Family Income Benefit

A family income benefit is a life insurance policy that pays a monthly income to the family following the death of the life assured. The income is payable for the remainder of the term.

I consider this type of insurance to be the most suitable policy for a person to take care of the financial needs of the family. It is more suitable than a term insurance policy.

Take the example of a male aged 30 with a monthly income of $3,000 and young children. He can buy a term insurance policy to cover $300,000 for 25 years and pay an annual premium of $720. For the same premium, he can buy a family income benefit to pay $3,000 a month from death until the end of 25 years.

If death occurs during the first year, the total payout is $3,000 X 12 X 25 = $900,000, but paid monthly over 25 years. This is 3 times the amount payable under level term insurance. If death occurs at end of year 15, the total payout is $3,000 X 12 X 10 years = $360,000, which is still more than the payout under the level term.

The monthly payout is better to meet the family needs, as the spouse does not need to worry about how to invest the lump sum.

Unfortunately, the insurance companies in Singapore are not keen to sell the family income benefit. Most of their sales are made through the agent, who wants to sell other life insurance policies that pays a higher commission to them. The agent will try to convince the customer to buy a policy that gives a return on the premiums, although the return is rather poor and is usually less than 2% per annum.

Some companies offer family income benefit, but they loaded up the premium to a much higher rate, to give a high profit and expense margin. The premium could be two times of what it should be.

To get a competitive rate, the customer should ask a few insurance companies to quote for a family income benefit to pay $X a month for a term of 25 years. If several companies are willing to quote the rate, they are likely to offer a more competitive rate, that reflects the actual cost of claims plus a fair margin for expenses and profit.

I hope that life insurance companies will offer this plan to be sold directly to customer through the internet.

Tan Kin Lian