TheFinance.sg » Patrick Lim

launch of zurich life insurance singapore

Patrick Lim — Wed, 02 May 2012 11:23:05 +0000

today, david choo, the md of promiseland independent pte ltd and myself attended the grand launch of zurich life insurance singapore at the marina mandarin hotel.

we have heard that zurich international life has applied for a full licence many months ago and today, the subsidiary of zurich insurance group, which is zurich life insurance singapore has been granted a full licence by the monetary authority of singapore to sell products to a wider market where previously, the company could only target a defined market with a restricted licence.

zurich international life has been operating locally since 2006 and has been limited to the mass affluent and affluent market which represents some 5% of the total market.

mr graham morrall, chief executive of zurich life insurance singapore said that with the full licence, the company is reaffirming its full commitment to the singapore market and will enable it to tap …

government revises healthcare subsidies for PRs

Patrick Lim — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 14:55:00 +0000

the ministry of health has announced that the healthcare subsidies for prs will be revised downwards for in-patient services (class B2 and class C wards), day surgery and specialist outpatient clinics in government restructured hospitals as well as intermediate and long term care services.

for the intermediate and long term care sector, the adjustments will be implemented in the third quarter of 2012, while the changes in the government restrutured hospitals will see the implementation in 2 phases; in october 2012 and april 2013 to mitigate the effect of these adjustments on prs.

please refer to the coming changes as reflected in the tables as shown.

my comments:

for singapore citizens clamouring for more recognition of the differentiation from prs, this is one of our government’s response to putting singaporeans first.

i suppose it is also inevitable given that medical or healthcare costs tend to rise the fastest and i …

aviva – pre-launch of my retirement

Patrick Lim — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 03:50:00 +0000

officially, aviva has scheduled the launch of their latest product, my retirement on april 04, 2012.

what is aviva my retirement?

this is a limited and regular premium participating endowment product with coverage for death and terminal illness and comes with the following features:

a. limited premium payment of 8 policy years or premium payment for up to 5
years prior to the selected retirement age which is age 50, 55, 60 or 65
years.
b. guaranteed issuance for basic plan and
c. guaranteed retirement income benefit.

the guaranteed retirement income benefit comes with the flexibility of the following options:

a. receive a monthly guaranteed retirement income benefit for 10 years
b. receive the usual full lump sum payment or
c. receive a partial lump sum payment and thereafter, receive a monthly
guaranteed retirement income benefit for 10 years.

what happens if the policyowner/life assured does not need the money …

hsbc insurance – launch of early critical care

Patrick Lim — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 02:02:00 +0000

hsbc insurance has just launched what i term as a second generation critical illness product, early critical care which is one of the most comprehensive protection plans currently available.

benefits at a glance:

Covers 90 conditions
Enjoy comprehensive coverage against a wide range of illnesses.

Provides 100% payout even for early stage critical illness
Early Critical Care pays 100% of the sum assured in the early, intermediate and critical stages#

Covering illnesses not commonly insured in Singapore
Covering prevalent illnesses such as Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever, Diabetic Retinopathy, Osteoporosis and Severe Rheumatoid Arthritis

my comments:

it has to happen, sooner or later with another joining the bandwagon to roll out what i term as a second generation critical illness product.

because hsbc insurance is the latest entrant to the market, it offers the most comprehensive coverage of critical illness from early to intermediate to severe critical illness conditions with 90 on …

ntuc-income: launch of capital plus (CPN29)

Patrick Lim — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 08:11:00 +0000

just received this email notification from ntuc-income:

Dear Valued Business Partners,

We are pleased to announce the launch of our limited-tranche non-participating 2-years single premium non-participating plan, Capital Plus (CPN29).

*_Brief outline of the plan:_*

Ø2-years single premium non-participating plan

ØGuaranteed interest of 1.40%p.a.

ØProvides TPD before age 65 years old (last birthday) and Death coverage

ØEntry age of 16 to 80 years old (last birthday)

ØMinimum single premium of $10,000 up to a maximum of S$1,000,000

ØSimplified underwriting

·Sum Assured = 105% of Single Premium

·Sum Assured = 100% of Single Premium (if claim occurs within the 1^st policy year)

Please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions for more details.

