Is ILP a good way to invest?

ILP not for investment purpose. The name is misleading.

Hi anon,

I'm a financial advisor and I don't use ILPs myself. I think that's quite telling. Personally, I invest on my own (shares, UTs, etc) and the same goes for my clients, whether I am managing for them or not.

The main issues (non-exhaustive) with investment based ILP tend to stem from high surrender penalties, a boat load of charges at the policy level, over and above those at the fund level, which really degrade performance, even when you factor 'bonus' allocations. Possibly the only good point is the chance to access funds that may not be available to the retail investor, but then the advisor has to be very good at picking these funds, and also managing the risk that comes with them.