What do you think about second- hand endowment policies?

They are a way to monetise the illiquid assets should you require to do it. For all policies that goes through our way, we do a first level assignment, to minimise as much personal data going to the buyer as possible.

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For the buyer, they are only given the policy number, and as little details required as possible for the transaction to go through.

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The only people who should be worried are the ones who will go out of their way to use the information (only criminals or people with ill-intentions) will do that, because when foul play is involved, insurance claim can be voided.

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Why am i so sure, and went into the business, is because our company reads up and went through the possible scenarios and hence formed a Pte. Ltd. to minimise the need to release as much information as possible.

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PS: Policywoke is a 2nd hand insurance broker.

Personally I would rather get a lower surrender value by surrendering my policy to the insurer than to sell/assign to some stranger just to get a few thousands dollars more! In this time and age, aren't your personal data worth more than those thousands dollars?

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Plus when you sell/assign your policy, you lose all rights to the policy even though you were the original policyholder, you may not be able to make any changes to the policy, enquire with the insurer about the policy, change beneficiary, receive the insurance payouts etc.

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There is also risk of moral hazard. You really don't know what the assignee or new policyholder would do to get the insurance payout xx years down the road.

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By the same token, I would not buy a second hand endowment policy because I don't think personal data should be treated this way.