Axa Pulsar

[Jwlng]

There's currently a 15% promotion on AXA term plans, if you're interested.

 

[zzxiaoboizz]

I received something similar of sorts recently, will up this to raise awareness

 

[Beck's]

sorry to bump on old thread.
Advice needed from lao jiao.
I bought this pulsar for almost 3 years now.
I already have the initial unit account and now is accumulating funds for my flexible account. Now after thinking back I kinda regret of my old decision and wanted to pull out. If I close my account now I would lose around 5400 and only get back 3000+ from my flexible account.
Do you think I should close my account or withdraw all the money from my flexible to pay for my monthly premium until it mature to get back the initial account sum?
Thanks in advance

Sorry for bumping as well. Im facing the same thing as the person as well. Im thinking ofsurrendering my plan after 4.5 years. Ill lose around 7k. But i really cant see how this plan can have a decent return. After all these years, the portfolio value is the same as what i put in. Haha, i think all the returns makan by the company liao.

I will bite the bullet and cut loose.

 

[dolph001]

Sorry for bumping as well. Im facing the same thing as the person as well. Im thinking ofsurrendering my plan after 4.5 years. Ill lose around 7k. But i really cant see how this plan can have a decent return. After all these years, the portfolio value is the same as what i put in. Haha, i think all the returns makan by the company liao.

I will bite the bullet and cut loose.

This is the breakdown and comparison of AXA Pulsar with Singapore Savings Bond which I found somewhere on the web.

Breakeven for AXA Pulsar is ~1.6% excluding fund fee, typically 1.5%...
So real breakeven is ~3.1%.
Assuming inflation of 3%, you would need 6.1% to breakeven in terms of purchasing power.

This blogger has something to tell you.
http://sgbudgetbabe.blogspot.sg/2016/10/why-i-cancelled-my-ilp-investment.html

 

[Beck's]

This is the breakdown and comparison of AXA Pulsar with Singapore Savings Bond which I found somewhere on the web.

Breakeven for AXA Pulsar is ~1.6% excluding fund fee, typically 1.5%...
So real breakeven is ~3.1%.
Assuming inflation of 3%, you would need 6.1% to breakeven in terms of purchasing power.

This blogger has something to tell you.
http://sgbudgetbabe.blogspot.sg/2016/10/why-i-cancelled-my-ilp-investment.html

Thanks. Thats exactly what im gonna do as well. Just cut the lost now. Thanks!

 

[Shion]

Depends on mentality. Some people refuse to cut because they cannot accept the losses.

 

[akwl88]

Unsolicited Content (Commercial solicitation / Ads / Referrals / Spam)

Sounds like referral scammer lol

 

[m3g4c0p]

Lol, i can share with you my account. hahas..

 

[Happyhappydays]

(This is a ramble) If anyone has time to read on about AXA Pulsar, hope to share my own experience with an AXA agent whom I feel didn’t do a good job representing the terms to me holistically. She was sharing the benefits based on a 30-year premium payment term plan despite me wanting to commit to paying premiums for 5 years only. She was very careful to be accurate on specific points on a standalone basis, so that she is not mis-selling I think, but still very sneaky!

First off, this AXA Pulzer product is a very complicated ILP policy with two types of accounts “Initial Unit Account (IUA)” and “Accumulation Units Account (AUA)”. There are various rules, charges, and fees on these 2 accounts. The product summary document alone is 23 pages long (and this is only for rules/charges/fees, the actual process of investing in unit trusts and which funds etc needs another session). The agent selectively referred to some of the charges, and glossed over the rest by saying they are not applicable.

The agent kept stressing that “the charges are very low”. I later realised that’s because she was referring ONLY to the AUA account, which has a perpetual 1.5%pa charge slapped on the value of the unit trusts throughout the policy life, regardless of its performance. The agent said 1.5%pa on this AUA account is “one of the lowest in the market” because other products will charge a 5% sales charge. She kept repeating and stressing on this “very low” 1.5%pa throughout the call.

