Is income gro retire ease a good retirement endowment plan comparing with other similar plan?

Hi anon,

1. This depends on your definition of 'good'. What objective criteria are you looking at?

Many insurers carry a retirement plan of some form. You'll want to evaluate them based on a number of factors, including

• Guaranteed returns (the guaranteed irr)

• Potential returns (non guaranteed irr)

• Fringe benefits such as additional payouts upon disability, etc

If you are looking at the guaranteed return (probably one of the key factors to consider, we do want a decent return on our monies after all) , about the only plan out there that can compete with GRO retire ease is Etiqa's ePremier retirement. Unfortunately that plan does not have an option for a payout at age 55 (earliest is age 60), and there is a minimum premium of $6K/yr which is over your budget.

2. There are many ways to prepare for retirement, but ultimately they all revolve around having income. Build up multiple streams of income from both guaranteed (e.g. CPF LIFE, annuities) and non guaranteed (stocks, bonds, etc) sources such that you have enough to meet needs, and wants in retirement. I have answered a few questions on this topic before, here is one example. Hopefully it gives you an idea of what to look out for.​​​

A. If you google for insurance retirement plan, the following 3 plans tend to show up:

1. NTUC Gro Retire Ease

2. Manulife RetireReady Plus III

3. Aviva MyRetirement Choice II

Each seems to be best for certain criteria as presented in this article:

3 Best Retirement Plans in Singapore (Updated May 2021) In Terms of Coverage, Guaranteed Returns and Flexibility

B. You should adopt multiple ways for retirement preparation. Two other ways are CPF LIFE and investment:

1. You will receive CPF LIFE monthly payouts starting from age 65 (can postpone to 70 for higher payouts). You can find out what is the monthly payout amount using CPF LIFE Estimator.

2. You should adopt a long term mindset for investment. You may invest in passive index ETF (e.g. MSCI World Index ETF, S&P 500 ETF,...) or roboadvisors (e.g. Endowus, Syfe, StashAway, MoneyOwl,...).