Great Eastern Maxgrowth Enhanced Endowment - More infos

More infos on this Great Eastern Maxgrowth Enhanced endowment.

I bought Great Eastern Maxgrowth from OCBC 10 years ago. I placed $10k for 5 years and upon 10 years was told that I will receive a 2%+ on my $50K.

However, I received a miserable 1% $55156.37 (after 10 years) instead of the $61945 with terminal bonus as stated in the bonus statement on 31 Dec 2022. The terminal bonus is cancelled upon maturity due to economy and fund’s performance.

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The 2022 bonus statement shows:

​Your Illustrated Maturity Value is 61,945 (before adjustment) 55,156 (after adjustment) on 21/11/2023.

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I have written to Great Eastern Customer service and they say that it is due to the economy and the fund’s performance. They can only offer me an exclusive guaranteed 4.5% for 1 year endowment.

I have requested for their 10 years performance which is at 37,22% for a 10 year period, avg of 3.722% per year. Their fund’s performance is as shown below:

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Year Net Unvestment Return (%)
2013 2.09%
2014 7.44%
2015 2%
2016 4.46%
2017 10.14%
2018 -3.02%
2019 12.66%
2020 8.85%
2021 2.3%
2022 -9.7%
Total 37.22% (for 10 years)
Avg 3.722%

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They can surely afford to pay the terminal bonus and yet GE cancelled the terminal bonus. The GE CS says they did not cancel but reduced the terminal bonus, I don't understand that, I got ZERO for the terminal bonus. They are taking the year 2021 2% and 2022 -9.7% to consider the cancellation of terminal bonus.

In comparison, I have an Etiqa endowment (yah stupid of me to buy it then) 2pay8, which is pay for 2 years and get payout on 8th year. The terminal bonus for Etiqa is reduced from $14722.87 to $11470.40 which is better than cancelling the whole terminal bonus as in GE Maxgrowth.

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I have requested for the actuary’s report that recommended to reduce or cancel the terminal bonus however they say it is internal document which they cannot disclose.

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I have registered with FIDRec (free independent complaint center) and will lodge a complaint with them on Maxgrowth. For FIDRec, you need to communicate with GE and if not satisfied with the reply then you can lodge a complaint with FIDRec only after 4 weeks. ​

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What I learnt from all this endowment saga is never trust what they tell you especially with NON- guaranteed returns. I hope this cancelling of terminal bonus is NOT a common practice in the Endowment circle especially when it takes 10, 20 or 30 years to realise it.