Need some advice for PRUflexicash

[shearmanlee]

any news about this policy?

 

[PruCorgi]

Don't understand what you mean. Commissions are typically between 30-50% of the first year premium for an agent.... much lower for staff. You can just ask the agent/consultant.

 

[iCuteCube]

For direct FA, it is 50% of premium first year, then subsequent year divide by 2 till 5th year.

Assuming $300 premium per month, $3600 a year.

1st year com - $1800
2nd year com - $900
3rd year com - $450
4th year com - $225
5th year com - $112.5
Total amount - $3487.5

Their BDE will be leeching from them, and the senior management will be leeching from the BDE. However MAS is currently looking at this, and things might chance for a better good (for consumer).

Assuming after 14 days, you wish to switch agent, etc, the commission will be still earned by the person who sell you. Which i don't find it very fair, therefore choosing a trusted and good agent is very important.

 

[heng_alvin]

For direct FA, it is 50% of premium first year, then subsequent year divide by 2 till 5th year.

Assuming $300 premium per month, $3600 a year.

1st year com - $1800
2nd year com - $900
3rd year com - $450
4th year com - $225
5th year com - $112.5
Total amount - $3487.5

Their BDE will be leeching from them, and the senior management will be leeching from the BDE. However MAS is currently looking at this, and things might chance for a better good (for consumer).

Assuming after 14 days, you wish to switch agent, etc, the commission will be still earned by the person who sell you. Which i don't find it very fair, therefore choosing a trusted and good agent is very important.

Wow,u sure? Any policies by any companies as long as thru ifa is like that? Hope some ifa representatives can shed some light in your statement.

My company,Ntuc Income certainly doesn't have such attractive commission product and our company managers do not override comms,they take fixed pay. And dun bother flaming me coz i'm leaving soon,lolz.

 

[iCuteCube]

Wow,u sure? Any policies by any companies as long as thru ifa is like that? Hope some ifa representatives can shed some light in your statement.

My company,Ntuc Income certainly doesn't have such attractive commission product and our company managers do not override comms,they take fixed pay. And dun bother flaming me coz i'm leaving soon,lolz.

Yup, that's for prudential agent. Sorry for not making clear, through IFA they have their own scheme, may be something similar, or something more, i don't know. Because they don't have overriding right?.

 

[cHAmy27]

Thank you for the advise, but I will still stick to this product, now my agent explain to me that I can choose get cashback from 3rd year, and collect maturity in as early as 3rd year onwards, even through now the plan I signed up is Accumulate it, as long as it is like that, I am happy.

After reading the whole thread, poster doesn't know what he sign up for... for 20 years

basically a customer within the FA radar, who only explains the pros of the policy who tells him/her about having 45% of premium to mature on the 25th month and opt to collect maturity (more like premature baby) or to reinvest back to the nest with 'cash back' (smart copy to replace coupon). then on top of that give you 'special FD' of like 21% with $5K deposit with 6 month lock in. I give you the latest iPAD also.

Not knowing what and why you are signing it , which seems so that its a bank saving account that gives you 3-5% and lots freebies. Also comes with insurance ! the FA or RM is so nice to you that you don't want to disappoint him/her time of talking. BTW it is just one of the many saving insurance back by XXX bank. Like the Great and cheap NTUC, HSBC goalsaver .. blah

Things that the agent didn't tell you
As its a insurance policy, you have 14 days to surrender without compensating
that you can opt for less than 20 years
that you can opt for $300 a month
that the payout for saving insurance is pathetic
that a good FA will tell you to not take out the cash back and reinvest to roll till maturity

*of course they will say you have to sign up today or before XX date to enjoy the special FD and iPad and blah

Lastly ask yourself what is your mid term & long term goal. WHY do you need to take out the maturity after 25 months and not letting it to roll the 3% of its nest. Do you need the $6.6+ urgently? Basically you are killing your own portfolio.

this product doesn't payout if 30 critical illness hits unless u add in rider which is consider additional expense that won't add into your cash value. if you took out cash back every year, there is no way your product can give u 3% return year by year. I expect only 1-2 %.

what do u mean collect maturity as early as 3rd yr?

exactly this will highlight why do you need to sign up pruflexi without knowing its purpose.

as most of the FA will advise you,
1.
cover hospital fees .. thats probably the 1st thing to empty all your savings like NTUC insurance
cover death, TPD $100K
cover CI

2.
after covering all this
and you still have cash to meet mid term / long term goal like buying car, start family, house, retirement
can put into saving insurance to get more than banks saving interest rate
payout is minimum(redundant imo) but its fine if you have the above 3 coverage

but is it neccessary for saving insurance? some will say they will Never buy a saving insurance. I agree also as there are so many ways to put your cash and get above 3%. But of course there's some risk appetite involved

3.
so much free cash that you have save up (if you did not throw $600 a month into saving insurance)
You can start to do investing , and get more than 5% , even high risk 8% above
Open up your choices and probably regret why you sign up saving insurance

 

[mrbeansucks]

Need advices on Pruflexicash!

