BBCWatcher
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IRAs and 401(k)s go to legal spouses, period. They have to explicitly waive their rights to those inherited assets for any other outcome. Is that what you're remembering perhaps?I was reading this book a few weeks back that said in some cases PoD isn’t effective when it’s a nonresident alien beneficiary (still goes to probate). If I remember correctly it was only in the case of brokerage/securities or IRA/401(k) type of accounts, but I’m not 100% sure.
Oversimplifying, it's generally better if you bear as much burden as you can for ordinary household expenses. It's better if she then focuses on the retirement portion of your joint lifecycles. But don't bend yourselves into pretzels about it.We both work and just sort of agreed on who takes care of which bills.
Yes, it's both a regulated and competitive market, so the differences are at the margins.Thanks for listing out the points! Just looked through the comparison of plans from CPF and have identified some of the main differences based on your points, everything is very close!
Both pre- and post- are important, but post- is more important.
- Pre-hospitalisation: Prudential seems to be the best here with 180 days no exception coverage, followed by GE with 120 days, and Raffles 90/180 but based on approved partners
Prudential does have a downgrade option: their Standard Plan. Yes, that's less attractive than what Great Eastern (especially) and Raffles Shield offer.
- Post-hospitalisation: Prudential leads the rest again with 365 days of no exception coverages, followed by GE with 180/365 coverages with approved partners similar to Raffles
- Policy Year Limit: GE leads this with coverage of 1m, followed by Pru and Raffles with 600k
- Downgrade option: GE Leads this with one of the best B1 ward plans, followed by Raffles. Pru doesnt have any B1 option
For the record, none of these particular downgrade options are appealing to PRs.
It looks like you've reversed the premiums for Great Eastern's riders. Elite costs more than Classic.Sorry could you elaborate on this point? Not sure what I should be looking out to compare the different riders available
- Riders: But if I were to get a rider for my age, GE has the Elite ($45) and Classic rider ($182) plan while Prudential only has one plan that costs $225, Raffles has their Key Rider ($127) or Premier Rider ($60)
There's a reason for that, of course. With Classic you pay the deductible first, then the rider takes over and caps your out of pocket (and often MediSave payable) expenses for covered services at $3,000 per policy year. With Elite the insurance company covers 95% of the deductible, from dollar one, and also caps at $3,000. Having to pay a deductible (often MediSave payable) doesn't strike me as a calamity worth insuring against in this country with compulsory medical savings, so I prefer the more affordable Classic rider here.
Prudential and Raffles Shield don't offer equivalents to GE's TotalCare Classic rider. Raffles Shield's Premier rider is a "luxury" rider (GE also has one), and it's not worth it.
All members of my household are on this particular Prudential plan, so obviously I like it. Back when I was shopping for coverage it was the best fit, but that was before Raffles Shield came along and before Great Eastern improved their A Plus plan.I am inclined on purchasing Prushield due to the longer pre/post hospitalisation coverages but just wanted to check with you if it is worth the following trade offs:
- Prushield has lower annual coverage limit (600k, compared to GE, 1mil)
- Prushield only has one rider plan available, and is one of the most expensive
If I were making this decision now I'd probably lean toward Great Eastern due to the higher overall limit, the nice downgrade option (for citizens only), and their more affordable (and still well designed) Classic rider. Yes, there are 60 fewer pre-hospitalization coverage days, but the "pre-" is the less important of the two coverage windows. It's a very close call, though, between all three of these carriers. I don't think you can go wrong with any of them, really.
You mean you have an existing Integrated Shield plan, a Standard Plan? With which carrier?Lastly, on a separate note, just wanted to confirm with you on how important pre-post hospitalisation coverages really are? What if let's say I already have an existing condition with a standard plan that wouldn't be carried forward if I purchase a B1 plan and above.
I'm not actually sure what happens if you were to upgrade your Standard Plan and stay with that carrier. I think the pre-existing condition would be covered up to Standard Plan benefit levels, assuming the pre-existing condition was not pre-existing to when you signed up for their Standard Plan. But you'd have to double check that with the carrier.
Zooming out a little, this is always an interesting question: how much should I be worried about a pre-existing condition "reset"? Should I switch plans in order to improve benefits, or should I worry more about possible pre-existing condition exclusions? That really depends on your personal medical understanding of yourself. The standard applied here is generally a "known or reasonably should have known" standard when it comes to pre-existing conditions. If you feel comfortable with your medical condition based on that standard, then I think it's fine to switch. One caveat, though: there's an additional waiting period for coverage of congenital abnormalities. So, for example, if you've got some undiagnosed heart valve flutter that nobody has ever noticed, but you've had it since birth, and then within the next couple years it starts causing some problems that require medical intervention, that condition wouldn't be covered with a carrier switch. In that case, you'd get yourself referred into public hospital B2 or C ward (or maybe B2+ ward if you can find it), get MediShield Life coverage benefits, and pay the rest with MediSave and/or cash. Not the end of the world, in other words, but you'd just have to be a little more careful as a medical consumer and/or suck up more of the cost.
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