Personal Insurance - opinions wanted

[Maccachic]

Are there any non biased life insurance advice sites?

I have had a broker come round and has come back with insurances worth $200 per month for myself and partner who are early 30s with what looks like large jumps in premium up to year 10 - from then its anyones guess.

They include:

Life Cover
Trauma Cover
Income / Mortgage repayment cover
Health (which is in addition to the $200)
Permanent Disability cover
Family protection

Prob others from memory.

Partner is self imployed which makes it a bit harder.

What have you insured for?

Opinions on what you think you actually need?

[drelly]

Hi Mac,

I'm an ex-life insurance broker, and I have all of the above. Premiums will rise steadily until about your 50's and then the increases get quite nasty. However, rates aren't guaranteed unless you purchase a level premium policy - usually only available for life/total disability cover. Life cover rates have actually reduced over the years but health, trauma and income rates have increased considerably as population ages and unexpectedly high claims for stress-related disability (depression mainly) have impacted on profits. For income/disability, you'll probably find that mental health claims have more limits than say, cancer.

You don't "need" any of them... until you need them. There are no hard and fast rules. It is a personal choice based upon your own risk-tolerance and personal financial situation. I cover almost all my debt for life and total disability, my income to age 65 , hospital and specialists medical cover and a relatively small amount of trauma (it's expensive). I'd recommend asking for an option that allows you to increase your life cover without medical questions in certain circumstances... eg: birth of a child, a new mortgage etc. It's cheap and can save you a fortune if your health changes.

[Maccachic]

What insurers would you recomend. I have quotes from Sovereign however another broker said another company (which I forget now) offers fixed premiums - altho the base premium can be increased, reading between the lines its not actually a fixed premium, just marketing hype?

[drelly]

He might be referring to AIA who have fixed premium life cover. Roughly, what they do is work out the average permium for the term of the policy and charge you that. Much more expensive up front but probably worth it overall - great commission for the advisor! I think there is a policy fee that is indexed with inflation but the rest is fixed.

I dealt mainly with Sovereign who seemed to be reasonable at claim time. If a claim is rejected, it is almost always because the client ommitted or distorted information at application time. If you're not absolutely certain about a medical question, put "not sure" to make them get your records or ask for a medical. Like the woman who was 20kg lighter on her application than she was when the doctor weighed her 2 weeks earlier... or the bloke who tried to claim disability for an existing back problem he didn't disclose... or the smoker that didn't smoke and got cancer... that last one is very common. I'm out of touch with policies these days but they are always changing, so what is good now is not necessarily good in 5 years.

Income protection
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Be aware that with income protection, although it covers injury, it is mainly for sickness-related disability. ACC should pick up the tab for injury. Check to see if the policy counts income from passive investments like shares or rents. Some do, some don't. Also make sure you get agreed value and not indemnity cover. Check the tax status of the policy. Agreed value policies generally aren't deductible but the benefit isn't taxable.

Trauma
========
A bit of a minefield if you're not a doctor really! There are many different definitions for what consitutes a "heart attack" or "cancer". If you have a friend who is a doctor, get them to check the terms and conditions to see if the definitions are reasonable.

Total Disability and Income Protection
=========================
Check to see what the definition of "disabled" and "permanently disabled" is. You want something like "unable to carry out your usual occupation" NOT "unable to do anything that you are suited to by education, training or experience". You could be qualified to stack shelves at New World! Normally you find that non-desk occupations have the latter definition.

[Maccachic]

Thanks for that, very helpful.

[Anes]

Hello,
Do you have any information about Personal Insurance in Singapore ? Stuff like Axa Insurance https://www.axa.com.sg/our-solutions...sonal-accident