Yes she didn’t fail to mention that there’s a “4%pa charge” so no mis-representation here. However, I remember she distinctly said verbatin that this 4% chage is “only for the first 18 months” and “only first 18 months, and after 18months, there is no more 4%” and “after that the very low 1.5%pa charge will kick in”. And did not go into details on the 4%.

I actually thought the 4%pa will stop after 18 months. WRONG. Luckily, I read the Product Summary and I realise I have to pay for this Account Maintenance Fee of 4%pa for 30 years based on the policy illustration (stress: this 4%pa is payable during the Premium Payment Term, which is between 5 to 30 years long) not just during the first 18 months. This 4%pa is calculated based on the value of the unit trusts that is bought by the Initial Unit Account (IUA) premiums. I will need to contribute premiums for the first 18 months into this IUA. This is what the 18 months refer to.

So even then I thought, “This 4%pa is only payable during the Premium Payment Term and I only want to pay premium for say 5 years. So I pay 4%pa over 5 years shld be ok?”. Here’s the kicker: the agent presented to me a plan with a Premium Payment Term that lasts for 30years, so it means I’m going to be paying this 4%pa for 30years! (Goodness). When I pressed on, she then explained I will only get the max bonus of 168%, highest bonus in the market, if I sign up for a 30-year Premium Payment Term so she was only trying to “help me”.

Then I asked, if I have a 30-year Premium Payment Term, it means I have to contribute $X amount into the ILP for 30 years right? I will only want to commit to pay premiums for just 5 years. She then said yes, I only pay for 5 years & after that, I can use my dividends from 6th year onwards to pay off the premiums/charges/fees for the next 25 years. One will be wondering how this is possible. Well, based on her calculations, this is “very doable” cos she said I will be earning 15%pa on my dividends. The regular dividends can be used to contribute the premiums for 30 years. She said she is really trying to help me pay off the premiums but nowhere in her pitch did she say that the 15%pa is not guaranteed. Of cos everyone will say, nothing is guaranteed, this is basic understanding, no need to spell out so clearly - that 15%pa is never guaranteed. So I already know her “help” may not materialise.

Back to the 4%pa to be paid for 30 years, I said all these charges added up seem very high. She said “this is very good” cos I only pay more when the unit trust is doing well, that "the insurer only gets paid when I’m doing well”. I then pressed her to explain what she meant. Does that mean I don’t need to pay charges if my unit trusts don’t perform? She said these fees ensures that the value of the unit trust will never go to zero. This is because if my account /unit trust value goes to zero means AXA doesn’t get paid any fees at all ma. If my unit trust value drops to half, “AXA only gets paid half”. (This just means I am guaranteeing that AXA always earns 4% and 1.5%, but yet my unit trust value and dividends are not guaranteed at all.)

Anyway, I didn’t proceed. The agent kept harping on “168% bonus being the most generous” in the market, and “1.5% on the AUA is one of the lowest in the market”. Both are correct I suppose, if taken on a standalone basis.

Overall, this product is quite complicated, and I thankfully didn’t decide just based on the high bonus and “low” charges. I actually spoke to this agent at length over 3 zoom sessions and only found out at the last session that she was trying to get me to sign on a 30-year plan cos she was trying to “help” me get the 168% bonus. And this was only after I pressed on for her to show me how the charges are calculated one by one.

If I had never clarified, I will hv blur blur sign on for a 30 permium term year policy (thinking that I stop paying premums after 5 years) and get a rude shock on year 6 if the dividends didn’t perform 15%pa.

 

[reddevil0728]

(This is a ramble) If anyone has time to read on about AXA Pulsar, hope to share my own experience with an AXA agent whom I feel didn’t do a good job representing the terms to me holistically. She was sharing the benefits based on a 30-year premium payment term plan despite me wanting to commit to paying premiums for 5 years only. She was very careful to be accurate on specific points on a standalone basis, so that she is not mis-selling I think, but still very sneaky!

First off, this AXA Pulzer product is a very complicated ILP policy with two types of accounts “Initial Unit Account (IUA)” and “Accumulation Units Account (AUA)”. There are various rules, charges, and fees on these 2 accounts. The product summary document alone is 23 pages long (and this is only for rules/charges/fees, the actual process of investing in unit trusts and which funds etc needs another session). The agent selectively referred to some of the charges, and glossed over the rest by saying they are not applicable.

