*Official* BBCWatcher club

theokcoral

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He deserves his own thread!

Thanks for our BBW and Shiny Things for making this sub-forum a useful place for both noobs and experts to learn.
 

beefjerky

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He deserves his own thread!

Thanks for our BBW and Shiny Things for making this sub-forum a useful place for both noobs and experts to learn.

out of curiosity, who exactly is BBW? he seems really knowledgeable abt minute details
 

bobobob

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Sign me up! Membership requirement should be: put more money into your special account!
 

tangent314

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Please remember to clarify if you are a US citizen or resident before asking a question here!
 

BBCWatcher

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out of curiosity, who exactly is BBW?
I'll restate some basic facts about me and leave it at that:

* Living in Singapore
* CPF member
* U.S. citizen, and among the ~6%(*) of U.S. citizens living outside the United States who owe/pay some U.S. income tax on non-U.S. source income
* Lucky in several respects
* In broad agreement with John Bogle's saving/investing philosophies (diversification, simplicity, regularity, cost efficiency, etc.), and I'm also a Vanguard customer/member
* In broad agreement with Shiny Things, among others
* Do not work for any financial services firm, have no sales interest of any sort in any financial products, and don't want to
* Do not work for any government
* Work mostly because I enjoy my work

If I write something nice about a particular financial firm, financial product, or government offer it'll most probably be because I do it/use it personally because I think it's a good deal, or at least that I think it's a good deal in certain other circumstances. But I'm always looking for better deals, and I've learned about a few better deals in this forum. I try to do a lot of research and keep learning.

(*) J. Richard Harvey, Jr., a professor at Villanova University, estimated this particular percentage. It's the only estimate of its kind that I've found. That circa 6% is skewed toward U.S. citizens residing in comparatively low income tax jurisdictions who have relatively high or higher U.S. taxable non-U.S. source incomes. About 54% of adults residing in the U.S. owe/pay any U.S. income tax, for comparison.
 
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klarklar

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I'm surprised you do not work for any financial services firm. From your posts, I thought you are a financial salesman but a highly ethical one, given the deep knowledge and objectivity in your posts.

Some also suspect you work for the Singapore government since you are a strong advocate of CPF. Now, we know it's because CPF is a wonderful financial product for Singaporeans and foreigners who work in Singapore :)

Do you stick to passive Vanguard passive products or do you invest in individual stocks/bonds, given your deep financial knowledge and analytical skills? If you don't invest in individual stocks/bonds, why not since you seem well equipped to do so?

I'll restate some basic facts about me and leave it at that:

* Living in Singapore
* CPF member
* U.S. citizen, and among the ~6%(*) of U.S. citizens living outside the United States who owe/pay some U.S. income tax on non-U.S. source income
* Lucky in several respects
* In broad agreement with John Bogle's saving/investing philosophies (diversification, simplicity, regularity, cost efficiency, etc.), and I'm also a Vanguard customer/member
* In broad agreement with Shiny Things, among others
* Do not work for any financial services firm, have no sales interest of any sort in any financial products, and don't want to
* Do not work for any government
* Work mostly because I enjoy my work

If I write something nice about a particular financial firm, financial product, or government offer it'll most probably be because I do it/use it personally because I think it's a good deal, or at least that I think it's a good deal in certain other circumstances. But I'm always looking for better deals, and I've learned about a few better deals in this forum. I try to do a lot of research and keep learning.

