Early Critical Advice needed

[Maeda_Toshiie]

Early Stage CI is considered a luxury. Unless you do have pressing reasons for purchasing it, I am of the opinion that the money could be better spent.

Many have mentioned that if you have early stage CI, you could still work, hence the payout is unnecessary. Otherwise, if you have CI (i.e. considered late stage), then the payout is meant to tide over your family more than you during the trying times.

3 most important insurance (must-have) in Singapore:
1) Private Medical Insurance
2) Critical Illness
3) Term/Life

Others are considered luxuries.

CI is not strictly necessary.

Term is only needed for those with dependents. Whole life is not necessary either.

 

[Maeda_Toshiie]

I think our perspectives differ because of age and resource difference.
I have yet to build up a substantial saving to tahan a shock to the system i.e early stage illness.
That is why I am worried.

You have the whole thing backwards*. Unless you have a medical history or some family history (eg. your family tree is full of people dying from illness before 40), you are more likely to lose your job than subcumb to some illness.

Another thing, liquid assets on hand for emergencies is king. Not some policy that you may not be able to claim simply because you do not meet the criteria to the letter.


*As a 20+ year old, I was more concerned about building up highly liquid assets, because they give me options on what to do. As a 30+ year old, I still do.

 

[exterminazn]

What are some of the highly liquid assets? And of course brings non gtd returns of around 5%?

 

[BBCWatcher]

If you're going to insure against the risk that you become unable to work (and unable to earn an income) -- and I think you should! -- then do that. That's called disability income insurance (DII), and there are three carriers in Singapore that sell it: Aviva (IdealIncome), Great Eastern (Pay Assure), and AIA (Premier Disability Cover).

Early Critical Illness, Critical Illness, and Personal Accident insurance are all cause-specific policies, and they are full of holes. That's why they're "cheap." If you're unable to work and to earn an income for any reason(s) not on the list of causes in those policies, you're screwed. I do not like those policies one bit. They don't adequately cover the actual risk you care about: loss of income due to inability to work.

If/when you buy DII, my advice would be to choose the longest elimination period available (6 months is the maximum offered, I believe), and to build up your emergency reserve funds to cover that period of time. That'll help drive down the premium. Also, try to pick something you could at least survive on, and be sure to take inflation into account. For example, if you think you could survive on $3,000/month today, then you'd probably want to choose something like $4,000/month as the payout amount. (I think one of these carriers might offer an escalating payout, so that's another option.) Be very careful to choose the correct job description when you obtain quotations. The premiums are very sensitive to job roles/descriptions.

 

[soulblader_89]

Early Stage CI is considered a luxury. Unless you do have pressing reasons for purchasing it, I am of the opinion that the money could be better spent.

Many have mentioned that if you have early stage CI, you could still work, hence the payout is unnecessary. Otherwise, if you have CI (i.e. considered late stage), then the payout is meant to tide over your family more than you during the trying times.

3 most important insurance (must-have) in Singapore:
1) Private Medical Insurance
2) Critical Illness
3) Term/Life

Others are considered luxuries.

So it is not recommended to get the ECI insurance at all?

 

[swordsly]

Hmm interesting topic.

Correct me if I'm wrong but for CI, you are already in intermediate stages and unlikely to recover back to before so the payout is more towards compensating a portion of your loss of potential income and for ECI, you are in early stages so you have a higher chance of recovering from it and thus the payout is to help offset the potential cost incurred from treatment.

 

[ilovetoeat]

If you're going to insure against the risk that you become unable to work (and unable to earn an income) -- and I think you should! -- then do that. That's called disability income insurance (DII), and there are three carriers in Singapore that sell it: Aviva (IdealIncome), Great Eastern (Pay Assure), and AIA (Premier Disability Cover).

Early Critical Illness, Critical Illness, and Personal Accident insurance are all cause-specific policies, and they are full of holes. That's why they're "cheap." If you're unable to work and to earn an income for any reason(s) not on the list of causes in those policies, you're screwed. I do not like those policies one bit. They don't adequately cover the actual risk you care about: loss of income due to inability to work.

If/when you buy DII, my advice would be to choose the longest elimination period available (6 months is the maximum offered, I believe), and to build up your emergency reserve funds to cover that period of time. That'll help drive down the premium. Also, try to pick something you could at least survive on, and be sure to take inflation into account. For example, if you think you could survive on $3,000/month today, then you'd probably want to choose something like $4,000/month as the payout amount. (I think one of these carriers might offer an escalating payout, so that's another option.) Be very careful to choose the correct job description when you obtain quotations. The premiums are very sensitive to job roles/descriptions.

Just to ride onto the thread, DII covers every single illness that might force you to not be able to work and covers your income up to 75% for a period of how long?


What are the rough premium costs every year for such plans as it seems very costly to cover almost all conditions that causes you to be unable to work?

 

[JuniorLion]

So it is not recommended to get the ECI insurance at all?

Always a personal preference and way of doing things. I do not particularly think ECI is useful, but others will certainly beg to differ.

 

[BBCWatcher]

Just to ride onto the thread, DII covers every single illness that might force you to not be able to work and covers your income up to 75% for a period of how long?

Every malady (not just illnesses), with only a very few exotic exceptions that are typical in such policies, such as getting injured while fighting in the Syrian Army and then being unable to work in Singapore (a war exclusion in this example).

DII policies sold in Singapore are available in terms up to age 65. The longer the term, the higher the premium, other things being equal.

What are the rough premium costs every year for such plans as it seems very costly to cover almost all conditions that causes you to be unable to work?

Yes, when you cover risks well, the premiums are higher, other things being equal. But that's rather the point. Loss of income is loss of income. Do you particularly care why you're unable to work? No, you really don't. If you're unable to work, that's financially devastating (for most people), and that's the risk you want to protect against.

 

[smart_alex]

bookmarked

 

[SibehHL]

Seems recently there is a specific interest in ECI plans, so many many queries, discussions and digging out old threads.

 

[Maeda_Toshiie]

Seems recently there is a specific interest in ECI plans, so many many queries, discussions and digging out old threads.

No. It's just one user.

 

[limster]

No. It's just one user.

And that user has already bought the ECI, so I don't know why he's obsessing about it. ...

If he finds it useful, he can pay the $$$, if he doesn't find it useful, he can drop the coverage and use the money saved for something else.... each investor should do their own due diligence. myself, i don't find it useful at all....

 

[sanzhu]

Help ur advisor get rich

Amyways very hard to claim like elder shieldt

 

[dendii]

What's your basis to say very hard to claim like eldershield?

Help ur advisor get rich

Amyways very hard to claim like elder shieldt

 

[Advisor13]

Hi good people,

My advisor has recommended me a couple of plans for early critical illness.
It seems that insurance companies are having plans that cater to more than once payment once you contract critical illness and early ones.

He has recommended me to take up Manulife Ready Complete Care. In my own research, I came across many early critical illness plans that seemed to be better or cheaper. As a newbie to all these, I am rather confused between them.

Some of the plans I came across are
a) Aviva Multipay
b) AIA triple cover
c) Prumultipler crisis
d) AXA early critcare
e) TM Multicare

Hope the experts here can shade some light to a very confused chap here. Quotation are welcome too.
I am 28 years old male non-smoker.

Thank you in advance!

If you're looking into ECI and want the best out of it.
Look for a good payout for ECI, as some plans only pay-out only 50% of your ECI sum assured and not the full sum. Last main point the premium you're paying for it.