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Anonymous

08 Nov 2019

āˆ™

Insurance

What should I prepare when meeting my Insurance Agent for a financial review?

Never been to one, Genuinely curious

Discussion (3)

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Alvin Teo

08 Nov 2019

Aviva Relationship Consultant at Aviva Affinity Channel

Hereā€™s a not so politically correct answer from an adviser myself.

Firstly, the term ā€œfinancial reviewā€ means nothing. If you want, it basically stands for: how can we find ways for you to spend on me.

In the meeting opener, the agent may ask questions to get ā€œyesā€ replies like:
Do you want to grow your money?
Do you want to retire younger/richer?

Not that it is wrong, but itā€™s like asking do you breathe oxygen.

Of course if the adviser actually shows competency and professionalism thatā€™s good. But step away if itā€™s pure product selling.

For example based on the above two generic questions I can draw a few lines and circles leading you to buy retirement plans or ILPs.

Anyways...do formulate some genuine questions on your finances. What you know you ask, what you donā€™t know you check the answer if you feel uncomfortable with the replies.

For instance, in my openers with cold clients, I would do quick assessments on what they have using basic insurance concepts and slowly take it from there.

Of course these will serve to build up my recommendations and depending on your own priorities and budget, you may take up my recommendations progressively.

If you want an adviser who represents an independent broker who can distribute solutions from multiple companies so as to save you the time to compare one by one, do let me know.

Or let us know how your virgin experience doing financial review went.

To quote the friends of Oliver newton John: tell me more, tell me more, did he put up a fight?

Elijah Lee

08 Nov 2019

Senior Financial Services Manager at Phillip Securities (Jurong East)

Hi anon,

If it's a first appointment:

As a general guideline, be prepared to share your personal financial information with the advisor/agent; that would include details such as income, expenses, savings, CPF, current investments, dependents, current policies, etc. If you are not comfortable to share, you don't have to, but it does make it a little harder for planning to be done.

If it is a review meeting:

If nothing has changed, then is there really a need for a review meeting? By change, I mean something of significance since the last review. E.g. you got married, bought a house, or had a kid, or a major job change with accompanying pay raise. If things are status quo with maybe a 5% increment on your salary, there really isn't a need to review unless that 5% increment gives you budget to consider things that were discussed but not acted on previously; e.g. you had considered investing but wanted to build more savings first and get more cashflow prior to starting.

If you have further questions feel free to reply to this post.

Kelly Trinh

08 Nov 2019

Backoffice technical at financial services firm

Depends what you mean by a financial review - but assuming this is the first meeting, then likely he...

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