What insurance should singles get?

Healthcare:

As a start, the first priority should always be healthcare. The reason is simple - medical inflation hits about 10% in 2019, 2020. Consequently, a single medical treatment could potentially wipe out all your savings. Therefore, it is always good to know the healthcare insurance policies available in the market and to evaluate whether you should enhance your coverage.

More Details:

• Is MediShield Life enough in Singapore?

• Integrated Shield Plan Singapore: A Starter's Guide

Life Insurance:

After we have set up the basic foundation, the next step will be your life coverage. This is because you are the biggest asset that you own. Therefore, greater emphasis should be placed on protecting your wealth (before we grow it further).

Generally, most insurance policies in Singapore will cover for pre-mature Death, and Total & Permanent Disability. While optional, one of the crucial coverage to have will be (early) Critical Illness.

There are many options available in the market, thus take your time to learn more about it. Alternatively, speak with your insurance agent or choose an experienced consultant who is capable of guiding you through the process.

More Details:

• What is a Term Insurance Policy?

• What is a Participating Whole Life Insurance Policy?

• Term vs Whole Life Insurance Singapore

How much insurance coverage should You have?

As a general rule,

10% to 20% of your annual income on healthcare insurance and life insurance

Basic Life Cover = 10 times your annual income

Critical Illness Coverage = 5 times your annual income

And that answers how much you should spend to get yourself comprehensively covered.

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Hi anon,

This will largely depend on your circumstances. However regardless of scenario, you will require an integrated shield plan. This covers any hospital bills and associated pre/post hospitalization costs. This would be from an integrated shield plan, with a rider to take care of the deductible/co-insurance portion of the bills. Depending on your budget, you can take a private hospital plan and downgrade later, or just go for Goverment A ward. Hospitalization plans can be paid from Medisave for the main plan, and the rider will require cash.

Firstly, by the fact that you are single, and working at the moment (presumbly), we would have eliminated quite a number of scenarios and we are just down to the following question to answer: Do you have dependents (e.g. retired parents)?

If the answer is Yes, then you are a breadwinner of the house. Your income is the livelihood for you and your dependents and you thus need to protect it as if it dries up then the family is left to find other resources.

You thus need Death/TPD coverage and CI coverage. You will require typically 10 times of your annual income in death/TPD coverage as well as enough CI coverage in the event of severe illnesses, for 5 times of your annual expenses as well as provisions for other treatment costs of CI such as hired help, special diet, etc, which will not be covered by a shield plan.

If the answer is No, then Death/TPD coverage is optional and you can focus on CI coverage, going by the guidelines given above.

To be adequately covered, you can typically expect not to spend more than 10% of your monthly income, given that you are still young and healthy. For death/TPD coverage, this would be a term plan that covers you for a sufficient duration and should not cost more than 1%-1.5%. For CI, you can consider a term plan, a multipay plan, or a whole life limited payment plan, and this will be in the region of 5%-7% cost wise.

These costs/coverage amounts are just guidelines and ultimately will depend on your personal needs. After all your coverage needs are very dependent on your income and expenses as well as lifestyle.