Hi all, I'm 17 months into my 25 years PruFlexicash policy from Prudential which I had signed up for in 2011.

I'm in a dilemma right now, to either surrender my Pruflexicash policy or to continue till maturity.

Abit of info about myself.. 20 years of age, prudent with saving, currently an NSF going ORDing in early 2013 and will be reading 3-years Uni course in NTU.


Monthly premium costs $110, have paid 17 mths of premium equivalent to $1870 to date.

By the end of 25 years, assuming if I stick with the accumulated cash back till maturity, total premium paid will be $33000. The total investment return(at 5.25% return) will be $45000, of which, $18000 is the guaranteed sum and $19000 is the non-guaranteed sum.

Recently I've read other similar products offered by competitors, eg AIA Smart growth and to my surprise, realised their guaranteed sum is actually higher than total premium paid per se. I'm not too sure why is there such a huge difference in terms of the guaranteed sum but yet the insurance coverage and monthly premium dont differs much. Could it be Pruflexicash offers 5% yearly cash back flexibility while AIA don't?

I've also came to know that nowadays endowment policy might no longer be a wise and sound investment vehicle like the 90s with its low yield returns and high distribution costs. Therefore it should be avoided or rather saving+insurance type of policies should be avoided completely. How true is this?

My understanding of personal finance priority is as such:

1) Medical insurance
2) Savings
3) Investments

Not too long ago, I met up with my FA to discuss about my dilemma. Instead of being cleared up I was more confused as he brought along his manager to 'psycho' me not to surrender my policy boasting to me how qualified he is with CHFC, CLU and blah blah of which I should trust his advice wholly. But of course I'm not convinced but still a little confused, hence I decided to post my concerns here.

So my questions are:

- Should I surrender my policy now and to forfeit $1870 then to avoid huge losses on the low yield return in the future? And instead use the intended amount of premium to get a medical insurance (eg SAF group term insurance) and a FD for 10-15 years?

- How likely are those companies to default the non-guaranteed sum? Or say if they dont perform as well as expected, would the non-guaranteed sum be included at pro-rated rates or at absolute zero?

- Are my understanding correct for which endowment policies should be avoided?

-If I would to start investing with maybe $100/mth, what type of long-term investments should I be looking at? Given my objective is to buy a house and fund children's education in 20-25 years later.

Advices are greatly appreciated!

P.S Sorry for the lengthy post, but hope it could help anyone who is facing the same issue as me.

 

[bloodsucker]

Hello there,

I suppose you are one of those 'victims' who buy an insurance policy from a female agent who camps at the MRT stations for NSFs? Haha its a very common tactic used and many NSFs fall for it. Don't blame them though lol.

To answer your question, yes the difference in guaranteed sum could be due to the cash-back flexibility. But also, different companies can give different amounts of guaranteed or non-guaranteed returns. They can give an obscenely high non-guaranteed and ultra low guaranteed, and when the client's policy finally matures and he only gets back a fraction of what was shown, the company has evidence to fight their case. Afterall, everything is projected values only; and you have signed to certify that you understand that.

Anyways, I'll just do a simple calculation for you, using the numbers you gave. Assuming you can make 5.25% a year for the next 25 years (highly likely actual numbers is lower), then your returns per year is less than 1.25%. This is probably not taking into account the cash-back. Or maybe it is. I'm not very sure about this product. To me, the returns are pathetic. A cash-back endowment, a.k.a. anticipated endowment, is one of the worst products out there in terms of yield. It is very good from a marketing perspective, but that is about all the product is good for.

Yes you would be right in that the olden days policies are pretty good, and that we shouldn't mix insurance and investment elements for today's context. Unfortunately, this concept hasn't yet caught on here and in most Asian countries. People are drawn to the marketing ploy that you can get 'free insurance cover' and still get returns after a set number of years. However, the fact is that if you were to invest by yourself, you can more than make back your 'free insurance cover', and have far more excess cash in the end. You have to understand how the products are made. They are made with the purpose of the highest profits for the company. The charges for such insurance + investment policies are crazily high, but people still flock to them because afterall they can still beat fixed deposit returns now. But sadly they miss out on better opportunities out there.

