prulink protection plus

Hellooo

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Anyone sign prulink protection plus before? Is it good for long term? How much u all pay per month?
 

PRUbombz

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Anyone sign prulink protection plus before? Is it good for long term? How much u all pay per month?

I have one myself. The advantage of Prulink Protection Plus is the low cost of insurance when one is young. You can consider getting this plan only if you intend to keep this policy for long term (ie 20 yrs and beyond). The cost of starting up this policy is high due to the initial allocation rates and other charges. But in order to identify if the returns are doing well, what one should be looking at is actually the actual unit value on the policy with respect to the projected value on the benefit illustration. But do note that even in the projected returns of 4-8%, it takes at least 10 yrs to break even. So if you are purely looking at investment, this should not be a plan you want to look at. But if you are looking at a protection plan, and at the same time don't mind diversifying your investment with the cash value in the policy for long term, then you can consider this option. How much u pay really depends how much you want to be protected, at the same time, how much you want to invest.

But to answer your question, whether is it good for long term, really depends on how well the funds you choose perform. At the same time, long term would probably mean till mid 50s. Beyond that, cost of insurance can be so high that it will eventually eat up most of your premium, meaning less into investment. Thus, this plan is advisable to surrender or bring down insurance coverage to zero when you reach that age.

Some people may feel when you get older, that is the time when you need the coverage. Thats why not 1 insurance policy fits the bill. We should have a 2nd or 3rd policy to compliment your portfolio by maintaining a certain coverage when we choose to surrender or switching this ILP to purely an investment account with no insurance coverage. The main advantage as highlighted initially is the low cost of insurance when young.
 

Saj.Mahal

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Anyone sign prulink protection plus before? Is it good for long term? How much u all pay per month?

If you know the difference between Whole Life, Term and ILP and you like ILP, then it is good for you.

If you don't know, better find out Sir!

I personally prefer whole life + term together.
 

archcherub

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disadvantage of it?

lots of hidden costs.
monthly policy fees, 5% spread commission within the policy that takes all ur premium and convert into units, THEN deducting those units as costs for all costs, hence making sure they eat 5% of all ur premium first.

life insurance costs within is not cheap at all (check out the older ages).
most extra benefits, such as unconditional insurance at milestones are useless if u plan out your life way in advance.

and front-loading so have fun paying the policy in the first few years coz 90% of it is going to the salesperson and his manager, director and their overseas trips.
 

PRUbombz

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lots of hidden costs.
monthly policy fees, 5% spread commission within the policy that takes all ur premium and convert into units, THEN deducting those units as costs for all costs, hence making sure they eat 5% of all ur premium first.

life insurance costs within is not cheap at all (check out the older ages).
most extra benefits, such as unconditional insurance at milestones are useless if u plan out your life way in advance.

and front-loading so have fun paying the policy in the first few years coz 90% of it is going to the salesperson and his manager, director and their overseas trips.

IMO, 5% bid offer spread is nothing unusual for any investment in fund houses isnt it? But yes, there is a administration charge of $5 per month. But given a premium say $200 a month, that would be like 0.2% of the premium?

Life insurance costs is expensive in the late 50s onwards. That's why this policy is not recommended to keep beyond retirement. And do not forget how dirt cheap the insurance costs during the early years in life. ie Early CC on 3PA will cost about $632 to insure $150k for a 29 yr old. But for a term, it may cost around $1300.

For the 90% premium going to cost of starting up the policy, wouldn't that apply to any other life policy that is not investment-linked?

I'm not trying to start another long series of argument discussing whether investment-linked life policy is good or bad. But in my humble opinion, the product do serve a need for a targeted group of people. It has its perks which no other products can fill. But of course for those that likes to BTITR, this may not be appealing to them.
 

Shiny Things

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IMO, 5% bid offer spread is nothing unusual for any investment in fund houses isnt it?

Yes it is. A 5% bid-offer spread on anything - especially unit trusts - is very very unusual.

But in my humble opinion, the product do serve a need for a targeted group of people. It has its perks which no other products can fill.

Who are these people, exactly?

ILPs have their uses in the UK and America as a tax dodge for high income earners, but Singapore doesn't have any of the taxes (dividend tax, CGT, estate tax) that these products aim to dodge. And without the tax benefits, an ILP is just an extortionately expensive way to buy unit trusts.
 

PRUbombz

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Yes it is. A 5% bid-offer spread on anything - especially unit trusts - is very very unusual.



Who are these people, exactly?

ILPs have their uses in the UK and America as a tax dodge for high income earners, but Singapore doesn't have any of the taxes (dividend tax, CGT, estate tax) that these products aim to dodge. And without the tax benefits, an ILP is just an extortionately expensive way to buy unit trusts.

