facebookShould I upgrade my Careshield plan? - Seedly

Anonymous

04 Nov 2020

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Insurance

Should I upgrade my Careshield plan?

I am a male, 31y. Will be married in a few months time. I have Term insurance coverage and CI till 70, health insurance. An insurance agent told me i can upgrade my careshield plan (aviva).

With upgrade, I just need 2 out of 6 criteria of ADL for payout, and monthly payout will be $1500. The upgrade will cost me an annual premium of $593 payable fully by medishield until age 99.

should I go for this plan? It appeals to me as i dont have to pay by cash but i worry about putting financial burden

Discussion (2)

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PolicyPal

04 Nov 2020

Official Account at PolicyPal

CareShield Life Supplements are disability insurance plans that complement and augment the basic CareShield Life plan but are provided by private insurers (Aviva, Great Eastern, and NTUC. Income).
As a $600/month payout may not be sufficient for everyone, in the event of a disability, these supplements are designed to bridge the gap and enhance the coverage with higher monthly payouts.

You have the option to use your CPF savings to pay the premiums, including for any private insurer top-ups. You can check out this blog article to find out more about the CareShield Life supplements offered by the 3 different insurers.

Elijah Lee

25 Oct 2020

Senior Financial Services Manager at Phillip Securities (Jurong East)

Hi anon,

I would highly encourage you to get the enhancement for Careshield Life (CSL).

The coverage provided by your term plan/CI plan is very different. It is meant to cover death/TPD and CI, and thus protects your liabilities and dependents in any unfortunate event, or provides a sum of money to meet your bills and expenses in the event you are unable to work due to CI.

The definition for TPD nowadays tend to include being unable to work for an income due to a permanent incapacitation. The coverage only lasts as long as the plan's duration, which ideally should be long enough to cover liabilities till they are paid off and dependents until they are independent.

However, CSL is meant to provide for your long term care needs, especially in old age. These range from your nursing home costs to specialized care settings, etc, in a scenario where you cannot do 3 or more out of the 6 activities of daily living. The coverage is for life and it also makes sense as it is more likely that in retirement and old age, one suffers from some kind of disability that greatly interferes with your daily life.

CSL, while providing a lifetime payout, only pays $600/mth. If you feel that is enough today, then you don't have to do anything. But in today's context, that is barely enough for a maid, let alone nursing home care. Even with the 2% escalation in payouts, we're looking at maybe a $1200/mth payout after age 67, 37 years from now. By then, costs would have increased from today as well.

We're really just playing catch up. Thus, getting your CSL payout increased with a supplement plan (say, another $1000/mth extra on top of CSL) will ensure that you at least have $2200/mth if something happens after age 67. While that may not be enough by then, it is definitely a step up from $1200/mth. More importantly, if you are young and healthy now, you won't have any issues getting the suppplement plan, because you are still insurable. When chronic conditions like diabetes sets in, you won't be able to get any supplementary coverage at all.

However, I must caution one thing which the agent might have missed out. CSL and CSL supplement plan premiums include GST. We know that GST is already 7% now and will rise in future. When GST hits 9%, CSL premiums are still fully payable from CPF MA, but your CSL supplement plan premiums of $593/yr will be come roughly $604/yr. If you strictly don't want to pay cash, this will be a minor bugbear ($4/yr is really not the issue here), but more importantly, if you didn't pay this $4/yr by accident or otherwise, your policy might lapse. So I hope this was brought to your attention.

Another thing to note is that statistically, precisely 2/6 ADLs is very rare, on the order of single digit percentage. I do not have full stats for every claim in Singapore, but one set of statistics from one insurer for long term care shows that exactly 2/6 ADL claims accounted for 1% of claims in 2018, with majority being 5/6 or 6/6 ADL claims. This figure was 0% for 2019 and 1H2020. A 3/6 ADL plan, for the same amount of coverage would be cheaper than a 2/6 ADL plan. So if you intent to keep below the MA limit of $600/yr, you might have a higher payout for a 3/6 ADL compared to a 2/6 ADL plan.

In conclusion, you should exercise your option to increase your payout now, when you are still young and healthy. However, do note the caveat regarding GST increase, as well as claim likelihood for 2/6 ADL.​​​

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