TM Early Cover To Replace TM Early Care From Tokio Marine Group For Critical Illness

Early detection for Critical Illness or Dread Disease has been the buzz word these days and insurance companies have been launching many plans to meet the demands and improving/ replacing existing early detection policies with new and better ones. , TM Early Care was not spared either. On 29 January 2018, it was replaced by TM Early Cover.


The differences between the 2 plans are not really significant, but let us share with you what are some of TM Early Cover's features:

• 3 Coverage terms to age 70, to age 75 & to age 85 
• Customer can buy from as young as age 1 till age 65 (Age Next Birthday).
• Maximum Claim Limit per stage is $350,000 , compared to the old TM Early Care, which was $75,000 only.
• However for TM Early Cover, each payout reduces the claim compared to the earlier plan, which does not.
• Covers 36 Critical Illnesses (Terminal Illness has been added as a CI, whilst Angioplasty is now 1 of the special benefits)
• Another Extra 20%, subject to a maximum limit of $25,000 can be paid out for the following 10 Special Benefits:  

Tokio Marine TM Term VIP For Your Company Keyman Insurance ?

Buying a Keyman Insurance for your company's CEO or senior management can be a tricky business.

Simply because most insurers require these head honchos to go for a medical examination once the sum at risk crosses the insurance company's risk appetite and many a times, that amount is also pretty low or not even worth considering.

Then some financial advisers would attempt to propose that these top brass take on individual life insurance where the firm might feel that it is quite costly to even consider purchasing. Tokio Marine Life Insurance or the Tokio Marine Group has recently added an upmarket Term policy into their arsenal of innovative insurance plans. Appropriately named as TM Term VIP; it is to address the needs of individuals who need high coverage. The following are some of the features of this value for money policy:

Final Expense Is Not Death Benefit In Integrated Shield Plans

In Singapore, all of us citizens & Permanent Residents would have been enrolled into the Medishield Life as a compulsory program and a large proportion would also have signed up with an Integrated Shield Plan (ISP) through a private insurer one way or another. However, how many of us actually took the time to read or even understand 1 of the benefit known as "Final Expense" in the benefit table?

When I first read it, I thought it was actually some sort of death benefit like in most company insurances, whereby the insurer pays out a lump sum out of sympathy or goodwill to the deceased's family for the purpose of helping them in the completion of the final rites etc.

However, when my own relative passed on recently, then did I realised that this Final Expense was just a feature to waive the deductible or co-insurance, if one did not buy the cash riders. Here are the screenshots of 2 of Singapore's top insurers' table of benefits and definitions of the feature (click on image to enlarge):

Standalone Group Dental Insurance Now Available

The heading of this post is quite self explanatory. We often have enquiries from Singapore companies looking for stand alone Corporate Dental Insurance or Group Dental Insurance, which many insurers are not keen to offer; Tokio Marine has now launched one recently, so if your company is one of those which needs such a policy, do contact us. The benefits are in the screenshot below, if you want it customised, let us know. (Click on image to see larger view)

Marine Cargo Clauses and Claims Procedure

How many of you can remember what the ICC (Institute Cargo Clause)  ICCA, ICCB or ICCC covers in the Marine Cargo or Cargo Insurance wordings?

Well, now you can have a snapshot of the coverage of each clause in just one page! (Click on the image to have a clearer picture) No thanks needed! Just remember to bookmark us. :)

For newbies of General Insurance and even the "old birds"; where there are occasional tendency to forget the kind of documents needed during a Marine Cargo claim. Thanks to the insurer, QBE that this wonderful 1 page summary can be shared with people in the general insurance industry and their clients.

For customers who often buy cargo insurances, although it will be nice to get yourself the most comprehensive clause, which is the ICCA; your cargo insurance policy may not be bought or processed in accordance to your expectation. So before you submit the claim, do not always assume that you can claim for all things under the sky! DO take a closer look at your Marine Cargo policy to see which clause you bought before jumping at the agent or insurer.

Pet Insurance Is Now Back In Singapore

Back in the 90s, there was an insurer carrying Pet Insurance, but due to the low market demand, the policy was taken off the shelf, more likely due to the abuse of claims by the public and thus low margins made from the policy.

