The New Paper - Truth of Life Insurance Payout

The New Paper has a special report on "The truth of Life Insurance Payout" in its
September 6 edition.

I recommend to all policyholders to read this special report. It shows that the amounts paid out to policyholders on a surrendered or matured policy is far short of the "asset share" of the policy. Many policyhoders are being paid far less than a "fair amount".

If you fall in this category, I suggest that you should write to the Monetary Authority of Singapore to ask them to take up the matter with your insurance company.

I have written to the Consumer Association to raise the following matter with MAS:

1. Is the amount paid to the policyholder of a surrendered or matured policy quite close to the "individual liability” in respect of the policy? Is the insurance company allowed to pay out an amount that is far short of this “individual liability”? The individual liability is required to be computed by the insurance company for each policy and reported in total in the annual return to MAS.

2. In the interest of transparency and fairness, can MAS require the insurance company to disclose the "individual liability", upon the request of the policyholder of a terminated policy, so that the policyholder is aware of the amount of the "individual liability" that is held back from him?

3. Is it fair for a policyholder, on surrender of a policy, to be getting back less than the premiums paid after 10 years or longer, when the insurance company is able to retain up to 40% of the "individual liability" from the policyholder?

4. Why is it not possible for Singapore to adopt the practice in Malaysia and other countries, which requires the insurance company to pay out the “asset share” on a terminated policy after it has been held for more than a certain period? The “asset share” is similar to the “individual liability” reported in the annual return to MAS. This payout appears to be fairer and is much higher than the cash value now given to a policyholder in Singapore.

5. Can MAS ask the insurance company to disclose the total cash value of all policies, to allow it to be compared with the “sum of the individual liability in respect of each policy” as reported in the annual return? This will allow the public to know the amount that is held back by the insurance company, if all the policies were terminated.