(*) J. Richard Harvey, Jr., a professor at Villanova University, estimated this particular percentage. It's the only estimate of its kind that I've found. That circa 6% is skewed toward U.S. citizens residing in comparatively low income tax jurisdictions who have relatively high or higher U.S. taxable non-U.S. source incomes. About 54% of adults residing in the U.S. owe/pay any U.S. income tax, for comparison.
 

foozgarden

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I'll restate some basic facts about me and leave it at that:

* Living in Singapore
* CPF member
* U.S. citizen, and among the ~6%(*) of U.S. citizens living outside the United States who owe/pay some U.S. income tax on non-U.S. source income
* Lucky in several respects
* In broad agreement with John Bogle's saving/investing philosophies (diversification, simplicity, regularity, cost efficiency, etc.), and I'm also a Vanguard customer/member
* In broad agreement with Shiny Things, among others
* Do not work for any financial services firm, have no sales interest of any sort in any financial products, and don't want to
* Do not work for any government
* Work mostly because I enjoy my work

If I write something nice about a particular financial firm, financial product, or government offer it'll most probably be because I do it/use it personally because I think it's a good deal, or at least that I think it's a good deal in certain other circumstances. But I'm always looking for better deals, and I've learned about a few better deals in this forum. I try to do a lot of research and keep learning.

(*) J. Richard Harvey, Jr., a professor at Villanova University, estimated this particular percentage. It's the only estimate of its kind that I've found. That circa 6% is skewed toward U.S. citizens residing in comparatively low income tax jurisdictions who have relatively high or higher U.S. taxable non-U.S. source incomes. About 54% of adults residing in the U.S. owe/pay any U.S. income tax, for comparison.

which district do you live? 9, 10, 11? =)
 

BBCWatcher

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BBCWatcher's Broad Views on Insurance

Updated December 18, 2023

OK, so let's kick things off with a quick outline of my views on insurance. I think it's quite important to prioritize covering essential insurance needs first, ahead of saving and investing.

"Executive Summary": If you're a working adult in Singapore with a public hospital Integrated Shield plan, disability income insurance (DII), and (only if you have a dependent) term life insurance, then you've probably covered your genuine core personal insurance needs well.

Insurance is a financial tool that serves only one genuine purpose: it helps you reduce risks that you cannot reasonably handle on your own and that would seriously impair your basic lifestyle (and/or your loved ones' lives). In other words, good insurance helps you (or your dependent survivors) cope with genuine calamities. Like any other financial tool (or product), value for money is important. Often insurance companies will create complex products that include a little questionable insurance with a lot of even more questionable fluff. It's best to avoid such "hybrid" products.

In the Singapore context, I think there is a "Big Three" set of insurance products for most adults, and here they are:

* Medical insurance, which is supposed to pay (or at least reimburse) your biggest medical bills. Within Singapore fortunately there's a high quality and moderately priced (especially for citizens) public medical system, and that's your strong framework for nailing down this particular insurance need. Getting care from private medical providers might be nice, but it's not essential. In the government's view, compulsory MediShield Life coverage combined with a "reasonable" or better Medisave balance are sufficient for public hospital B2 ward (or C ward) stays. I happen to disagree with the government on this point, and I think there's a reasonable argument that an "as charged" public hospital B1 ward Integrated Shield plan is an insurance necessity, for working adults anyway. Integrated Shield plan riders are helpful (particularly with cancer-related coverage), but if opting for a rider just pick the lowest cost one (a "Lite" or "Saver" rider typically) that caps but does not eliminate your annual out-of-pocket costs for covered services. Having to pay a $2,000 medical bill (partially Medisave payable), for example, is unpleasant perhaps but ought not be calamitous.

Integrated Shield coverage is quite reasonable for acute care involving hospitalization. It's not so great for "lingering" scenarios that involve chronic care needs. DII (see below) offers some help there.

If you venture outside Singapore, especially to high medical cost and/or poorly medically served areas, then travel medical insurance with medical repatriation and medical evacuation coverage is essential. The many other possible parts of common travel insurance, such as lost luggage and accidental death coverage, are not essential.