The fella said he is a CHFC and CLU? Big deal. Doesn't show a damn thing. If he can still propose this kind of solution, maybe his certifications are better used as toilet paper. I would so like to have a chat with the so-called 'qualified' agent hehe. It's a good idea to come here for a 2nd opinion!

If you ask me, yes in the long run you will get more than what you will from this turd policy. But you are gonna start schooling soon so I'm not so sure if my suggestions can fit into your plans. Just wanna ask you; how were you intending to fund your $110/mth policy when you start schooling? If you wanna continue your investments in a manner that doesn't need constant monitoring yet provides decent returns, you can consider buying the STI ETF on a regular basis. You should wait for a while till the MAS allows normal investors to buy ETFs without having to go through a questionnaire. Of course you can still do it now if you wish. Oh and you'll need a brokerage account to do this. There's many options out there. Perhaps you'll want to consider POEMs? I'm not promoting any particular brokers out there so pls ask around and decide for yourself which is the best for you.

The STI ETF has returns of about 9% per annum on average over the past couple decades (inclusive of dividends reinvested). Let's take a more conservative estimate of 5% after all charges for the next 20-25 years as you suggested. You can choose to invest monthly, semi-annually or annually. It's up to you. But if you invest regularly this way, you will reduce your risk by not attempting to time the market. This is known as dollar cost averaging. You can read up more about it online. Oh and do not sell your investments when the price goes down and hope to buy it at a lower price. If you intend to use this as a long-term investment, leave it be and continue investing when it goes down. The STI ETF is very well-diversified, having invested in the 30 blue chip stocks. Your risk is considerably low.

Let's take it that you put in $600 twice a year (within your budget) for 25 years. With a return of 5%, you can expect to have about $58500 at the end of 25 years. Combined with your savings in the future, this should be pretty substantial. Of course, if you get a good income next time and wish to increase your investment amount (which you should), your returns would be even higher.

Oh and the SAF GTL is not a medical plan. It's a term policy meant to provide life coverage. It's one of the best and cheapest plans out there. It's meant to pay out to your dependents in the event of unforeseen death. I think even govt bonds provide better returns than FD, and are safer. So perhaps you won't want to do that. Of course you need some cash in the bank for liquidity purposes, such as emergency funds or whatever.

To answer the next question, the companies don't 'default' on payments haha. It's just a projected sum, and chances are they won't hit the 5.25% returns. There are companies which can hit that, obviously. But let's not be too optimistic for this company eh? Hahaha. If they don't perform as well, your non-guaranteed returns would be pro-rated accordingly. But 1.25% returns honestly is not fantastic. Bonds give even higher returns than this crap.

My advice is to avoid all whole-life, endowment and ILPs (investment-linked policies). Such products have too much marketing weaved into them, and agents themselves do not know how bad the product actually is cos they are trained on the marketing perspective.

Sorry for the even longer reply. I hope it helps!

 

[mrbeansucks]

Hi bloodsucker,

Thank you for your insightful and clearly expressed response.

Oh yes, I was approached by them during their roadshow and as ignorant as I was with financial policies back then, they manage to win me over to commit with the 25 years plan. However, I wasn't informed about the '14 days Free-look' policy by my FA and only get to know the existence through many forums which I have read. Well, its too late now anyway

For now I've more or less decided to surrender the policy early to make small losses then a huge one years later. I guess its a lesson learnt for me albeit at an expensive price tag and it had made me to re-evaluate its suitability for my long term goal.

Regarding the SAF GTL as you mention it is not a medical plan, then I'd like to understand how would a medical plan differs from a term policy and life policy? Is it correct to say I should get a policy which covers accidents and hospitalisation on top of another policy which covers TPD and CI?

Another question is you advise to avoid whole-life policy, as such if I would to get a term insurance which probably covers me till age 65, then how about my remaining years? Is it because by then I'd be financially capable to pay or....?

Thank you once again for your advices..

Cheers.

 

[Epps_Sg]

here is my idea of a financial roadmap:
Financial roadmap idea

With $100 a month, the only long term investing i can think of is dollar cost averaging in STI etf - but in your 3 years of study, invested amount is 3600 only, good for learning and getting emotiationally initiated into market, but take note the rewards may not be high compared to the emational strain you may have to go thru, depending on your character. For your 3 years of studying better focus on studying and getting good job with good pay first. Dont let any of your investment ups and downs affect you study mood, so do minimal investments if you have to.

