Yesterday, I woke up to exciting news which I've been waiting for quite some time now. MAS finally launched their Direct Purchase Insurance (DPI) initiative, allowing consumers to buy basic life insurance products directly instead of having to go through an insurance agent. This is great news for people like me, who are generally distrusting of financial advisors (and a little more financially savvy than your average Singaporean). I'm not certified, but after reading and evaluating plenty of resources on the topic, I already have a good idea of what I need and what I don't need. However, most insurance companies are not very helpful in providing product (brochure) information and price quotations online. You usually have to go directly through an agent to get these details. The problem I found was that almost all the agents I spoke to still tried to "recommend" sell me investment-linked policies. And ... ...