As this is a limited tranche product, applications to the plan is on a *_first-come-first-served basis_*. The product will be withdrawn upon attainment of tranche size. Any excess premium received above the tranche size will be refunded …

smoking ban to cover more places

Patrick Lim — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 10:02:00 +0000

those who smoke will soon have fewer places to do so because the smoking ban will be extended to cover more areas like common corriders, void decks and staircases of residential buildings.

other non-smoking areas to be covered include sheltered walkways, overhead bridges and outdoor hospital compounds.

the new non-smoking zones will kick in the coming year.

for bus-stops, the change means for those who smoke must stay outside a 5m radius around bus shelters.

all these comes as a the result of a public consultation exercise which the national environment agency and health promotion board initiated last november which attracted 8,000 respondents with 89% giving their ayes to an extension of the smoking ban.

on the smoking ban to cover more places, senior minister of state of the ministry of the environment and water resources, ms grace fu said:

“our long term goal is to prohibit smoking in all …

cpf life plans refined from 4 to 2

Patrick Lim — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 08:31:00 +0000

an announcement was made by Deputy Prime Minister and Manpower Minister, Tharman Shanmugaratnam during the Committee of Supply debates on the Manpower Ministry’s estimates in Parliament on Monday on another tweaking to the cpf life scheme introduced in 2009.

when the cpf life scheme was launched, there were 4 plans available, namely:

1. life plus
2. life balanced
3. life basic
4. life income

as a result of feedback, the government has decided to combine the desired features of the life plus and balanced plans into a new plan called the standard plan which will be the default plan if cpf members have not indicated their choice of which plan they want and will automatically be placed under this plan.

the desired features of the new standard plan are:

a. comparable payouts to the minimum sum scheme
b. the bequest feature and
c. the flexibility to use the retirement account

…

excuse me, are u a senior citizen?

Patrick Lim — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 15:20:00 +0000

today being our weekly family day is the perfect excuse to pig-out and spend quality time with my family which consists of my significant other and our only son.

we opted to go to one of our favourite restaurants, momiji japanese buffet restaurant at city square mall which is just a stone’s throw (a herculean one at that) from our residence.

today isn’t the first time we are giving our business to momiji as all of us pretty like japanese food and because it is not a-la-carte, meaning buffet style which is definitely value for money especially if the term, to pig-out is taken in it’s literal context.

at the entrance, the cashier inquired as to the number of pax. to which i replied 2 adults and 1 senior citizen (seniors enjoy a discounted rate over the regular rate for adults. senior citizen defined as being age 60 years or …

insurer launches plan for low income

Patrick Lim — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 09:29:00 +0000

ntuc-income’s head honcho, mr tan suee chieh can rightly say, we did it again but it’s definitely not to the tune of britney spear’s; oops, we did it again.

what’s happening at ntuc-income?

our island’s only co-operative insurer has launched their ntuc-income value pack last night at the sands expo and convention centre.

what is ntuc-income value pack?

this is a bundled enhanced incomeshield plan covering hospitalisation and surgery costs in a singapore restructured hospital for the lower B2 and C Class wards together with term coverage.

on the value pack, mr tan suee chieh said:

“if we want to build a truly inclusive and strong community, we must not forget those who are at risk of being left behind while the rest of society progresses. no family should be devastated by the high costs of health care or the financial burden that comes after losing a breadwinner, especially when …

the customer is always right?

Patrick Lim — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 08:21:00 +0000

just last week, an existing client called me (late at night) to inquire whether a claim can be submittted for a very minor injury sustained to one of the limbs in the course of work.

my client took up 2 policies from me, an integrated shield plan and a term plan with critical illness coverage.

based on what my client told me, my response was that none of the existing in-force policies provide coverage for the very minor injury sustained, but i can put in the claim nonetheless.

on hearing this, my client turned abusive and treated me to both verbal abuse and harasssment.

in addition, my client issued a clear threat to report me for being, in the words of my client; a lousy adviser.

my comments:

whenver i sit with any prospect/existing client, my advise is usually pretty comprehensive (after the mandatory financial needs analysis or fact finding) …

what is testing?

Patrick Lim — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 08:01:00 +0000

by now, i believe many of my newer blog readers must be wondering what is ‘testing’ in my daily blog entry? this is my way of reserving the daily slot for my blog in case i can fill in the entry a day or days later.

and recently, some of my more regular blog readers have emailed me to register their disappointment with so many of my blog entries with nothing more than just one word, ‘testing’.

my comments:

please accept my sincere apologies for not being able to blog for what seems like eternity to me at least because of the mountains of work piled up in front of me since prior to the chinese new year holidays.

this year saw the kick-off of the implementation of the cka*. coupled to this is the monetary authority of singapore’s requirement of the 2D, or due dilgence on companies and products.

…

ntuc-income – launch of new i-Term TAN4

Patrick Lim — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:21:00 +0000

here’s some exciting news for consumers. ntuc-income has launched the new i-term TAN4 which is the re-priced version of the previous i-Term TAN2.

what is i-Term TAN4?

this is a non-participating regular premium plain vanilla term plan with coverage for death/total & permanent disability and terminal illness.

some details on the product:

entry age is pretty encompasing from age 0 to age 70 (last birthday).
term of coverage from a minimum of 5 years and from 5 years to 35 years or till age 54, 59, 64 last birthday.
Renewability – Upon expiry of the policy term, the policy will be renewed automatically without further underwriting. The premium payable upon renewal will be based on the prevailing age of the life insured, the prevailing premium rates and the policy term chosen at the time of renewal.
The policy can be renewed up to age 84 (previously age 79) only.

