This post has been edited by MUM: Oct 1 2025, 01:16 PM

Unless you know something truly catastrophic is coming, that 1 million per year limit is already more than enough to cover almost anything. Brain surgery... up to 200–300K. Bypass? ~150K. Even a liver transplant I read about recently was around 300K.

And realistically how many of these major surgeries can the human body go through before you’d rather just ....... let go?

So honestly, no point over insuring yourself. Premiums are shooting up like crazy. Better to stay adequately covered than to burn cash chasing some “infinite” protection you’ll likely never need.

You want to update to new plan you need to undergo new waiting period and and any old illness will not be covered in the new policy..

Only way without waiting period is for the insurance to offer upgrade. Quite rare but few of their customer got it.

My understanding of ILP is:
1. Pay more earlier and the investment returns hopefully will cover the increasing premiums at later ages
-but counterpoint is the 5% front loaded cost (not sure if standard across industry) will eat into the returns
2. Since there is cash value, there is some protection against policy lapse.
-this is actually the most attractive feature in my opinion
3. There's also the fancy benefits like AIA Health Wallet
-but I think it's just nice added benefits, not big consideration in grand scheme of things

What I wanted to confirm is, does ILP have special treatment in regards to policy upgrades? I heard that term = no upgrades possible, ILP can get offers from company to upgrade.

What other benefits are there that I missed with ILP to justify point no.1?

That's a good point...

Is it true that only ILP are offered upgrades? Assuming no claims of course.

I am not an agent. I got nothing to sell you. What I am writing here is going to get lots of backlash among the agents here.
1. Hope is not a plan but a disaster waiting to happen. Get an agent to quote you. Please use and see the table provided in the pdf. Use the 2%p.a returns projected as mandate by BNM and see if it is sustainable until the age you want. If yes congrats, you have the cost that you want. Majority of the unit trust sold in Malaysia are rubbish and cannot perform. What this means is either negative or 1-2%p.a. Yes there are exceptions. You don't need to take my word for it See for yourself here
https://www.fsmone.com.my/funds/tools/chart-centre
Select all the AIA funds available. Yes there maybe some AIA funds that are not available on FSM website but only on AIA platform but it will give you the feel of how majority of the funds are performing.
I am not sure if there is 5% service charge front loading fees for ILP. You should be more concerned about the
(I) 1.5% p.a expense ratio charged whether the fund makes money or not. Fees matter long term. That is why I advocate buy standalone and invest yourself. The difference in unit trust fees Vs ETF is astronomical. 1.5% Vs 0.03%. That's a 4200% difference. You can see youself here. You can put in any value for the 3rd fees.
https://www.schwabmoneywise.com/investment-fees-calculator
(ii) If the fund is not making money or losses it affects the sustainability of the ILP aka you need to pay more.if they are not making money
(iii) unnecessary change. If you are not buying life insurance, you are required to still purchase the minimum amount of life insurance around RM5k worth of coverage means you are getting change for stuff you don't want.

(ii). Cash value is only if you are a poor payer aka you forget to pay your bills. Is it so hard to put a remainder into your phone calender or Gmail calender as reminder to pay your insurance? Payment is only once a year. If your agent is truthful and honest with you he or she will tell you that an ILP with medical insurance the cash value at best will be zero at the end of the insurance or most common scenario negative amount. Ask them that. What is the expected cash value at around 80 years old when your insurance ends? See if they try to avoid answering the question. Why so bad? Come back to the first point above. Many unit trust are not performing. You are getting negative, 1-2%p a hence the insurance cost will rise faster then whatever returns you can get

(iii) All fully paid for by you. I didn't sub for AIA wallet as I am not going to pay extra RM10//month for them to make me healthy. No free lunch when you buy insurance. Something you need to remember. It's marketing by AIA.

I am not sure if upgrade are only for ILP but seems like it. I wouldn't count myself into the upgrade program. Better for me to assume I am not entitled Vs hope on it. My plan is change plan every 10 years provided I am still healthy. One thing I have learn is don't depend on the govt or company. Always depend on yourself and your own financial capability. No one cares about your money more than ourselves. Never ask a barber if you need a haircut.

This post has been edited by Ramjade: Oct 1 2025, 07:28 PM

This post has been edited by MUM: Oct 1 2025, 08:06 PM

Thanks a lot kind strangers, conversations like this restores my faith in humanity.

I think the above points have confirmed my beliefs. As long as I have self discipline with investing and payment, I'm fine with some good ol' term insurance. There's no point in "hoping" to get upgrades, that's not a sufficient selling point.

I already had an ILP for some years so I actually already paid the 'tuition fees', if you will. Gonna let that live until my waiting period for new term insurance is done. Live and learn I guess!

This post has been edited by Altrost: Oct 1 2025, 10:54 PM

I just terminated my ilp because I need the cash, now I am wondering will I have to pay tax for the amount withdrawn. the funds are from Great Eastern lion fund.