I think Great Eastern's "as charged" public hospital B1 ward Integrated Shield plan (with lowest cost rider) is the best in its category for Singaporean citizens. However, Singlife's Plan 3 with Cancer Coverage Plus is potentially interesting if you go riderless. The Cancer Coverage Plus part is to plug big gaps in Singlife's cancer drug coverage. For foreigners without adequate employer-provided insurance I suggest Prudential's PRUShield Plus with PRUExtra Plus Lite CoPay rider. For PRs there are some good public hospital A ward Integrated Shield plans with lowest cost riders. Great Eastern and Prudential are notable examples. Among public hospital B1 ward plans for PRs it's probably a race between NTUC Income (with their lowest cost rider) or Singlife Plan 3+Cancer Coverage Plus (riderless).

For travel medical insurance I generally like IM Global's "Patriot Platinum" for single trips. Sometimes Singsaver offers a nice discount on Starr's "Bronze" single trip policy, and I think it works if you're visiting a low medical cost country since the medical evacuation and repatriation coverage is the essential part. Be aware that you must deselect one of Starr's coverage options to get their core policy. I don't have a favorite annual travel medical insurance policy yet. Suggestions welcome!

* Disability income insurance (DII), sometimes called "income protection insurance," but be careful to find the genuine stuff. DII typically provides a monthly payout of up to 75% of your pre-disability income up until your 65th birthday. There's a waiting period, also called an elimination period, between the moment you experience a claimable disability and the first payout is made. Disability is grounded in employability, and partial loss of income can be covered. I'm in broad agreement with this article's explanation. Some fair warnings, though. First, DII is "expensive" because it actually covers a lot of risk. (Keep the premium under better control by choosing the longest waiting period possible, such as 6 months.) Second, you have to be earning an income from work to sign up, and that's hard to do if you're still pre-career, such as a university student. (You may be able to finesse that point even with part-time work.) Third, Singapore's DII carriers might drop your coverage if you spend "too much" time working overseas. Fourth, DII policies vary in how long they tolerate unemployment.

Singlife offers a MINDEF/SAF group disability insurance policy which might have some appeal, but it's quite a bit narrower than other DII policies, including Singlife's own general DII policy. CareShield Life, the successor to ElderShield Life, provides some disability insurance coverage from age 30. However, CareShield Life's definition of disability is dramatically narrower than DII definitions. It's good stuff (and compulsory for all Singaporeans and PRs born after a certain date), but it's not adequate on its own. Life insurance nearly always provides "total and permanent disability" (TPD) coverage, but that too has a very narrow definition of disability. There are some insurance companies outside Singapore that offer internationally oriented DII policies, but extra careful investigation is merited when considering those products.

* Life insurance, just as its name suggests, pays a cash benefit to your survivor(s) when you die. So that's the first important point: if you have no dependents who would be in genuine and substantial financial distress if you were to die tomorrow, then you do not need any type of life insurance. Sadness and grief don't count for these purposes. "Dependents" means anybody you care about who is genuinely financially dependent on you and your income. It could be a spouse, partner, child, parent, a close friend, or even a pet (hypothetically). Simple term life insurance is usually the best value for money because it's easy to compare, it can be purchased online (for policies up to S$400,000 each; and it's generally a good idea to have more than one policy if you need more than that), and it provides coverage for the specific term -- the typical period of time when your untimely death would be financially calamitous to your loved one(s), but also the period of time when you're hopefully saving, investing, and building up wealth that will, at some point before the term ends, be more than sufficient to take care of your dependents. Also, at some point, dependents (such as your children) often grow up and no longer become financially dependent. So, for all those reasons, term life insurance is a good fit, and good fits represent better value for money than bad fits.

Insurance salespeople will often argue that you should buy life insurance even before you have dependents, just in case you are not insurable later (due to a future medical or other condition). I don't think that's a great argument for reasons I've described elsewhere. It's certainly not a good argument for why paying for life insurance now is essential, and insurance essentials should be well covered before any and all insurance niceties or luxuries.

When considering how much term life insurance you need, tally up all your assets (including CPF savings, and net of debts), subtract some of that wealth for end of life care needs (if you "linger" and need to spend down some of those assets), and compare that remaining amount to what you think your dependents might genuinely need in the event of your untimely passing. You may get some free (or "free") life insurance from an employer, or from National Service, or with your NTUC membership, so include those opportunities in your coverage assessment.