The agent kept stressing that “the charges are very low”. I later realised that’s because she was referring ONLY to the AUA account, which has a perpetual 1.5%pa charge slapped on the value of the unit trusts throughout the policy life, regardless of its performance. The agent said 1.5%pa on this AUA account is “one of the lowest in the market” because other products will charge a 5% sales charge. She kept repeating and stressing on this “very low” 1.5%pa throughout the call.

Yes she didn’t fail to mention that there’s a “4%pa charge” so no mis-representation here. However, I remember she distinctly said verbatin that this 4% chage is “only for the first 18 months” and “only first 18 months, and after 18months, there is no more 4%” and “after that the very low 1.5%pa charge will kick in”. And did not go into details on the 4%.

I actually thought the 4%pa will stop after 18 months. WRONG. Luckily, I read the Product Summary and I realise I have to pay for this Account Maintenance Fee of 4%pa for 30 years based on the policy illustration (stress: this 4%pa is payable during the Premium Payment Term, which is between 5 to 30 years long) not just during the first 18 months. This 4%pa is calculated based on the value of the unit trusts that is bought by the Initial Unit Account (IUA) premiums. I will need to contribute premiums for the first 18 months into this IUA. This is what the 18 months refer to.

So even then I thought, “This 4%pa is only payable during the Premium Payment Term and I only want to pay premium for say 5 years. So I pay 4%pa over 5 years shld be ok?”. Here’s the kicker: the agent presented to me a plan with a Premium Payment Term that lasts for 30years, so it means I’m going to be paying this 4%pa for 30years! (Goodness). When I pressed on, she then explained I will only get the max bonus of 168%, highest bonus in the market, if I sign up for a 30-year Premium Payment Term so she was only trying to “help me”.

Then I asked, if I have a 30-year Premium Payment Term, it means I have to contribute $X amount into the ILP for 30 years right? I will only want to commit to pay premiums for just 5 years. She then said yes, I only pay for 5 years & after that, I can use my dividends from 6th year onwards to pay off the premiums/charges/fees for the next 25 years. One will be wondering how this is possible. Well, based on her calculations, this is “very doable” cos she said I will be earning 15%pa on my dividends. The regular dividends can be used to contribute the premiums for 30 years. She said she is really trying to help me pay off the premiums but nowhere in her pitch did she say that the 15%pa is not guaranteed. Of cos everyone will say, nothing is guaranteed, this is basic understanding, no need to spell out so clearly - that 15%pa is never guaranteed. So I already know her “help” may not materialise.

Back to the 4%pa to be paid for 30 years, I said all these charges added up seem very high. She said “this is very good” cos I only pay more when the unit trust is doing well, that "the insurer only gets paid when I’m doing well”. I then pressed her to explain what she meant. Does that mean I don’t need to pay charges if my unit trusts don’t perform? She said these fees ensures that the value of the unit trust will never go to zero. This is because if my account /unit trust value goes to zero means AXA doesn’t get paid any fees at all ma. If my unit trust value drops to half, “AXA only gets paid half”. (This just means I am guaranteeing that AXA always earns 4% and 1.5%, but yet my unit trust value and dividends are not guaranteed at all.)

Anyway, I didn’t proceed. The agent kept harping on “168% bonus being the most generous” in the market, and “1.5% on the AUA is one of the lowest in the market”. Both are correct I suppose, if taken on a standalone basis.

Overall, this product is quite complicated, and I thankfully didn’t decide just based on the high bonus and “low” charges. I actually spoke to this agent at length over 3 zoom sessions and only found out at the last session that she was trying to get me to sign on a 30-year plan cos she was trying to “help” me get the 168% bonus. And this was only after I pressed on for her to show me how the charges are calculated one by one.

If I had never clarified, I will hv blur blur sign on for a 30 permium term year policy (thinking that I stop paying premums after 5 years) and get a rude shock on year 6 if the dividends didn’t perform 15%pa.

You are your own best defender.

if your guard is High, no matter how hard sell some people can be, they can’t get to you