Advice Needed About Insurance

[Estee Lauder]

hi everybody

need some guidance and advice in insurance.

i bought a insurance policy (PRUlink protection plus account) from directly from prudential agent

a agent from finexis approach me to offer to review my existing policy and PRUlink protection plus account.

the agent told me to cancel PRUlink protection plus account he told me that this policy premium will keep on increase til a very large amount when i grow older that it will burn out my investment in the unit trust.


my questions are

1) buying directly from insurance company vs finexis is there any differents or pro and cons ?

2) do you guys buy all insurance from the same company or mix ?

Thank you for your time

 

[Shiny Things]

So here's the deal. The thing you bought from Prudential is mostly an investment; they just wrap a layer of insurance around it as well. And mixing insurance and investment is always a bad idea; you get bad investments and bad, expensive insurance.

The Finexis sales rep is right that unit trusts are better and cheaper, and that you should tear up the Prulink policy because its fees are extortionate, but don't forget he's trying to sell you something as well - he's trying to get you to move to Finexis so they can charge you advisory fees.

There's an even better and cheaper alternative: that's ETFs, exchange-traded funds (which are basically exactly like a unit trust, except they're listed on the stock exchange and you can buy and sell them like a stock).

You can buy an ETF that tracks the Straits Times Index - it's a bunch of big, well-known, trustworthy stocks, and that's a great place to invest your money.

And you can replace the insurance part of the Prudential policy with some cheap, sensible term life insurance from a cheaper provider (I hear good things about NTUC, but shop around!).

 

[kehyi4]

Maybe i can share my experience. I held a PruLink policy from 2001 until Jan this year when I surrendered it. The total gain after 14 years = $0.

I got back roughly whatever I paid in premiums. Actually, I made a loss because I lost out on the interest my money would have earned, as well as the opportunity cost of investing that money.

For comparison: Straits Times Index in Oct 2001 was at 1367. In Jan 2015, it was at 3391. 148% rise. My gain from PruLink during this time period - $0

 

[Estee Lauder]

Maybe i can share my experience. I held a PruLink policy from 2001 until Jan this year when I surrendered it. The total gain after 14 years = $0.

I got back roughly whatever I paid in premiums. Actually, I made a loss because I lost out on the interest my money would have earned, as well as the opportunity cost of investing that money.

For comparison: Straits Times Index in Oct 2001 was at 1367. In Jan 2015, it was at 3391. 148% rise. My gain from PruLink during this time period - $0

So here's the deal. The thing you bought from Prudential is mostly an investment; they just wrap a layer of insurance around it as well. And mixing insurance and investment is always a bad idea; you get bad investments and bad, expensive insurance.

The Finexis sales rep is right that unit trusts are better and cheaper, and that you should tear up the Prulink policy because its fees are extortionate, but don't forget he's trying to sell you something as well - he's trying to get you to move to Finexis so they can charge you advisory fees.

There's an even better and cheaper alternative: that's ETFs, exchange-traded funds (which are basically exactly like a unit trust, except they're listed on the stock exchange and you can buy and sell them like a stock).

You can buy an ETF that tracks the Straits Times Index - it's a bunch of big, well-known, trustworthy stocks, and that's a great place to invest your money.

And you can replace the insurance part of the Prudential policy with some cheap, sensible term life insurance from a cheaper provider (I hear good things about NTUC, but shop around!).

thank you for sharing your advice and experiences

 

[Estee Lauder]

sorry i have additional questions

is tokio marine , axa , and Aviva trustable ?


and i hear that insurance company here to put a certain amount of money with out govt in case they have finanical problem than the govt will use this part of the money to give back to the policy holder