my …

travel insurance to avoid

Patrick Lim — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0000

ms teo siew hoon’s letter; captioned: travel insurance to avoid was published in the st forum online on saturday.

in her letter, ms teo recounted her claim’s experience with general insurer, chartis on her damaged luggage which took almost 4 weeks (add another 2 weeks after her claim submission) for her to be informed to obtain a quotation to repair her luggage and send it to her insurer.

as a comparison, ms teo cited that if she had made a similar claim for damaged luggage to an airline, the latter would probably pick up the luggage, assess the repair and inform quickly whether the luggage would be repaired and returned or replaced.

she ended by expressing her hope that other insurance companies do not make their customers wait the way chartis has done.

my comments:

as a financial planner and a traveler myself, i can empathise with ms teo over …

whole-of-life alternative to universal life

Patrick Lim — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 14:05:00 +0000

an article with the abovementioned title by ms genevieve cua in the weekend edition of the business times caught my eye.

in her article, ms cua touched on some basics of whole life and universal life products. she also said that the appeal of universal life lies partly in the flexible premium financiing and rightly pointed out the latter calls up a different set of risks of which one caveat is that as the client ages and a scenario should rates fall to the minimum crediting rate, it may be possible that the death benefit may decline and clients may be asked to top-up the premium to ensure the policy does not lapse. on this, ms cua pointed out that some universal life products do have a ‘no-lapse’ guarantee option but this comes with an additional premium.

the article singled out tokio marine life insurance tm legacy vip, a single …

cashing in on the lunar new year?

Patrick Lim — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:27:00 +0000

during the first 2 days of the lunar new year, many consumers (including myself and my family) would have discovered that stalls levied a ‘premium’ for food and drinks purchased during this festive period.

just to cite an example, hot drinks like coffee and tea has been hiked to $0.90 to $1.20 instead of the usual $0.70 to $0.90. and simple meals like a bowl of noodles cost $3.50, or $0.50 more than the usual $3.00 during the non-festive period.

however, in an article by the free local tabloid, today, it was reported that even though the lunar new year (public holidays) are over, prices have remained high when prices are expected to return to normal when stalls resume business after the holidays.

one example is ltn food village at east coast road where 3 of the 10 stalls put up signs to …

No related posts.

the dragon year, in more ways than one

Patrick Lim — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:50:00 +0000

i read the abovementioned article with great interest by mr toh yong chuan, senior correspondent, published in today’s edition of the straits times.

he started off by illustrating that the word, dragon denotes firstly prosperity or something that is grand.

he cites the local stock market using the example of the sti which ended the year 2000 (the last dragon year) at 1,927 points and market capitalisation then was $417.8 billion. at the end of 2011, the sti had gone up to 2,646 points and market capitalisation at a much higher $716.3 billion.

other statistics:

singapore’s gdp was $165.2 billion in 2000 to $284.6 in 2010
trade nearly doubled from $470 billion to $902 billion
singapore got bigger from 683 sq km to 712 sq km
population grew from 4 million to 5 million
literacy from 92.5% to 95.9%
life expectancy from 78 years …

the world’s first trillionaire?

Patrick Lim — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:16:00 +0000

my first blog to kick off the lunar new year is on wealth or lots and lots of it in the form of the world’s first trillionaire who is known as mr kamal ashnawi.

many people probably would have heard of mr carlos slim helu, the mexican mega tycoon with an estimated worth of US$63.3 billion and acknowledged as the richest person in the world.

but who is mr kamal ashnawi?

Kamal Ashnawi, 42 years old was born in Tanjung Malim, Perak, Malaysia and is the president of sierra petroleum.

according to sources as reported by the malaysian media in a news conference, mr kamal ashnawi said his net worth was $6.4 trillion, and yes, u are reading right, it’s trillions and expressed in numerical form, it is $6,400,000,000,000 which is equivalent to approx RM20 trillion ringgit.

my comments:

wow, imagine the number of digits of the wealth …

ntuc-income: repricing of growth plan

Patrick Lim — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:01:00 +0000

this is really fresh from the oven because we have just received an urgent email notification from ntuc-income (at approx 6pm):

Dear Valued Partners,

Over the last few years, interest rates have declined significantly. 12 months fixed deposit rates are now hovering around 0.4% p.a. compared to 0.9% p.a. 5 years ago. Similarly, 5-year Singapore government bond yields have declined from 3.2% p.a. 5 years ago to 0.9% p.a. today. As a result, it is becoming increasingly challenging to design and price this type of single premium savings plan, such as our Growth Plan. As you know, many of our fellow competitors areno longer selling such plans.

We will be _replacing_ thecurrent version of *Growth Plan (GRL3)*with a new revised version. Details of the new version of Growth Plan to replace the current version will be made in a separate announcement. The …