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Anonymous

09 Oct 2019

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Insurance

Should I keep or surrender my insurance policies?

Hi! I'm a young working adult in my early 20s. I have 2 insurance policies under GE bought by my parents when I was younger and now they're transferring the ownership to me. I have a Family3 plan (100k coverage, premium lump sum fully paid) and a whole life critical illness insurance (100k coverage, started at 1yo, $60 premium/month x ~90 years). I'm thinking of surrendering the whole life policy and purchase another one with a premium payable for limited years. Is that advisable?

Discussion (4)

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Eric Chia

09 Oct 2019

Senior Financial Consultant at Prudential

Hi! I've some steps which you can consider taking to check:

  1. Are you healthy? If you aren't, skip the remaining steps and stick to whatever you have.
  2. Family3 premiums have been paid off so no point surrendering unless you need the money for emergency use
  3. Whole life CI plan you can check what's the cost per $1,000 sum assured, e.g. you mentioned $60/month premiums for $100k coverage, the cost is roughly $0.60/ $1,000 coverage. If you do limited payment term WL CI plan, what would be the equivalent cost? (It'll be cheaper I believe because plans nowadays have multiplier benefit and premiums are competitive)

No harm checking before you decide anything.
One last note, CI definitions have been revised this year you may want to hold on to next year before buying - if you like the new definitions better, and vice versa.

Elijah Lee

04 Oct 2019

Senior Financial Services Manager at Phillip Securities (Jurong East)

Hi, if your WL policy was bought since you were young, it has probably accumulated a certain cash value by now, which will compound over the years as bonuses are credited to it. The premium of $60/mth would likely be still affordable even if you retire, and so the affordability is not an issue. The main benefits of surrendering would only be obvious once we consider the alternatives and do some cost-benefit analysis on the numbers.

For example, if you were to get a limited payment whole life plan, we can compare the values/total premiums of the new plan against the revised GE policy illustration that you can get from the insurer, to see if surrendering makes financial sense or not. My guess is that it is probably not worth surrendering, but without the numbers, I cannot give a firm answer.

Another reason for you to consider a new WL policy is if you would like to get early CI cover which the older plans would not have covered.

Alternatively, you may wish to consider a term plan to boost your coverage, but this method would mean that any early CI cover will cease when the term plan ends.

To get started the analysis, I would recommend you get the revised policy illustration from GE and then speak to an independent advisor like myself, who can provide you with information on the WL plans from multiple insurers in order to do the maths to see which is the best solution for you.

Do note that this is provided that you are in good health, as surrendering any policy means you lose accumulated benefits, and you will need to undergo medical underwriting when applying for a new plan.

Family3 is a 3G plan with payouts, but as premiums are fully paid, it is not a financial burden and you can keep it.

Angeline Teo

04 Oct 2019

Calculator at The Internet

I will continue those insurance plans with cash value that has been paid for years.

For those plan...

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