Is there a difference if u get endowment plan from banks and directly from insurance company?

Endowments distributed by the bank are created through an arrangement known as bancassurance that is usually offered by the insurer to the bank to increase avenues of distribution.

In terms of participating fund bonuses, there is no fundamental difference as they come from the same source (the insurer).

With regard to the name of the endowment policy, they may appear different to create a differentiating factor but embody essentially the same elements.

Policy servicing would be the biggest factor in difference between the bank and financial advisor. Policies bought through the bank can only be accessed via the relationship manager at the bank and policies bought through the FA can only be accessed by the FA/ insurer. Due to PDPA rules, it is impossible for an FA to obtain information on policies that have been bought from the bank directly.

Hi Anonymous,

To my knowledge, for the exact same plan, there is no major differences between buying from a financial advisor and buying from a bank in terms of the premiums commitment.

However, one difference I would like to highlight is that, when it comes to policy servicing/enquiring for plans bought from banks, the policyholder has only the insurance company (i.e. underwriter) to contact directly, because banks are not servicing agents of the plans. Usually the policyholder gets a shorter response time if he/she has a servicing financial advisor to contact for policy servicing/enquiring versus contacting the insurance company directly, so it may be better for the policyholder to find a financial advisor to appoint as a servicing agent if the plan was bought from a bank.

Disclaimer: PolicyWoke is a resale endowment policies broker​​​