Is paying 1k a month for 12 yrs, Manulife SmartRetire2 instead of unit trusts a smart move?

Hi Anon, while you take your time to consider if this was a wise decision, you have the option to free-look the policy as long as it was incepted within the last 14 days.

You'll get all your money back (bar some volatility in the funds invested in). And can then make another decision with more knowledge moving forward.

Whether it's smart or not depends on what you aim to achieve with the ManuLife ILP. Unfortunately it's a bit late to be asking this sort of question since you've already paid the premiums.

There's two further things for you to do.

First, decide if you want to continue. To do this you need to know your "why". Whether it's buyers' regret, high fees, or you just think there are better vehicles elsewhere, or whether you think you're happy with the policy you have, really only you can answer this.

Next, be aware that there are digital advisors out there that help you buy unit trusts or ETFs which charge slightly lower fees, which matter if you're going to be investing large sums of money. (Too many people worry about fees when their sum invested is too small; it's not that fees aren't important but at that point stressing over fees makes no sense.)