Life Insurance and your health

Hi,

Disclaimer:
this post is not an advertisement for insurance, nor is it a sponsored post by Insurance agents. my personal profile can be found here.

This entry is to share that health is wealth, and that postponing insurance buying could result in being unable to buy insurance at all when things happened.


People my age are now shunning the random calls and surveys that people in the "financial industry" conducts. This is because we find them irritating and overbearing. Moreover, being young would mean that you are now healthy and well, so insurance is always the purchase you can put off until you have completed the other big ticket items. And with the myriads of insurance providers, people my age are spoilt for choice and are going into very fine details down to the cents and service levels.

Myself?
I am the complete opposite. I speak to any insurance agent who is willing to try. I apply for almost all company that existed. Some advisers even spend their own money to retrieve all those medical records that is required for me to pass underwriting. Others fill in all those forms many times. But before you call or message me to tell me you are willing to try for me with your company's underwriter, I have to show you all those rejections i have received.

I am 27 years old that is suffering High Blood Pressure and Kidney is unhealthy (High Creatine). It has all started when I was 20 years old due to a Urinary Tract Infection. I am given PES E due to this. My doctors have been saying that my condition improved and that it has stabilized. However, when i read the medical report submitted to the insurance company, I truly thought that they have given me a report for a 70 years old person. They literally say that i have all sorts of problems despite the doctors saying it is normal to have them ( think mild sleep apnea).
Here is a summary!
 

The insurance i am buying are Whole Life and Term Life.
I have included Critical Illness and TPD to my plans.

Total Company Rejected:
NTUC Income
AIA (not officially)
AXA
Aviva
Manulife
Great Eastern

 


And the ONLY company accepted is Tokio Marine
But, with conditions of:
No Critical Illness
200% loading for Term Life (approx 3k per year, until 99 years old for 350k coverage)




OR
3.4k per month for 15 years (Whole Life insurance, 300k coverage until X age(cant remember) and 100k thereafter)




























This post is not to tell you how bad my health is. Truth is, I do feel good. I can still swim, I can still run and I am still very happy with life!
But this is a gentle reminder to my friends who is getting older, and that health is wealth. As your age climbs, your insurance premium will climb to an amount that it is better you don't buy than you buy. As you age, working life will diminish you healthy lifestyle and make you deskbound more than you hope you will be.

I used to think like my parents, who have minimal coverage, why should i buy insurance to let those alive enjoy when i die?
but i know its not true. this money is to buy myself out of debt so that i don't burden the next generation with my medical bill. Do you think Medisave and Hospitalisation Insurance is enough to cover everything in a costly Singapore? The way Singapore does things is to provide best treatment, instead of a choice to euthanize. It gonna be costly if you are very sick, and yet takes years to die!

So my dear friends,
Look at insurance agents differently.
Not all is out to earn your money. Some truly just want to help.
If giving them some commission buys you peace and safety net, that is something i am so willing to do but wasn't given a chance to.

But a gentle reminder, buy within your means. don't go broke making your next generation rich. (3k a year is too much for me)

A heartfelt thank you to these agents who spent hours and even money to help me go through medical tests, get medical reports and speak to underwriters. I am sorry that your investment in time and hours have gotten you no commission.
Kris (GE)
Alvin (Manulife, Tokio Marine, MFA)
Kelvin (AXA, NTUC Income, Fnexis)
Hux (AIA)


Regards
Benjamin Chai

Central Depository Account (CDP) and MAS Bonds

Disclaimer
Whatever written is purely my own opinion and should not be taken as professional advice as I do not have any professional training in this field. However, please do read it any way, and give me feedback about my opinion.
To know more about me, please take a look at the post about my profile.

Hi,

CDP account is an account for you to keep your portfolio of stocks, bonds and many other stuffs.
This account is owned by the government and you can only have one of it. You do not require to close it either if you already have it as it is better to have it than not to have it.

So why do you want to make this CDP account?

Simple. So that you can buy MAS bonds.
As stated in their website, one of the things required is a CDP account, as well as a bank account with the participating banks.

In this site, it states the benefits of this bond and more details could be found in the news everywhere.

How do you make a CDP account?

The next most important question: how to make a CDP account?

Firstly, this account is a pain in the ass to make. You would require to be physically there to sign the form in front of the officers. Hence, postage is out of the way.
Secondly, if you were to make the CDP account with CDP themselves, you will have to visit during office hours, which is also a problematic thing.

So the next best way to do it is to open with a Securities Company.
A Securities Company is a company who provides a trading platform for you to buy and sell stocks. In that process, they would earn commission from your transaction.
If you tell them you want to open a Securities Account, they would first ask you for CDP.
Tell them no and they will start to help you apply for one as well.
Some examples of Securities Companies are Maybank Kim Eng, Ocbc Securities, Lim and Tan Securities, Philips Securities etc.

Among them all,
I find it easiest to open your CDP with OCBC securities.
This is because a call to IOCBC would tell you that you may open an account at most OCBC branches. And the best part about OCBC branches is that they have long operating hours, as well as Weekend banking.

So for people who are working, my suggestion is to open with them to get your CDP started up.

Once you get your CDP, remember to ask for your online services of CDP by calling them! Then you would receive your online banking pin, and your ONEKEY. This is so that it would be easier for you to track what you have in your CDP.

As for trading, most Securities charges a basic of $25sgd commission for trades in Singapore Exchange, a 0.275% clearance fee, a 7% GST and 0.0325% SGX trading fees. This seemed like a small number, but if your contract value is high, its pretty substantial.
So, before you trade, you would need to know when and if it is possible for you to break even the transaction fees and still make a profit.


Regards
Benjamin Chai

My exciting journey in getting a hospitalization plan

Hello phantom readers,

While I am pretty sure no one do read this at the time of this post, I do hope it will be googled by some people some time and hope it does help them in some way.

So while I am not an agent, I do have an interesting journey in buying hospitalization plan! This is because I get to meet several agents and learnt a thing or two during these sharing session.

And disclaimer, this is my personal view. I am in no way trying to do advertisements for anyone, and I say again, as of the day I am writing this post, my profession is a Software Developer, not Insurance Agent.

So unlike normal healthy beings, I am actually downgraded to PES E during NS time. So this just shows how unhealthy I am and to be honest, I was pretty afraid that insurance company do not allow me to buy into the plans.

That was when I was introduced to Aviva Hospitalisation plan. They have a fanciful name for it, but I don't care nor bother.
But the point about this plan is that there is something known as Moratorium underwriting.
http://www.aviva.com.sg/life-and-health/for-individuals/Protection_101/quick_answers_health.html

This means you will be automatically qualified for the plan itself, and any medical conditions will be placed as moratorium, while some severe ones will be excluded. This is definitely better than getting rejected by an insurance company altogether.

Well, some coverage is better than no coverage!

PS: i just signed the insurance plan after looking around for quite some times. I will periodically update more about it, whether if it is really as accepting as they claim to be etc!


Regards
Benjamin Chai