It's possible to attach an extra cost Critical Illness rider to term life insurance that "accelerates" the life insurance payout if you're eligible to make a CI claim. I don't think CI makes the cut as an insurance necessity, but if you decide to get some CI coverage I think a simple accelerator rider of this sort is a reasonable way to do it.

I haven't mentioned home or personal liability insurance (usually sold together, in one policy), but you might need such a policy if you own a home, have expensive home contents, or are worried about liability risks. QBE Singapore offers the highest limit personal liability coverage (attached to a home insurance policy called "Home Prestige") that I've found so far, and it's pretty reasonably priced at least for HDB flats.

Anyway, if you cover the "Big 3" (or "Big 2" if you have no dependents) essential insurance needs, then you're doing rather well in terms of insurance. Once you've nailed down these insurance necessities then take a look at whether you ought to consider other insurance products. But remember that insurance can only ever pay money, and unfortunately money alone cannot reduce or eliminate all of life's risks.
 
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JuniorLion

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I am sure we know this by now. I am a proponent of PMI for private hospital and rider. The savings you get from buying B1 ward won't make you much richer.
 

foozgarden

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OK, so let's kick things off with a quick outline of my views on insurance. I think it's quite important to prioritize covering essential insurance needs first, ahead of saving and investing.

"Executive Summary": If you're a working adult in Singapore with a base public hospital Integrated Shield plan, disability income insurance (DII), and (only if you have dependents) term life insurance, then you've probably covered your genuine core personal insurance needs well.

Insurance is a financial tool that serves only one genuine purpose: it helps you reduce risks that you cannot reasonably handle on your own and that would seriously impair your basic lifestyle (and/or your loved ones' lives). In other words, good insurance helps you cope with genuine calamities. Like any other financial tool (or product), value for money is important. Often insurance companies will create complex products that include a little questionable insurance with a lot of even more questionable fluff. It's almost always best to avoid such "hybrid" products.

In the Singapore context, I think there is a "Big Three" set of insurance products for most adults, and here they are:

* Medical insurance, which is supposed to pay (or at least reimburse) your biggest medical bills. Within Singapore, fortunately there's a high quality and moderately priced (especially for citizens) public medical system, and that's your strong framework for nailing down this particular insurance need. Getting care from private medical providers might be nice, but it's not essential. In the government's view, compulsory MediShield Life coverage combined with a "reasonable" or better Medisave balance are sufficient for public hospital B2 ward (or C ward) stays. I happen to disagree with the government on this point, and I think there's a reasonable argument that an "as charged" public hospital B1 ward Integrated Shield plan is an insurance necessity, for working adults anyway. Integrated Shield plan riders are not essential, although if you decide to get a rider anyway then I'd opt for a "Lite" or "Saver" rider that caps but does not eliminate your annual out-of-pocket costs for covered services. Having to pay a $2,000 medical bill (partially Medisave payable), for example, is unpleasant perhaps but ought not be calamitous.

Integrated Shield coverage is quite reasonable for acute care involving hospitalization. It's not so great for "lingering" scenarios that involve chronic care needs. DII (see below) offers some help there.

If you venture outside Singapore, especially to high medical cost and/or poorly medically served areas, then travel medical insurance with medical repatriation and medical evacuation coverage is essential. The many other possible parts of common travel insurance, such as lost luggage and accidental death coverage, are not essential.

As of this writing, I think Great Eastern's "as charged" public hospital B1 ward Integrated Shield plan is the best in its category. I also like Bupa Global's "basic" annual travel medical insurance plan, purchased online in British pounds and with a coupon code (that's easily discoverable if you search online), unless you only make one or two trips outside Singapore per year when locally sold single trip policies could be better values. You just might get sufficient travel medical insurance coverage if you charge your tickets to a particular credit card and travel only to certain places where that limited level of coverage will be adequate.

