Would you say an infant needs life insurance? why?

HI Malvin,

I would say that it is more of what type of insurance an infant needs.

In my view, in order of importance:

• Hospitalization: This is a must. Hospital bills are quite high in Singapore for an admission.

• Accident plan: HFMD and such can be cheaply covered by an accident plan.

• Critical Illness: For insurability, this can be gotten if there is budget. I have seen children who were diagnosed with a CI when young. They generally won't be able to get any more coverage after that. The payout helps with the costs involved with the treatment as not everything is covered by hospitalization plans. And with the age of an infant, the premiums are really very low, and only payable for 10/15 years.

• Death/TPD: Nope. There are no dependents.

So, depending on the budget, the first three can be considered.

I will say that life insurance coverage is like a parachute. The moment you don't have it when you need it, you won't need it again.

Therefore, I am of the view that infants should have life insurance coverage as well, and the reason is simple - insurability interest. In a world filled with unknown variables, it is difficult to predict how healthy we are. Consequently, the only way to protect our insurability interest is to get proper insurance coverage while health allows us to do so.

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