Subsequently when start work, your job income and savings is important initially, so dont underestimate it. When you work and saved enough investment capital, depending on your capability, can consider doing a long term passive investment portfolio (lower volatility, no stock picking or market timing), or do long term value or dividend investing (stock picking involved). Avoid market timing strategies for long term investing. Also, better to avoid trading activities till you established your long-term investment portfolio.

knowing what i know now, i would have bought term and invest the rest with passive investing earlier in my life. I am 10 years into an endowment policy now and it has not break even yet - i can terminate this policy anytime now to put into passive investing, but i keep for now and treat it as forced savings and my last-resort-backup money, in case my emergency funds ever runs out...haha.

 

[PruCorgi]

Depends on why you got the plan in the first place.

1. If you got that plan last time because you wanted to force yourself to save and wanted your savings preserved, then it's still viable. Why lose the money when there's no need to? $100/mth is very sustainable once someone starts working.

It's designed for savings purposes, which means putting money aside now for future use. At best, it will preserve your capital better than a savings account or fixed deposit, and comes with a bit of insurance... useful in the case of disability, terminal illness or death.

You also picked the semi-liquid/flexible plan... which means you can start withdrawing funds if needed after the end of the 2nd year.

2. Also, it would be better not to sacrifice/forfeit whatever you have saved to date unless you really have no other source of funds for protection purposes. You should have medical insurance and some kind of basic term insurance in place to protect against disability, critical illness and accidents.

3. If you got that plan thinking it was a starter investment, then no... wrong plan... better you take losses now and find something else to invest into. I don't think you will get anything if you stop the plan now.

Savings/endowments plans are not investment vehicles IMO... they suck for that purpose. As the others say, there are plenty of other better choices. They are savings instruments... one can consider them a very conservative part of one's portfolio that isn't under the government's control and gives potentially better returns than bank deposits.

However, do your research first though about investments... it can be a very painful process if you don't know what you are doing. Some good advice given by the others on starter investments.

Besides DIY ETF/Fund investments, you can also slowly save up investment capital, enough to buy, say, a lot of stocks from the STI. That's another alternative. There's a separate section of the forum about this subject.

Most insurance companies will take great pains not to "default" on the non-guaranteed portion... it will mean a huge hit to goodwill and reputation. It won't be at zero rates... even in 2008 through the Global Financial Crisis, some companies like Prudential decided to maintain its bonuses. But has it happened before where bonuses were cut? Yes... I think only one insurer in Singapore can boast that they have never ever had to cut bonuses.

Also, the guaranteed amount will increase over time, as bonuses ("interest"/"returns") are paid into the plan. You can try asking for a revised benefit illustration from the 3rd year onwards.

 

[mmlfreedom]

just to share my own personal experince.

my first plan was also a saving plan, sum assured of 15k when i took up at the age of 20, that time was called PruCash, now is PruFlexiCash.
During age of 20, 15k to me is seems to be a large amount. Of cos now is too little at my stage of life.

Now i use the CashBack to pay for my whole family medical plan, of cos i still need to top up a little bit more. For the plan, i just treat it as a forced savings for me.

 

[Saj.Mahal]

If you are signing up for an account at POEMs or FSM or elsewhere, and are looking to invest in STI ETF.. Do also take a look at alternative UT's that are focused on Singapore Equity. You'll find that there are some that have been outperforming the ETF by a sizable margin, net of fees.

Of course, if the fees rise significantly, or the fund manager changes or screws up, then the fund may underperform.

Just trying to let you know that you have to do some homework on your own and not just listen to whoever and whatever people tell you to do.

 

[bloodsucker]

Hi bloodsucker,

Thank you for your insightful and clearly expressed response.

Oh yes, I was approached by them during their roadshow and as ignorant as I was with financial policies back then, they manage to win me over to commit with the 25 years plan. However, I wasn't informed about the '14 days Free-look' policy by my FA and only get to know the existence through many forums which I have read. Well, its too late now anyway

For now I've more or less decided to surrender the policy early to make small losses then a huge one years later. I guess its a lesson learnt for me albeit at an expensive price tag and it had made me to re-evaluate its suitability for my long term goal.