These people would be the youth, age 0 to 30. Because the cost of insurance you paying is MUCH lesser than a typical term policy. I would reckon that would easily outweigh the couple of charges on the policy. The savings there will then be invested and continue to grow.

One example for insuring 100k death and another 100k 3rd stage critical illness,

Aged 10, $54 for 100k death and $41 for 100k ci = $95

Aged 30, $77 for 100k death and $85 for 100k ci = $162

Aged 40, $145 for 100k death and $245 for 100k ci = $390

Aged 50, $465 for 100k death and $733 for 100k ci = $1198

As you can see, cost of insuring in the early stages in life is really very cheap. To my understanding, no other term policies out there can match the cost of insuring below 30 yrs old. Once hit aged 40, maybe. So, what I'm really trying to say is that this policy does provide cheap insurance when bought young. And this is the key advantage of this product. The amount of savings can easily outweigh the additional few % of bid offer spread depending on whichever funds you buy from.
 
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incredible.piggie

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These people would be the youth, age 0 to 30. Because the cost of insurance you paying is MUCH lesser than a typical term policy. I would reckon that would easily outweigh the couple of charges on the policy. The savings there will then be invested and continue to grow.

One example for insuring 100k death and another 100k 3rd stage critical illness,

Aged 10, $54 for 100k death and $41 for 100k ci = $95

Aged 30, $77 for 100k death and $85 for 100k ci = $162

Aged 40, $145 for 100k death and $245 for 100k ci = $390

Aged 50, $465 for 100k death and $733 for 100k ci = $1198

As you can see, cost of insuring in the early stages in life is really very cheap. To my understanding, no other term policies out there can match the cost of insuring below 30 yrs old. Once hit aged 40, maybe. So, what I'm really trying to say is that this policy does provide cheap insurance when bought young. And this is the key advantage of this product. The amount of savings can easily outweigh the additional few % of bid offer spread depending on whichever funds you buy from.

Paiseh, me ish confuse by your post. Me ish got a few qn.

From my understanding arent any type of insurance, (and by using this word, i mean insuring from unexpected situation ie protection) always cheaper when one starts young? It's not limited to investment link insurance only right? No?

Second I guess the cost you provided is for the prulink. If you dont mind could you also provide the cost of your so call typical term policy to support your claim of prulink is cheaper than them?

Last but not least say if i buy prulink from 20-40 then term from 40-70, will it be cheaper than buying term from 25-70? (say if one grads from poly at 19.)
 

PRUbombz

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Paiseh, me ish confuse by your post. Me ish got a few qn.
From my understanding arent any type of insurance, (and by using this word, i mean insuring from unexpected situation ie protection) always cheaper when one starts young? It's not limited to investment link insurance only right? No?

Yes, definitely the younger you buy insurance, the cheaper it is. But in addition to that, the cost of insuring is different when compared to a traditional term or life policy vs a investment-linked life policy. Traditional life policy gives a level cost of insurance. Meaning when the policy is bought, the person locks in a fixed average cost of insuring that $x sum assured. For investment linked life policy, even though the person bought early, the cost of insuring the $x will continue to increase with his age. The cash value in an investment linked life works something like this... Premium (fixed) - cost of insurance (variable which increases) = investment (cash value invested for that year)

Hope this explains your question. Sorry its abit tough to explain the technicality of this in a forum.


Second I guess the cost you provided is for the prulink. If you dont mind could you also provide the cost of your so call typical term policy to support your claim of prulink is cheaper than them?
You can easily refer to one of the cheapest group term insurance available in Singapore. Safra group term.

http://www.safra.sg/~/media/PDFs/Insurance/Essential-Term-Living-Care/SAFRA-Premium-Rates.ashx

Last but not least say if i buy prulink from 20-40 then term from 40-70, will it be cheaper than buying term from 25-70? (say if one grads from poly at 19.)

It doesn't really work that way... Buying term early is still way cheaper than buying term from 40-70. If you ask me, to enjoy the low cost of insuring, can consider getting both. But then again, different pple have different needs and goals. So, we still need to do a proper fact find and understand the needs before we can decide what is recommended.
 

YuM_ChA

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the best advantage of getting ilp is probably the fact that you can double claim for critical illness and the plan will continue without having to pay monthly premiums. (can claim for death/tpd in future)

other than this feature available in ILP, the old saying of getting term and investing the rest yourself is the way to go. most unit trusts have bid/spread of 3%. the extra 2% compounded can really eat into alot of profits
 
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