Life insurance

[bluenose]

Does anyone know the 'norm' here for life cover...do you cover the full value of the mortgage as I have had a couple of quotes and they are extortionate....
UK life cover is buttons....here it seems rediculous?
Any tips/advice much appreciated

[ecureilx]

Does anyone know the 'norm' here for life cover...do you cover the full value of the mortgage as I have had a couple of quotes and they are extortionate....
UK life cover is buttons....here it seems rediculous?
Any tips/advice much appreciated

my 2 cents : Most life insurance agents work on 'how much can you pay' concept - atleast most of them: the higher you pay, the higher their commission or so I understand ..

Scout around, and try to avoid direct visits, as, the moment they know you are an expat (if you are an expat) the idea is that you can afford more. .

Generally, a walk to NTUC direct does wonders .. from my experience ..

Maybe somebody can correct me ...

[Girl_Next_Door]

Bluenose> What kind of insurance did you ask from the insurance agent? If your sole purpose is to cover a mortgage, you should ask for MRTA (Mortgage Reducing Term Assurance). You should first check with the bank that you are taking the mortgage with because they usually have some form of tied-up with an insurance company. Their rates will be slightly cheaper because the bank usually imposed a certain clause that requires the insurance company to pay directly to the bank (instead of the named beneficiary). Note that this coverage is the most basic one and covers purely on death & TPD (Total Permanent Disability). Also note that the sum assured also reduces, as you pay down the loan. This is another reason why the premium is lower than term insurance.

If you have asked standard Term policy, sometimes the agent will throw in additional stuff to make the policy more "comprehensive". Of course, additional stuff cost more money.

Last but not least, the most important thing is, the insurance premium ultimately depends on the following items:
- Your age
- Insured amount
- Health condition.

If you have heart problem, at your 50s and taking up an insurance of $2mio, don't expect to pay $100/month.

Ecureilx> There are 3 key distribution channels, namely
1) Insurance agents representing the company only
2) Insurance agents representing multiple companies
3) Customer services who serve walk-in clients.

The truth is, there is no change in the premium you have to pay, regardless what route you take. All the commission, marketing efforts, etc are already worked into the premium (if you see the Benefit Illustration, look for the "Distribution Cost" section).

In theory, distribution channel 2 is the most ideal route because you can compare between a few companies. In reality, most insurance agents are confused by numerous products that they are allowed to sell, hence, they often do not really know which product suits the customer the most.

What I suggest is to decide what you really want. Google is your friend. You can find out a lot about a policy online. Tell the agent from distribution channel 2, what exactly you want, and get the agent to search through his/her database and pull out 3 proposal with the lowest premium for comparison.

P.s. I am not an agent but I used to work in Compliance hence, I got an insight of how it really works. Hope these information are useful!

[Girl_Next_Door]

To add on a bit, you can buy insurance online as well. But it is not considered a key distribution channel because it represent a very small percentage of business to all insurance companies.

[bluenose]

Thanks for that....after getting quoted 1000+ dollars a month...I had no option but to check elsewhere even the UK where I have a house also....I am 47 and non smoking healthy male....1000+ monthly was due to the white face bit I think....
thanks

[Girl_Next_Door]

You didn't state how much is the sum assured but I can tell you, race is not taken into consideration in the permutation of the premium. However, every insurance company usually have a few similar policy, covering slightly different items, so your agent may pick the most expensive policy in hope to earn more commission. That is the "white face" part if there is any.

Its also unclear if you ask for a term, or MRTA. Shop around a bit, and make some comparison. If you are checking from UK, I suspect you are buying a term policy (instead of a MRTA). At 47 years old, term policy is not going to be cheap because most term expires at age 60 or 65 in Singapore.

Without more information, I can't tell you if you are over-charged or its actually reasonable.

[bluenose]

I got a similar quote from UK and it is 200 dollars a month....I think I am getting nearer the real deal now

[ecureilx]

Thanks.
Here is a site for your question.Please visit.

Sell NZ insurance to avail in Singapore ????

[poodlek]

Please forgive my complete ignorance on this subject I am not familiar with much of the lingo or concepts in investing and insurance.

I was approached at the parenthood expo yesterday by an agent from NTUC and we talked for a while about how to invest the 75% excess of my husband's salary that we are not spending here. He suggested a variety of products, chiefly the SAIL retirement income/life insurance and RevoSave.
http://www.income.com.sg/insurance/SAIL/index.asp
http://www.income.com.sg/insurance/revosave/index.asp

Our situation is my husband is the chief earner with higher earning potential, and he works mainly on 1-3 year contracts, often with several months between, in short our income fluctuates greatly. He is American and I am Canadian, and we will likely not be staying in nor returning to Singapore after his contract ends in year's time.

My husband was not with me at the time I spoke to the agent, but when I mentioned what we discussed later he brought up two concerns:
1. he'd heard of the life insurance as retirement plan deal before and had found out there were certain scams associated with it.
2. he's concerned about the wisdom of a long term investment in a foreign currency.

From the surface, NTUC seems reputable and scam-free, and Singapore seems like an extremely stable economy, but I don't really know about these things (nor does my husband, but he seems to know a tiny bit more than I do).

What questions should I be asking the agent?
Does what he suggested seem like a reasonable offer for our situation, or is he looking to pump up his commission on our high expat salary?
What sort of scams should I look out for?
What should we be concerned with (tax issues, foreign exchange, etc) in investing long term in Singapore when we will be living out our lives most likely in North America?

Any advice, wisdom or resources you can offer will be greatly appreciated

[ouwl]

Depending on whether do the both of you intend to retire in Singapore, if no, then it's not really relevent to buy the Retirement plan in Singapore. It should be done at the country where you thing you will more likely be retiring or your home country.

The reason being you are subjected to Currency Risk as the amount you want may be lesser due to Currency fluctuation for the number of years ahead.

More importantly, you should be looking at Health Insurance, Term Insurance or Personal Accident as a priority first before looking at other area.

If you are looking at Retirement plan, i would suggest to go for USD plan as USD is at one of the lowest point against SGD at the moment. This is so that the plan when mature or start withdrawal, will be in USD. This will reduce your Currency Risk in time to come since you will be using USD when you retired.

My view only.

[DJP]

Hi Poodlek,

I work as a financial adviser and its always a tricky situation for US nationals like your husband. You need to be really careful with investing outside of the USA due to the worldwide tax implications, and as such its generally wise to steer clear of insurance wrapped investments.

If you're only here for a year i'd suggest just saving cash in the bank until you move to somewhere more settled - and if you do set anything up that involves investment funds my best advice would be to seek some tax advice from a US tax adviser first as its important you get it right first time.

[fxman]

You should get the underwriter in UK to know you are travelling to Singapore. And whether it covers you here. If you are not staying in Singapore for long, there is no reason why you need to purchase one here.