Now with the affluent lifestyles of Singaporeans, many homes will have a pet of some sort and with the high cost of living, pets medical expenses are not cheap either. Some of the pets may even cost a bomb at purchase and losing them does not only hurt emotionally, but financially as well!

Introducing Liberty Insurance's PetCare! You can now insure your prized dog, cat or hamster! With 3 plans for you to choose from and with annual premiums ranging from $350-$750, it definitely is a good deal for your pooch or kitty! Some rules though....

Benefits at a Glance

1. Covers up to 70% of eligible vet bills arising from illness or accidents, up to S$10,000 each year
2. No medical examination required
3. Freedom to use any vet, anywhere in Singapore
4. Covers third party liability arising from owning the pet
5. Covers loss due to theft or accidental death
6. Toll-free Helpline
7. No Claim Discount of up to 15% to reward healthy pets

Who Is The Industry Leader For WIC (Work Injury Compensation) Limits?

Last year, the Singapore's WICA or Work Injury Compensation Act had their limits raised as mentioned in this blog post, Of course to remain as 1 of the market leaders in this arena, QBE Singapore has taken the initiative to raise their WIC limits as well; as shown in the table below:

As of 03 April 2017, we dare say that QBE might be the industry leader for the Work Injury Compensation limits in Singapore. To find out why having higher limits is important, here's the other post which should explain itself.

In any case, if you do own a business, QBE has done a short survey recently on a number of SMEs & MNCs and here are the findings in the 3 odd minutes infographic video below. If you want to find out more about other business or corporate insurances for your company other than WIC, feel free to contact us and we will be most glad to answer your queries.

Can You Live On Just CPF Retirement Sum Scheme In Singapore?

Singapore's Minimum Sum Scheme (MSS) is now renamed to Retirement Sum Scheme (RSS). As of 2017, the Full Retirement Sum (FRS) to be set aside in your Retirement Account (Comprising of the monies in your OA, SA & some property pledging) when you turn 55 is $166,000. This amount is projected to increase by around 3% to $181,000 by 2020. No updates on the amount after that year.

So what happens after setting aside your money for the Retirement Account (RA) at age 55? Well, for some lucky few, you will be getting a lump sum in excess of the RSS ($166,000 as at 2017), whilst for others, all you can get is S$5000, because your retirement sum (RS) amount has not been reached. Something to note is that you can only pledge* half your house for the full retirement sum (eg. if the FRS is $166,000, you can only pledge $83,000); the remainder must come from your SA and OA (from what we understand, they will "wipe out" the SA first to form your RA, before using your OA). As to how the pledging of property works, you can refer to this author's write up.

The money in your RA will then be paid out to you in monthly instalments through CPF Life (please see CPF website for details on matters concerning CPF Life), when you reach your retirement age of 65. (see the table below). For the records, if one does not fulfill the RS at age 55, it just means that the monthly payouts on reaching 65** will be lesser. We're no experts on CPF matters, but you can actually search on the internet or the CPF site to find useful tools like this payout projector when you reach the retirement age of 65. The table below shows you the approximate payouts :

^*Payout figures are estimates, based on the CPF LIFE Standard Plan and computed as of 2017

CPF Life Standard provides a higher monthly payout than LIFE Basic Plan, but leaves a lower bequest for your beneficiaries.
CPF Life Basic provides a lower monthly payout than LIFE Standard Plan, but leaves a higher bequest for your beneficiaries.

So now that you know approximately how much you are going to get from your CPF monies on retirement, do you think it is enough to live out your retirement on that monthly amount and have you made plans to increase this amount according to your current lifestyle?

Even if you claim to be cutting down on your expenses upon retirement; with inflation factored in, is your CPF Retirement Sum sufficient for you? Can you continue to live on the Minimum Sum Scheme or Retirement Sum Scheme?

Another alternative is by doing small top ups through retirement plans from Tokio Marine to complement your CPF Life payouts and be financially ready when you enter into the Silver Generation! Remember the earlier you start, the less your monthly commitment for your policy and the more your payouts.

Contact us if you want to find out more about Tokio Marine Life Singapore's Retirement policies!

