Planning for financial security of family

Dear Mr Tan,
Your blog have been most invaluable in helping me with my current review of all the policies bought by my family.

1) You mentioned so frequently about the monthly income benefit but I realised this product is not common among the insurers. From what I gather, only Aviva, GE and TM Asia (together a term or whole life policy) have it. The cheapest I found was fom GE: $3000 monthly income benefit till age 60yrs old, with waiting period of 90 days for $630 p.a. Is this a reasonable price to pay? Why isn't there more of this product in the market since it is quite essential to a person with family?

Reply:
The GE product appears to be a disability income product. It pays the monthly income during disabilty for a certain period and ceases on death.

You need a family income product, which pays a monthly income to the family on the death of the policyholder. The income is payable for the remainder of the period of insurance.

2) Also in your past entries where you mentioned we should aim for coverage of about 5x our annual income. Should we also include the coverage given by our employers in this case?

Reply:
You can include the coverage provided by your employer to make the target of 5 years. It is all right to insure for a higher sum, say up to 8 years of your income.

3) Is there any difference when insurers say Terminal Illness and Critical Illness?

Reply
The definitions of critical illness and terminal illness are different. Many people can claim for critical illness earlier, before they can claim for terminal illness.