Back in the days when my days were occupied by Sega video games, my parents bought an AIA Prime Life policy for me. Subsequently, I took over the payments of the policy once I’m capable of doing so. Below is the projection of surrenders value provided by the agent. This is the original document which I’ve scanned. Marketed as a part-investments, part-protection policy to my parents, the most enticing part of the policy is that if we held it long enough, we would get back all our money, plus even more. According to the latest annual participating fund update, it invests approximately –

• 72% in fixed income
• 20% in equities
• 3% in real estate
• 3% in other assets
• 2% in loans

Notice that at the 20-year mark, there is a massive jump in the non-guaranteed portion from $9,855 to $21,385. Guess what? Twenty years (2017) is almost up. Before we go ......