* Disability income insurance (DII), sometimes called "income protection insurance," but be careful to find the genuine stuff. DII typically provides a monthly payout of up to 75% of your pre-disability income up until your 65th birthday. There's a waiting period, also called an elimination period, between the moment you experience a claimable disability and the first payout is made. Disability is grounded in employability, and partial loss of income can be covered. I'm in broad agreement with this article's explanation. Some fair warnings, though. First, DII is "expensive," but that's because it actually covers a lot of risk. (Keep the premium under better control by choosing the longest waiting period possible, such as 6 months. At equal premiums, a longer waiting period with a higher payout is much better than a shorter waiting period with a lower payout.) Second, you have to be earning an income from work to sign up, and that's hard to do if you're still pre-career, such as university student. (You may be able to finesse that point even with part-time work.) Third, Singapore's DII carriers might drop your coverage if you spend much time working overseas.

Aviva offers a MINDEF/SAF group disability insurance policy which might have some appeal, but it's quite a bit narrower than DII, including Aviva's own general DII coverage. As early as 2019 the government will introduce CareShield Life, a successor to ElderShield Life, which provides some disability insurance coverage from age 30. However, CareShield Life's definition of disability is dramatically narrower than DII definitions. It's better than nothing (and will be compulsory for all Singaporeans and PRs born after a certain date), but it's not adequate on its own. Life insurance nearly always provides "total and permanent disability" (TPD) coverage, but that too has a very narrow definition of disability. There are some insurance companies outside Singapore that offer internationally oriented DII policies, but extra careful investigation is merited when considering those products.

* Life insurance, just as its name suggests, pays a cash benefit to your survivor(s) when you die. So that's the first important point: if you have no dependents who would be in genuine and substantial financial distress if you were to die tomorrow, then you do not need any type of life insurance. Sadness and grief don't count for these purposes. "Dependents" means anybody you care about who is genuinely financially dependent on you and your income. It could be a spouse, partner, child, parent, a close friend, or even a pet. Simple term life insurance is usually the best value for money because it's easy to compare, it can be purchased online (for policies up to S$400,000 each; and it's generally a good idea to have more than one policy if you need more than that), and it provides coverage for the specific term -- the typical period of time when your untimely death would be financially calamitous to your loved one(s), but also the period of time when you're hopefully saving, investing, and building up wealth that will, at some point before the term ends, be more than sufficient to take care of your dependents. Also, at some point, dependents (such as your children) often grow up and no longer become financially dependent. So, for all those reasons, term life insurance is a good fit, and good fits represent better value for money than bad fits.

Life insurance salespeople will often argue that you should buy life insurance even before you have dependents, just in case you are not insurable later (due to a future medical or other condition). That's not a great argument, for a lot of reasons I've described elsewhere. It's certainly not a good argument for why paying for life insurance now is essential, and insurance essentials should be well covered before any and all insurance niceties or luxuries.

When considering how much term life insurance you need, tally up all your assets (including CPF savings, and net of debts), subtract some of that wealth for end of life care needs (if you "linger" and need to spend down some of those assets), and compare that remaining amount to what you think your dependents might genuinely need in the event of your untimely passing. You may get some free (or "free") life insurance from an employer, or from National Service, or with your NTUC membership, so include those opportunities in your coverage assessment.

If you cover these "Big Three" (or "Big Two" if you have no dependents) essential insurance needs, then you're doing rather well in terms of insurance. Once you've nailed down these insurance necessities then you can take a look at whether you ought to consider other insurance products. Remember, though, that insurance can only ever pay money, and unfortunately money alone cannot reduce or eliminate all of life's risks.

good stuff!

what plans are avail for foreign spouse?
out of the big three, my immediate concern is medical.
for simplicity sake, assume that no govt medical scheme is applicable.

is bupa as good , worse or better than cigna?
how easy or difficult are their claims process?
 
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