What's the essential insurance that I should get for my child?

Hey there. I'll agree with the other two adviser's point of views here. More importantly, aside from buying products, you might want someone to do a more in-depth financial analysis/planning to uncover how much you or your child needs. This will be more important as it is the same as buying a house first before buying the furniture, as opposed to product buying which is the other way round.

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Hi Zuliana,

Without a doubt, the first insurance you need to get for your child (newborn) will be a hospitalization 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. Depending on your budget, you can take a private hospital plan and downgrade later, or just go for Goverment A ward. The rider is important in order to cap your maximium out of pocket costs.

Following that, I would say that you can consider an education plan if you wish to set aside some funds to deal with education costs in future. Such plans will grow your money in a safe manner and it will mature around 18-25 years in future, so that funds can be made available for school fees (university fees will be huge in 20 years). If your child manages to get a scholarship in future, the money is still yours as you are the policyowner.

If budget permits, a whole of life critical illness plan can also be considered. Due to the age of a child, the premiums will be extremely low. As a live data point, a couple purchased a lifetime of $200K CI/early CI cover for their son and it cost $197/mth for 10 years (they are done with the premium when he turns 11). Some see this as a gift of love, but I personally think that the more important thing is insurability. I have come across a young student aged 21 who was diagnosed with lupus at the age of 18. She is completely unable to buy critical illness cover now, and can only rely on a $50K late CI plan her father bought for her when she was 1 year old. At least she still has some coverage even before she started working.

An accident plan will be important once your child starts to learn to walk and run, as they are more inclined to get bumps and bruises, fall down, etc. They are also prone to things such as HFMD and some accident plans will cover such things.

If budget is tight, just focus on the hospitalization plan first. That's pretty much non-negotiable. The rest really depends on your cashflow, but will definitely be helpful.