Regarding the SAF GTL as you mention it is not a medical plan, then I'd like to understand how would a medical plan differs from a term policy and life policy? Is it correct to say I should get a policy which covers accidents and hospitalisation on top of another policy which covers TPD and CI?

Another question is you advise to avoid whole-life policy, as such if I would to get a term insurance which probably covers me till age 65, then how about my remaining years? Is it because by then I'd be financially capable to pay or....?

Thank you once again for your advices..

Cheers.

If you decide to terminate it, I suppose you can look at it as a very expensive insurance coverage for the past one and a half years..

A medical plan, or hospitalisation plan as it is better known, provides reimbursement when you end up in the hospital. The government's version of it is called MediShield. Very cheap, very effective. This takes care of your hospitalisation costs in case you get cancer or other ailments that land you in a hospital. A term policy is one which provides a monetary payout to your beneficiaries in the event that you die or kena fully paralysed. It does not take care of your medical costs, unless you add a rider, which is basically like a secondary insurance policy attached to your main policy. A term policy is a life insurance policy. I think what you are referring to is a whole-life policy.

A whole-life policy, as the name suggests, provides coverage for your whole life. Specifically, till you hit 99 years old. Once you reach past that age, the policy automatically matures/expires, and the full death benefit (plus bonuses) is paid out to you. Typically, a whole-life policy is paid over the duration of your entire life. Meaning that you pay as long as you live. There is limited payment whole-life plans, which allow you to pay 20 years or till 65 years old, or however the company structures it. Obviously these limited payment ones are more expensive, as they compress the same amount of premium into a shorter period. These policies usually provide poor return (about 2% p.a.). With compounding effect, these might seem to be alot of money, but if you had used the money to buy a cheap term and then invest the rest of the cash, you would get a far more substantial amount of cash at the end of the day.

A term costs about 10x less than a whole-life plan, and 20x less than an endowment plan. Companies like to sell whole-life and endowment because their profit margin from those are HUGE. Term policy to the company is taking on pure risk and little profit. If your budget is $500/mth, and you use $50 to buy term and $450 to invest in a 5% p.a. investment, by the time the similar whole-life policy matures (let's say in 80 years time), you would have about $5.74 million if you bought term and invest the rest. For a whole-life plan which gives 2.5% return for example, you would only be getting back about $1.53 million (a difference of almost $4.21 million). Of course these are all rough estimates, but you get the general idea. Just remember that the compounding effect is very powerful.

The reason why I mentioned 65 years old is cos the SAF plan is level premium of $12.80 per $100k only till 65y.o. The plan can be held until 85 years old, but the premium from 65 to 85 would be much more expensive. Why do we need insurance till only 65? Generally, by that age, we would be almost retiring, and our kids would have grown up and found jobs and would no longer be financially dependent on us. If you had prudently invested your cash, your retirement fund by age 65 would be more than sufficient for self-insurance. You should keep your basic MediShield (medical plan), but you don't need a life policy. If you got the spare cash, you can consider a personal accident plan as well.

The purpose of life insurance is to provide your dependents with cash should you die prematurely. Once you hit 65, the only dependent would probably be your wife. If you have a good nest egg, then you should enjoy your retirement years and not worry about paying excessive insurance premiums

 

[jmoomoo]

Help on PruFlexiCash Policy

Hi All, recently signed up for a 15 years pruflexicash package which I have paid for 4 months (500/per month) til present. Abit regret of what i have did recklessly. I'm just wondering if i should terminate my current policy and lose the 2k of what i have paid or continue on..
Based on the illustration of the pruflexicash, if i do not withdraw any amount from my yearly cashback for 15 years, i will get back 101,927 at a projected rate of 3.75% return (Which break down into guarantee sum of 69k and non-guarantee sum of 32,927.
After seeing the illustration for months and months, I realized a few issues on the total investment return which are:

1. Will the non-guarantee sum be negative?
2. Will i get back my original total premium paid which is 90k?

I'm worried that after investing for 15 years, I will not get back my total sum of premium paid. Is it true?

Apologize for the lengthy email. Kindly need someone to advise on it.

 

[masato4]

Hi All, recently signed up for a 15 years pruflexicash package which I have paid for 4 months (500/per month) til present. Abit regret of what i have did recklessly. I'm just wondering if i should terminate my current policy and lose the 2k of what i have paid or continue on..
Based on the illustration of the pruflexicash, if i do not withdraw any amount from my yearly cashback for 15 years, i will get back 101,927 at a projected rate of 3.75% return (Which break down into guarantee sum of 59k and non-guarantee sum of 32,927.
After seeing the illustration for months and months, I realized a few issues on the total investment return which are:

1. Will the non-guarantee sum be negative?
2. Will i get back my original total premium paid which is 90k?

I'm worried that after investing for 15 years, I will not get back my total sum of premium paid. Is it true?