*Pledging of property does not mean the value of your home, but the amount which you have already PAID for your home and your promise to return this loan from CPF plus interest upon selling of your property back into the RA.

**As at time of this writing, retirement age or the age of monthly payout of CPF Life instalments is still at age 65. (going up to age 67 very soon)

Legend:
OA : Ordinary Account
SA : Special Account
RA : Retirement Account
RS : Retirement Sum
RSS : Retirement Sum Scheme
MSS : Minimum Sum Scheme

FRS : Full Retirement Sum
BRS : Basic Retirement Sum

Tokio Marine Life Singapore Shares on FM Kiss 92 Radio Station

Been reading a lot about Tokio Marine Life Insurance products? For those who are more auditory inclined; try the following (remember to click on the "play" button):

TM Term Assure

Yes, You read it right! It's 28% off the 1st year premiums for TM Term Assure from July 2017 till End September 2017! So if you are lacking in coverage, this is a good time to top it up as Tokio Marine already has 1 of the lowest premiums for their Term policies in the market and with the promotion, it's really a steal!

TM Protect One
In another attempt to reach out to a greater pool of audience and to educate the public about insurance matters; the life insurer Tokio Marine, has engaged 1 of Singapore's popular Radio Station, Kiss 92 FM to broadcast some of their insurance products during their morning shows for about a minute each time.

If you are not an early bird or missed the sessions each time due to unforeseen circumstances, hope the above will satisfy that craving! (Your Welcome!) The write up about TM Protect 1 is here.

If reading and listening have got you interested, then probably the next best thing to do, will be to TAKE ACTION!

AA Singapore FREE Membership Drive with Tokio Marine Life Insurance (AA-TMLS)

With intense competition to be different, companies are now going all out with collaborations and both Automobile Association of Singapore (AAS) & Tokio Marine Life Insurance (TMLS) are no exception either. For the men who have served their National Service in Singapore, remember the dirt CHEAP insurance which you took up during your Army days and honestly, aren't you glad you did; since the premiums were extremely low? Well for the rest of the people in Singapore; envy not because it is time for you to enjoy such perks too! (as in getting preferential rates just because you belong to a "group")

Which other associations in Singapore or exclusive group is big enough to have insurers willing to offer them good discounts? To celebrate their 110th anniversary, the over 80,000 members strong AAS or Automobile Association of Singapore has further ramp up their membership drive by giving car owners FREE membership fees for the 1st year. To top that, the members will be able to get Group Term Life Insurance and their riders at premiums not offered to the retail market from Tokio Marine Group! The package is called "Life Protector" (for pure vanilla term life insurance) or "Life Protector Plus" (with 37 Critical Illness). There is even a package for those who wants hospital cash!
As always, being an AAS member also comes with fantastic privileges thrown in (refer to item 1 below)

Some points to note :

• Premiums are age banded (ie premiums will rise as insured enters a new age band)
• To enjoy AAS free 1st year membership fees, minimum insurance premium has to be at least $200 per year.
• Only 1st year's membership fee is waived; however if applicant is already a member and is renewing membership, the renewal fee of the renewal year is waived.
• Lifetime member of AAS can also buy the insurance at the preferred rates; their entitlement to a year's free AAS membership, can be passed on to a family member.
• Members who bought the AAS 3 years membership will not be entitled to the Free membership drive.
• Last Entry Age for the insurance is 66 ANB (Age Next Birthday) & Maximum Renewal Age is 70 (ANB)

Below are the links for the application:
AA Life Protector Rates/Brochure (See what the insurance covers and the different options)

1. AA Membership Application (See what does being an AA member gets to enjoy)
2. Life Protector Application Form (Must come with AA Membership Application)
3. Tokio Marine Business Reply Envelope for Life Protector

Use item 3) to mail 1) & 2) after signing on the "red ticks" (including the credit card form):
You can also contact us if you want to know more or have further queries.

TM Protect 1 - Your Answer To More Eldershield Coverage

Many of my friends and clients have already topped up their Eldershield coverage the minute they turned 40 through Aviva's Mycare plan.

However, many still felt that the coverage wasn't sufficient with the inflationary pressures of old age in Singapore. So at long last, Tokio Marine Group has listened and came up with their version of long term care policy by launching TM Protect 1 on 10 January 2016 2017.

