There have been many advocates against buying ILP. Is endowment plan the next "least ideal" product to hold?

Hi anon,

You need to first understand that risk and returns are correlated.

If there is a high risk low return instrument, no one would invest in it. Conversely, a high return low risk instrument would have everyone rushing to get a piece of the pie.

Thus, when you say your risk appetite is higher, then you need to look at asset classes that similar.

You can't compare a FD to a stock; CPF to an ETF; property to a business. They all exist for a different purpose.

Likewise, you can't compare endowments to investments either. They are different. What you can do is to compare endowments amongst other endowments to find a good one. But that's when one is looking around for a suitable policy anyway. You already have 2. Note that Her Assurance is an ILP if I remember correctly so there are no guarantees. I hope your funds are performing well.

While I can't tell you what to do without know more about your specific situation, it sounds like you are thinking about your cash flow and where it is being directed. If your policy premium terms are ending soon, I'd suggest to hold on to it and finish the premiums. If not, you may consider resale endowment brokers. Note that by giving up PruCash or MyLifeIncome, you will lose any accumulated benefits over the years, not to mention that there will be guaranteed returns down the road, which no ETF/Stock/UT can claim to have.

You might want to speak with an advisor to figure out what might be the best course of action for you. I wish I could give you more info but this is limited to the information I have on hand.

Edit: None of my clients have ILPs either. Traditional term, Whole Life have worked well for protection purposes. So that should tell you my stand on ILPs.

To add one last point to Nigel, Andy and Zhe Liang's (very complete) answers, if at the end of the day you want to surrender your endowment, you can check out Endowment Exchange. https://endowmentexchange.com/

I recently found out about this - it's a Singaporean initiative to buy mid-stream endowment policies. The policy owner gets to sell their endowment at a higher value than current surrender value, and Endowment Exchange gets to purchase endowments with higher returns and shorter horizons. It's a win-win situation.

Not saying you have to use their service, but if you want to terminate your endowment, you have options.

I'm just sharing it here because maybe someone else is stuck with an endowment they don't want and could possibly find a way out by checking out their site. I just think it's a really good concept, by Singaporeans who wanna help other Singaporeans. I love Singapore.