Apologize for the lengthy email. Kindly need someone to advise on it.

Just to answer your questions regarding your concerns:

Will the non-guarantee sum be negative? - No but there may be a possibly of much lower returns of 32,927 that is written there.

Will i get back my original total premium paid which is 90k? - There is a possibility of you not getting back the original total premiums paid which is 90k if basing on your amount written there that the guarantee sum of 59k and non-guarantee sum of 32,927 upon maturity.

Do PM me if you need more advise

 

[Asure7]

While I am the type who do not like guaranteed sum lower than total premiums paid when I buy a policy, there are things you need to keep in mind.

The term "savings plan" nowadays is a misnomer. It is not like bank deposits/savings account in which the money you put in, will always stay there (in terms of absolute amount).

However, from the way you word it, you seem to be very aware that there is an INVESTMENT component to this policy. As such, there will always be risks associated with investments i.e. you may lose the amount invested and not get back the full capital paid. In your case, the worst scenario is you only get back 59K at the end of it.

There is no "sure-win" investments. If you are extremely risk-adverse, you should put your money in fixed deposits or look for capital-protected plans

 

[PRUbombz]

Hi All, recently signed up for a 15 years pruflexicash package which I have paid for 4 months (500/per month) til present. Abit regret of what i have did recklessly. I'm just wondering if i should terminate my current policy and lose the 2k of what i have paid or continue on..
Based on the illustration of the pruflexicash, if i do not withdraw any amount from my yearly cashback for 15 years, i will get back 101,927 at a projected rate of 3.75% return (Which break down into guarantee sum of 59k and non-guarantee sum of 32,927.
After seeing the illustration for months and months, I realized a few issues on the total investment return which are:

1. Will the non-guarantee sum be negative?
2. Will i get back my original total premium paid which is 90k?

I'm worried that after investing for 15 years, I will not get back my total sum of premium paid. Is it true?

Apologize for the lengthy email. Kindly need someone to advise on it.

I think there is something wrong with your post.

Non guarantee 59k + guarantee 32,927 =/ 101,927.

I think the Non guarantee portion is 69k?

In any case, non guarantee will not be in negative, thus it will never eat up your guaranteed portion if that is what you were asking.

After every year, insurance companies will announce a certain amount of bonus to the policy owners, known as reversionary bonus. Hence, each year, there will be a certain portion of non guaranteed value to be guaranteed to you. This is not like an investment plan where during last year of maturity, say market crashes, all your non guaranteed value will be gone. But on the other hand, when market crashes when your plan is maturing, your maturity bonus will likely be affected.

IMO, though it is not guaranteed on start that you will get back your capital, it is a very good chance you will. In fact, your money should grow beyond your capital. That's what endowment plans are meant to do.

 

[jmoomoo]

Sorry, I have made a mistake on the guarantee sum. It should be 69k.
Judging from all the replies I received, there is a chance that I will not get back my full capital even when it is supposed to be an endowment plan which is considered low-risk isn't it?.
However, is it unlikely that prudential will announce the year-end bonus to be 0% ? I saw that in year 2011, prudential announce their bonus at 0.2% which is very low..
In this case, should I forgo my 4 months of savings and terminate it?

 

[Asure7]

you sound very contradicting.

low risk is still a risk isn't it?
Whether you should continue, you will have to decide for yourself how risk-adverse you are.
Does it make you feel better if people tell you that chances of you not getting back full capital is low ?
There is still also the chance of you not getting the full sum back, isn't it?
Just another way of phrasing it.

Or maybe I sound too pessimistic. Low bonus now, does not mean low bonus in the future, considering the market is bad now, while expecting it to improve in the future.
As indicated on every policy you have signed, past performance is not an indicator of future results

Again, there is no sure-win investment in which you have a chance to make more $, but 0 chance of losing.
If you are really losing sleep over this, and your only movitation is capital-preservation, you should move to FD, or capital-guaranteed plans. But even with capital-guaranteed plans, it will mean that the "profit" you get will be extremely low.. or you may just only get back your capital with $0 gain at maturity.
From what I feel, you would rather lose to inflation, than to have chances of losing any part of your capital in terms of absolute amount.