Some of the features of this plan are as follows:

• Pays out on 1 ADL (Activity of Daily Living) ~ Eldershield requires 3 ADLs before a payout
• TM Protect 1 allows you to choose between a  3 year or 6 years benefit payout. ~ Eldershield only has a 6 years payout.
• TM Protect 1 has monthly benefit payouts from $1000 to $5000 (this can definitely complement your Eldershield policy and keep abreast with the cost of living when you are old) ~ Eldershield has only a $400 monthly benefit payout program
• 1 time Get well benefit after full recovery from the ADL disability
• 1 time Death Benefit of $5000 if death occurs during policy period
• Caregiver paid a 1 month benefit payout (this is a ONE time payout) 30 days after assured is deemed to have the ADL disability.
• If assured is certified to have ADL due to Heart Attack or Stroke, there is a ONE lump sum payout of 200% monthly benefit

Irate AIG Motor Insurance Customer at AIG Singapore

Motor Insurance; buying it is mandatory in Singapore. Worse still, buying the car insurance and not having a servicing agent to help you during a claim or explain the pros and cons between the different plans or the difference in terminology like "Comprehensive",  Third party" and "Third party, Fire & Theft".

I was at AIG Singapore motor insurance counter yesterday on the 7th floor at 78 Shenton Way and had a good 20 minutes eavesdropping to the conversation of a frustrated customer trying to make head and tail of his car insurance bought from AIG Singapore. This was not the 1st time that I've seen disgruntled customers airing their views so that the entire floor knows about their unhappiness but it made me wonder why these clients do not call their agents instead of coming personally to the HQ; then it dawned on me that there were a few probabilities (apart from the customer hotline being too HOT that no one ever picks up the call):

TM FlexiCover; An Alternative to TM FlexiAssurance ILP

TM FlexiCover is another ILP or investment linked policy launched by Tokio Marine Group to
remain competitive in the unit linked arena and for clients who prefer ILPs to be a "Front End Load" policy.

To know more about TM FlexiAssurance or ILP, please see our previous post here. So we will not dwell too much about what TM FlexiCover is but list out the features of this plan and you can decide for yourself whether TM FlexiAssurance or this new TM FlexiCover is for you.

Features of TM FlexiCover:

• TM FlexiCover now has unit & premium deducting riders which can be added into the policy. They are : Unit deducting (Critical Illness, Term riders), and Premium paying (waiver of premiums, payer benefit, spouse riders).
• Has LRO (Life Replacement Option), which can benefit companies for using the policy as a Keyman Insurance or for parents who might want to transfer the policy to their new born kids. (please refer to the terms and conditions)
• Dial-up Option which allows the basic sum assured to be reduced to zero to maximise returns, however the life assured has to be 55 years old next birthday and above and premiums must have been paid for at least 10 years' from policy commencement date. (Many other insurers' ILPs require the policy to have some coverage remaining, so this feature benefits the more senior clients when protection charges are rather high)
• Quit Smoking Discount allows smokers to enjoy non smokers monthly protection charges if he/she drops the habit within the 1st two years and can continue after that as long as the cessation is permanent. (take note; if smoker quits only after the 2nd year, then this feature will not apply. The whole reason for this is to encourage and to support the Quit Smoking movement in Singapore.)
• Increase/Decrease in Sum Assured and premiums are allowed, except that reduction of premiums are only permitted after the first 2 years premiums have been made.
• Unlike the TM FlexAssurance, partial withdrawal is allowed at any time as long as the policy is in force and it incurs no charges.
•  As with all Investment Linked Policies, premium holiday can be taken after 2 full years of payment. However, do bear in mind that the policy must have sufficient units to maintain the unit deducting riders (if any) and policy values must be enough to finance the premium paying riders, else the policy will just lapse. In reality, please DO NOT take a premium holiday immediately after 2 years as the units and policy value will definitely not be enough to sustain the riders. 

OK, you now have the details of TM FlexiCover and TM FlexiAssurance to make an intelligent and informed decision. If you are interested in the plan or want to know more about it, please write to us here .