You don't even need to know how to invest. The simple act of dumping into EPF will outperform most funds. Yes there will be exception but good enough for the general public.

This post has been edited by Ramjade: Oct 2 2025, 08:15 AM

Not a sure confirm or valid answers, ...
Just my uneducated wild guess while waiting for real valid and confirmed response from real sifus.

My guess is,
You don't need to pay any taxes after having received your surrender value from insurance company.

The value that you received will be after deducting any insurance charges/tabarru’, policy/takaful certificate fees and surrender charges, etc etc, where applicable.

Just like no need to pay any taxes on the amount of money one get from selling/redeeming his holding of unit trust funds sold by the local banks


This post has been edited by MUM: Oct 2 2025, 08:28 AM

Definitely no need to pay tax.

Yes, discipline is key.

Remember to also review regularly, just to touch base with your coverages and keep them relevant.

Hi guys I have an insurance plan my parents bought it for me many years ago, it's Great ProtectLink (Investment-Linked Life Insurance) from Great Eastern, the details as follow:



Investment Value: RM3x,xxx

IL-Health Protector (Medical Card)

Annual Limit: RM150,000

Lifetime Limit: RM600,000


One friend of mine work for manulife told me this is outdated policy and with similar monthly payment around RM200~300 i can get insurance with annual medical limit up to RM1mil and lifetime unlimited, is there any caveat? From my research most insurance available today also offer similar higher limit.

If that's the case I wonder why insurance company won't renew the policy coverage limit instead waiting us to inquire? And does that mean i am better of subscribe to a new insurance and cancel this old plan? Or maybe i should change to a newer policy with Great Eastern instead?

Thanks for all the help in advance!

This post has been edited by Cyyap95: Oct 5 2025, 05:22 PM

make sure your parents get approved for any new policies first before terminating the old coverage.
to be more conservative, wait a year after the new policy kicks in b4 terminating.

(this is independent of the medical premium costs)

No an expert in insurance, ...just kaypoh talk while waiting for responses from real sifus.

This post has been edited by MUM: Oct 5 2025, 05:54 PM

With every new application, we need to first qualify with our health.
So the point is to have you apply, then the underwriters get to review your health declaration before they proceed further.

This is the same across the industry.

new medical plans usually come with higher annual and lifetime limit. no brainer to upgrade if you are qualified.

the reason why people are sticking to their old medical plan, is because they can no longer upgrade due to preexisting conditions.

that is why older plans usually have bad claim ratio and hardest hit during repricing. the healthier ones have already moved on to newer plans and the one left paying premium are the non-healthy one. its a vicious cycle.

Something to share on medical insurance that I hope can help those who are looking to upgrade and/or switch their medical / critical illness insurance.

It used to be a rather simple guideline when comparing new vs old policies:
Older policy contract booklets used to come thinner, fewer pages, and larger fonts.
But as time passes, the industry also progressed alongside medical advancements and new discoveries, new techniques, etc.
So now we find newer policy booklets having a few more pages with slightly smaller fonts, hence the stigma of having to pay attention to the "fine prints".
Of course, we generally find the descriptions on older contracts to be more loosely defined, whereas the newer policies are more discreet, for obvious reasons. This way, older contracts tend to have their intrinsic value in this regard.

On the flip side, with the new developments, new techniques and equipment are made available and here is where we as consumers need to weigh our options:
Do I want to retain the old wording; or
Do I want to have a more relevant coverage that comes with new t&c?

This becomes an actual issue because the current situation of medical costs and fees have reached such a level where the limits in older contracts that used to be astronomical in the 80s and 90s have become commonplace today.

Please note that I am merely focusing on the coverage and the relevant descriptions only.

Hi all, continuing on the ILP discussion previously.. There's one more benefit I missed which is the option to have the "waiver" rider so the person insured can waive paying the premium after CI/Disability.

I also had a thought, wondering if it makes sense:
Since ILP won't lapse as long as there is enough cash value, isn't it possible to not follow the suggested premium?

Example:
Premium supposed to be 4K but actually Cost of Insurance is 1K
Mr X pays RM1.5K only (some extra for safety and cover fluctuations) and self invest the other 2.5K
This way Mr X can have ILP forementioned benefits but still invest (some of) his money himself.

Any thoughts?

This post has been edited by Altrost: Oct 8 2025, 11:05 AM

You can choose how much premium you can stomach for ILP. But if you want it to be sustainable, minimum RM4k/year. That way the amount of year covered maybe until 60 instead of 80years old.

The waiver is just critical illness coverage, you need 2 conditions to fulfilled it.
1. Survived the illness
2. Meet the definition. Eg if you got heart attack but Ionly 50% of your blood vessel is block, you will not be eligible for the waiver.

This post has been edited by Ramjade: Oct 8 2025, 11:45 AM