While everyone knows they need insurance, most people aren’t clear on what type of insurance or how much they need to cover themselves.
Over-insuring yourself can be a costly mistake, resulting in you wasting your money. Hence, it is critical to understand the types of insurance you need and how much you should probably be insured.
To help you in your financial journey, these are the insurance you probably want to have. By buying these policies, you can safeguard yourself against significant financial losses and gain peace of mind knowing that you are adequately protected.
Disclaimer: This is by no means financial advice as we are not in the financial advisory industry, we just love to share what we believe in. Hence, we will not be comparing nor recommending any products from any insurance companies.
1. Life Insurance + Critical Illness
Life Insurance
Your first question may be: What is life insurance?
Life Insurance pays you (a sum assured) for death, and Total Permanent Disability (TPD).
For death, the sum assured goes to your dependents if you pass away. If you have young children, or parents who are dependent on you, this is really important.
TPD generally covers situations that are quite dire – blinded, losing limbs, wheelchair bound. Hence, it is always important to check and understand the terms and conditions of the insurance policy.
The size of the sum assured determines the premiums. A simple rule of thumb of the size of sum assured you should go for is 5 to 7 years of your annual income. As this should be a reasonable amount of time, for your family to find new income sources or for your family to recover from your loss.
There are also 2 variations: Whole Life Insurance and Term Life Insurance. That’s a topic for another day, although, I personally feel that term life is better 🙂
Critical Illness
For the most part, with the purchase of life insurance, your financial advisor will up-sell you the critical illness portion. This is also extremely important for you as it gives you a lump sum pay out if you suffer from illness such as stroke, heart cancer and so forth. There are also early critical illnesses and severe critical illnesses and the prices for them varies.
There are 2 ways to pay out. (1) Immediately pays once you are diagnosed and (2) pays out when you get to a certain stage of an illness. Of course, the former makes more sense, as we would want the pay-out as soon as we get the illness.
The tricky thing to consider here is how much of a pay-out you should get. Similarly, to life insurance, a multiple of 5 to 7 years of your annual income should suffice.
2. Hospitalisation Plan
Every Singaporeans has access to basic healthcare insurance, in the form of MediShield. Today, basic MediShield can cover most of your hospitalisation costs, if you stay in a public hospital, and in a C to B2 class ward.
However, if you would like to stay in a B1 or A class ward, MediShield itself will probably not be enough to cover most of the expenses.
Here is where Integrated Shield Plan (ISP) comes in. This policy comes from a private insurer and complements your MediShield, so you have sufficient coverage for a better ward.
Some benefits of having a ISP:
- Payable through MediSave (how else are you going to use your MediSave money!)
- Claims limit
- Rider (Have to pay using cash, thus think twice!)
Hence, the premiums amount to be paid is dependable on the wards/private hospital coverage.
3. Personal Accident Insurance
This provides a pay-out in the case of unfortunate incidents, like if you break your leg while hiking.
There are definitely some ‘overlaps’ with others’ plans but personal accident plans are still quite useful.
A simple example could be as simple as: If you break your leg, your health insurance may not pay out the X-Ray scans, but your Personal Accident Plan might, which could save you a few hundred dollars. This is definitely a “good-to-have” policy as premiums are probably about S$20+ monthly.
4. Singlife’s MINDEF/MHA Insurance
A shout out to probably the most affordable insurance plan out there: MINDEF/MHA Group Insurance.
This is for all NSFs, NSmen, Affiliated members, Volunteers, Spouses and Children (up to 25 years old) of the relevant individuals may also receive coverage from this plan.
What are some of the insurance they provide?
- MINDEF/MHA Group Term Life Insurance
- MINDEF/MHA Group Personal Injury Insurance (with riders)
- MINDEF/MHA Group Living Care and MINDEF/MHA Group Living Care Plus (also known as Critical Illness – may not be as comprehensive)
- MINDEF/MHA Group Disability Income
Why is it so good?
- Cheap premiums with high coverage
- No medical underwriting (Term Life plan – $300,000 and not for riders)
- Coverage for spouse and kids
- Personal Accident Plan is quite comprehensive
Our Stand
It is important to have insurance as it provides financial protection against unforeseen events and mitigates the risk of significant financial losses. Hence, we felt these are some of the insurance which could be relevant:
- Life Insurance + Critical Illness
- Hospitalisation Plan
- Personal Accident Plan
- MINDEF/MHA Group Insurance
All in all, buying insurance should be a personal decision; do not let your friends “sway” you because you want to help them. This is because you will eventually be the one who suffers and pays the premiums.
If you are keen, check out our articles on other analysis: Trust Bank Referral, Ultimate Comparison Guide of Best SG Brokerage accounts for Singaporeans 2023 and How much should your net worth be at 30,40 and 50.
Disclaimer: The information provided by LearnToInvest serves as an educational piece and is not intended to be personalized investment advice. Readers should always do their own due diligence and consider their financial goals before investing in any stock.