's why I advocate for ETF where the fees are only 0.05%-0.1%p.a
4. You are paying extra for life, tpd and CI when you only want the medical portion (if you are like me).
5. With ILP you are forced to topup somewhere down the road or agree to pay higher premium or else your insurance duration will decrease say from 80 years old to only 70 years old (just an example). They can ask you to topup as soon as say 6 months of purchase. How much and how frequent to topup depend on
1. Condition of the market.
2. Fund performance
3. How much money is left in the insurance pool

Yes standalone medical insurance also increase in price. But based off me asking several agents from different companies, all told me the same thing. Usually they follow the projected rates in the table/contract. Rarely they deviate from it unless something really bad happen. So you will know more or less how much you are paying.

Topup is guaranteed for ILP. down the road. It's just a question of when they will ask you to topup. There's no topup for standalone unless they increase the premium above what's projected.

Pros of ILP
1. Premium holiday -unless you are horrible pay master, this is useful to you. Or if you need to stop paying for some unknown reason, you can take a short break. Also if you forget to pay, your insurance won't lapse unlike standalone.
2. You can move between ranks of your medical insurance easily. If you need to downgrade down the road. Of course if you are already on the lowest rank of the plan, you cannot move down anymore.
contestchris is an ILP holder. Here is what he shared about ILP.



Hope this help.

I will be abit real on a few things. In principle, overseas hospitalisation sounds good but unless you get the rarest of rarest disease, seeking medical treatment overseas is not a fun experience.

Being away from home, away from most family member, away from familiar food etc. The good thing malaysia medical facilities is really not bad for the price point. Look, our fellow indonesians friends do frequent malaysia for treatment.

The thing about ILP is like a all-in-one plan (i use nasi lemak as analogy for today). When you eat nasi lemak you want the basic, rice, cucumber, sambal, ikan bilis, maybe1/4 egg. For the ILP you can add on egg, chicken rendang, squid if you feel like it. But everything you add on there is price tagged to it.

Standalone is standalone. Some maybe got some add-on, but usually very limited.

Other explanation on the add-ons (the eggs, chicken rendang or the squid) where i would like to give another point of view but Ramjade criticised the premium waiver rider.

------LONG EXPLANATION-------
Premium Waiver Rider (disclaimer, i didnt buy this on my own policy, some strongly believe in it, i'm half half, leaning towards saving some money and not paying for it)

Let me explain how it works. In the event of CI or TPD, the insurance company will help you pay the premium on. so example your premium is RM3,000, then they help you pay RM3,000

So let's say you bought an ILP plan, RM3,000 is the premium, then touch wood, one day kena CI, then the company pay the RM3,000 premium on behalf of you.

what's the catch?
1) you get charged some charges when you add on this benefit. just like you tambah telur for your basic nasi lemak.
2) the premium waiver does not mean you dont need to pay a single cent. now this part where most agent can't explain

in many post before, there's some explanation by different poster that actually while the premium you pay for the ILP is level, you will expect it to increase when the company increase their rates (not because you got older, because the claims experience deteriorate). now go back to this RM3,000 example... so every month the insurance company will still charge you what they call insurance charge, regardless of whether the person is paying his premium or he kena CI / TPD where the company is paying on behalf.

when the insurance company increase the rates for medical plan, what they mean is they increase the insurance charge. so when your RM3,000 premium is not enough to cover these charges, you will need to increase your premium. SO, even if there's one person who kena CI or TPD and wants to continue with the medical plan, that person actually need to pay an increased premium. say example the final premium is RM3,600 per year instead of RM3,000 per year, what happens is that person need to pay RM600 on his own, the RM3,000 will still be paid by the company.

Then you will be like.... "WAH insurance company cheat me...told me dont need to pay, now i need to pay". before you go there... when you bought the insurance, what you buy is the company pay RM3,000 on your behalf, NOT RM3,600. so they pay you according to what they charge you also.

so is the premium waiver still important? some view it as yes... at least you dont have to pay that RM3,000.

BUT they only pay if i kena late stage CI or TPD, when i'm like "one leg into the coffin". is it valuable? Let me explain who this is for... the idea of a premium waiver is that if you are sick or TPD, you dont need to pay premium on your own as you may be unable to work or bear the financial burden. but if you are NOT that sick, that also means eventually you will be able to work again, earn a living and continue to pay premium.

so there's a reason why most company premium waiver covers late stage CI and not early stage CI. anyway, everything has a price, even if another company say, "OK, we cover for early stage CI", that just means consumer pay more

higher probability of happening means higher chance insurance company need to pay a claim means it's more expensive.

insurance company not a charity...

Jargon: Late Stage CI means more serious CI condition, this is the simpler coverage. Early Stage CI means not as serious but still serious, usually insurance companies now have the option to attach Early CI coverage but not for their premium waiver, just if you want a lumpsum pay out upon this early stage CI.

---EXPLANATION OVER-----

Thank you both for your very useful inputs!

I'm currently looking at AIA Med Regular + Booster for higher annual limit of almost RM2 mil. I think my concern for now is Medical card first... however noted that there could be limitations as to whether I could upgrade/downgrade or add on plans.. where ILP is way more flexible in this area.

Ramjade Might PM you

Hi all, why does Great Eastern's direct CI standalone plan cost around RM135 per annum for RM50k coverage but the CI rider for Smart Protect only costs around RM50 per annum for RM50k coverage?

What am I missing?

Hi all, why does Great Eastern's direct CI standalone plan cost around RM135 per annum for RM50k coverage but the CI rider for Smart Protect only costs around RM50 per annum for RM50k coverage?

What am I missing?

Share the materials for us to refer in order to answer your question.

The smart protect is an ILP plan. Min to start this plan is Rm100/m. RM50/annum for 50k coverage? Are u referring the COI?

You are welcome to Pm. I am not an agent hence I am unable to sell you anything.

People here said aia med regular have been discontinued and replaced with medi flex. Not sure how true is that.

For me, I just take the rm200 plan. No need so expensive cause I don't want to give insurance company so much money and I feel RM1.375M of coverage is more than enough for me.

RM200 which plan? aia Medi Flex?

Yes COI, but to me it should be the same (or at least similar).

IL CIBR rates per RM1,000 coverage:


Great Critical Care Direct rates per RM1,000 coverage


---------------

As far as I can tell, both products have identical benefits.

Why does Great Critical Care Direct cost 4x as much? It's a pure-protection product with no cash value / investment component.

What am I missing?

You are welcome to Pm. I am not an agent hence I am unable to sell you anything.

People here said aia med regular have been discontinued and replaced with medi flex. Not sure how true is that.

For me, I just take the rm200 plan. No need so expensive cause I don't want to give insurance company so much money and I feel RM1.375M of coverage is more than enough for me.

It is gone.



Used to be at the A-Life Mediflex area.

RM200 which plan? aia Medi Flex?

Attached for your information:

Quote generated based on my information
Male
Non Smoker
NB 34
Office job

This is the minimum premium for RM50k Life/TPD/CI which is RM100/month. You may also refer to the COI for Basic (Life/TPD) and Unit Deducting Rider (IL CIBR) in the table below.



I checked the quote for Great Critical Care Direct, it would be RM11/month.

Great Critical Care Direct looks like a pretty good deal if you ask me.

As to why the COI for Great Critical Care Direct is much higher, it could be due to the monthly expenses for mortality, administration, and other costs incurred by the Insurance Company on Great Critical Care Direct differs/projected to differ from IL CIBR.

I'll open the stage to other learned thread contributors to contribute.

Best,
Jiansheng