 

Another TM VIP Product From Tokio Marine Group Bites The Dust

Ok, so I exaggerated a little bit; but the TM Infinite VIP will still see the end of the road by end August 2016. As per all Singaporeans and with our usual ways, we will see all who has the money and been postponing to get down to doing the paperwork, will now join the rush to get this fabulous plan before it is removed from the shelf; because the following are the exact details of the memo which went out to the agency force today:

"The following measures will be implemented to all new and pending TM Infinite VIP applications with immediate effect:

1.    Overall Tranche Limit

An overall tranche limit has been imposed to this product and this will be allocated to the respective distribution channels.

This product will be removed from new business once the respective distribution channels’ tranche limits have been reached, or on Wednesday, 31 August 2016, whichever is earlier.

2.    Maximum Premium Size for Individual Applications

To allow more customers to still enjoy this product, a maximum single premium of S$500,000 per life assured is imposed. "




If you want to know more about the TM Infinite VIP before it is discontinued, check out this post.

You can contact us if you need to know more. 

What You Do Not Know About Eldershield in Singapore

Being old and elderly was something far away from my mind, when I started in the insurance

business 20 years ago, but lately, seeing more news articles on retirement and ageing with yours truly also slowly approaching the "Silver Generation", my family and I began to have our antennas up whenever the topic of age related matters popped up.

Lately, a close relative of ours started to have difficulty walking and he was 72. The first thing that came to my mind was Eldershield, as he displayed the criterias needed to submit a claim (for those who are not familiar with the workings of Eldershield, here's a link to read up about it and after reading, you will definitely feel it's insufficient).

However, what confused us was that his premium payments had ended when he was 65, so naturally we thought the cover

QBE TravelOn Coverage Changes

Ok, This post came rather late; but as the saying goes, "Better Late Than Never". QBE TravelOn did a revamp to their Travel insurance policy on 02 September 2015 and the rates are rather attractive now with their enhanced benefits as follows:

AIG Travelguard Claim Events and Their Response

 Of late, clients were asking us how efficient were  the travel claims at AIG Travelguard? So the best reply we think would be to attach screenshots of the past claims from AIG and let the pictures speak for themselves on the responsive actions AIG Travelguard took. There were recent cases of buses plunging into ravines in Malaysia. Many a times, it was the trips to our neighboring countries which had travelers ignoring the call to buy travel insurance since it was only a short journey. However we tend to forget that there were many winding roads en route to our holiday destinations and at most times, movement of the vehicles were done

Retirement Planning With Cash or SRS

With the aging population in Singapore, the buzz word these days is probably Retirement. Tokio Marine Life Insurance Singapore from the Tokio Marine Group will probably be the one insurance company to help you address this need since they have been aggressively launching and promoting new retirement policies of late and here's the latest video just to help you better understand and plan for your retirement using your SRS or cash using one of their latest launch, TM Retirement (SP)! (For those who want to know what is SRS or how it can help you in your tax planning, visit this page)

So if you are someone who wants more money in your twilight years to complement your CPF monies, watch this retirement video and start calling us to find out more! [From 1 Jan 2016, please leave your CONTACT NUMBER in the "message" box, so we can verify that your interest is real and not for the sake of getting quotations only. (For quotes, you can call the insurers directly). Thanks for your understanding]

Cancer Income : Does Life Still Goes On When Cancer Strikes?

In today's advanced medical technology, if Cancer strikes an individual, there is still hope for recovery. However, the truth of the matter is that lifestyle costs also increases after the arrival of this dread disease, no matter how hard you try to contain it.

What are the costs?

No Retirement is Secure till you have TM Retirement Secure

The Tokio Marine Group in Singapore has added another retirement product into its already

comprehensive range! This time the newly launched, TM Retirement Secure was introduced to Singapore on 08 January 2016 and is particularly suited for individuals looking for guaranteed  income for a fixed span of time; whilst having a short premium commitment period!

One can even add a Cancer Income Rider (details in upcoming post) or a Cancer Waiver Rider! Just to make sure that your retirement plans will not be hampered should an unforeseen event like Cancer is to strike and you need your lifestyle to continue as before.

Some of the features of TM Retirement Secure that is worth highlighting are as follows: