I have 2 kids, sole bread winner and we plan to buy a place. I want life insurance just in case to protect my family. Life cover I roughly know but I struggle with TPD and CI values. Any advice?

10 times annual income for death and disability

5 times annual income for critical illness

That's a good rule of thumb for a start.

Keep premiums to 5-10% of your cashflow.

To hit the above, a combination of whole life and term would suffice.

Hi,

For your death coverage, the amount should definitely be sufficient to cover for the mortgage loan as well as your children's expenses until they reached an independent age.

As for your critical illness, the coverage amount will depend on whether or not you have an integrated shield plan which will cover most hospitalization expenses. The same goes for TPD.

But in order to come up with a comprehensive solution for you, I'll definitely need more information from you so that I can forecast your cash flow to ensure that whatever is being presented to you will not hurt your lifestyle which I think is very important for your children in their teenage years.

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In addition to the valid points that the financial consultants/advisors have pointed out, if your children are young, you may want to take a look into setting up a trust.

In the event of death, the trust will manage the money prudently to ensure your children are the ones who will benefit, and not someone else's pocket (even if it's a relative, you never know...either they're the perpetrators, or someone who influences them to become a perpetrator).

Plan A is your insurance. Plan B to secure Plan A is your trust.

Do note if you go to a lawyer (even though they're cheap), their job is to legalise the document to earn money, not to provide you a holistic view.

Some independent financial consultants / advisors have estate planning credentials with a Will Writing and Trust Services company. You can either go to them, or go straight to the company (e.g. Rockwills, NTUC). At least for Rockwills (I went there), they have consultants to advise and in-house lawyers to legalise the doc. after you understand the intricate workings.

https://www.straitstimes.com/business/invest/tr...

Do note that these will not be cheap, but it will give you a peace of mind that matters after death will be well-taken of for the living.

Hi Y,

Life and TPD values will be largely the same, rationale is that if you are suffering from TPD, it is very unlikely that you can work. Hence all sources of income would be gone.

The rule of thumb based on income has been mentioned, but I will also urge you to consider the following numbers (for death/TPD)

• Sufficient money for your surviving spouse for the rest of her life

• Money to raise the kids till working age

• Liabilities to be paid

You'll want to calculate the figures for that carefully and also know the duration you need to be covered.

For CI, at a minimum you will need to have enough payout to cover for your family expenses (including your loan repayments for the house) and your own living expenses for around 5 years, plus a sum of money for out of pocket costs such as medication/treatment not covered by a shield plan, second opinion from another doctor, alternative treatment, hiring a helper etc.