Singlife Whole Life Choice

Elaborating Feature Benefits of Singlife Whole Life Choice:

Lifelong Protection: The plan offers lifelong protection against death and terminal illness.
Dual Coverage: It has two components: a Base Cover that provides lifetime coverage and accumulates cash value and bonuses, and an Additional Cover for extra protection.
Additional Cover: You can choose additional coverage of 100%, 200%, 300%, or 400% of the Base Sum Assured. This additional coverage lasts until a chosen Additional Cover Age, which can be 65, 70, 75, 80, or 85 years old, and then gradually decreases by 12.5% each year over eight years.
Flexibility in Premium Payment: You can choose a premium payment term of 10, 15, 20, or 25 years, or pay until age 65.
Life Stage Withdrawal Benefit: This benefit allows access to accumulated reversionary bonuses without surrender charges during key life stages such as marriage, parenthood, purchasing a property, or enrolling in tertiary education. This option can be exercised up to two times before the life assured reaches age 65.
Retrenchment Benefit: If you lose your job, this benefit waives premiums for up to 12 months, offering financial relief during unemployment. This benefit is available once per policy for life assured aged 17 or older, after a 6-month waiting period.
Guaranteed Extra Protection Option: You can increase coverage at key life stages, like buying a property or having a child, without additional health checks. This option allows the policyholder to purchase a new non-participating level term Supplementary Benefit for coverage on death and Terminal Illness with extra premium payable, limited to 100% of the base sum assured or $500,000 per life, whichever is lower.
Income Payout Option: This option allows you to convert your policy’s cash value into monthly payouts from age 65 or the end of the premium payment term, payable until age 99.
Optional Riders: You can add riders for greater protection, including Total and Permanent Disability Advance Cover, Critical Illness Advance Cover, and Early Critical Illness Advance Cover.
Cash Value Accumulation: The Base Cover accumulates guaranteed and non-guaranteed cash value from the start of the third policy year, as long as premiums are paid. The non-guaranteed cash value is accumulated in the form of Reversionary Bonus (declared annually) and Terminal Bonus, and will depend on the performance of Singapore Life Ltd.’s Participating Fund.

Things to take note about Singlife Whole Life Choice:

Not a short term plan: It is not suitable for customers seeking short-term protection.
No regular cash returns: The plan is not designed for regular cash returns.
Not a savings plan: It is not a savings or capital-guaranteed product.
Investment risks: The non-guaranteed cash value depends on the performance of Singapore Life Ltd.’s Participating Fund. Customers should understand the risks and returns associated with investing through the participating fund.
Surrender Costs: Early termination of the policy can be costly, with the surrender value potentially being zero or less than the total premiums paid.
Reduced Additional Cover: The Additional Cover decreases by 12.5% each year after the chosen Additional Cover Age until it reaches zero.
Policy Loans: Policy loans are available up to 90% of the cash surrender value less any amounts owing to Us, but the interest rate is non-guaranteed.
Suicide Exclusion: If the life assured commits suicide within one year of the policy issue date, the policy will be void, and only the premiums will be refunded.
Waiting Period for Retrenchment Benefit: There is a 6-month waiting period from policy inception before the Retrenchment Benefit can be used.

Singlife Whole Life Choice Use Case Study Example:

Scenario:

Individual: A young professional named Sarah, age 30, is a non-smoker residing in Singapore. She is married with no children and is looking for a comprehensive, long-term protection plan that offers flexibility and can adapt to her life changes.

Goals:

Sarah wants lifelong protection against death and terminal illness.
She desires a plan with living benefits that can support her at different life stages.
She would like to accumulate cash value and bonuses over time.
She is interested in a plan that provides additional coverage for a specific period of her life.
She wants to be able to access funds during key life events without incurring surrender charges.
She wants financial security in case of job loss.

Singlife Whole Life Choice Plan:

Base Sum Assured: Sarah chooses a Base Sum Assured of S$100,000 for lifelong coverage against death and terminal illness.
Additional Cover: She selects an Additional Cover of 200% of her Base Sum Assured, which provides an extra S$200,000 of coverage, for a total of S$300,000. She opts for an Additional Cover Age of 70, meaning the additional coverage will start to decrease by 12.5% per year starting at age 70 until it reaches zero after 8 years.
Premium Payment Term: She chooses a premium payment term of 20 years, which means she will pay premiums until age 50.
Riders: Sarah adds two riders to enhance her coverage:
- Early Critical Illness Advance Cover VI: With a sum assured of S$100,000. This rider provides coverage for early, intermediate, and severe-stage critical illnesses and additional benefits such as the Intensive Care Benefit, Benign and Borderline Malignant Tumour Benefit and Special Benefit.
- Total and Permanent Disability Advance Cover V: With a sum assured of S$100,000. This rider provides protection against total and permanent disability.

How the Plan Meets Sarah’s Goals:

Lifelong Protection: The Base Sum Assured of S$100,000 ensures she has lifelong coverage for death and terminal illness.
Additional Coverage: The 200% Additional Cover provides extra financial protection during her working years, when she might have more financial responsibilities.
Cash Value and Bonuses: The policy accumulates cash value and bonuses over time.
Life Stage Withdrawal Benefit: When Sarah gets married at age 32, she can utilize the Life Stage Withdrawal Benefit to access a portion of her accumulated reversionary bonuses without charges to help pay for her wedding, provided that the life stage event occurs before she reaches age 65 and that the application is submitted within 90 days of the event. She can also use this benefit again if she has a child before age 65, provided the withdrawals are at least S$1000, as she is only allowed to use this benefit twice in her lifetime.
Retrenchment Benefit: If Sarah is involuntarily unemployed for three consecutive months and is aged 17 or older, the retrenchment benefit could waive her premiums for up to 12 months, providing financial relief during unemployment. This can be done one time and after a 6 month waiting period from when her policy was issued.
Guaranteed Extra Protection Option: When Sarah decides to purchase a property at age 35, she can exercise the Guaranteed Extra Protection Option to increase her coverage without additional health checks, up to 100% of her base sum assured or S$500,000, whichever is lower.
Income Payout Option: At age 65, she can choose to activate the Income Payout Option, converting a portion of her policy’s cash value into monthly payouts, which can provide a steady income stream during her retirement, with the payouts lasting until age 99. The policy will continue to provide coverage, however, the monthly payouts will adjust the cash surrender value of her plan.
Riders: The Early Critical Illness Advance Cover VI and Total and Permanent Disability Advance Cover V provide additional financial protection against unforeseen circumstances that may occur during her life.

Illustrative Outcomes:

If Sarah were to pass away before age 70, her beneficiaries would receive the full sum assured of S$300,000, plus any accumulated reversionary and terminal bonuses. If she were to pass away after age 78, her beneficiaries would receive only the base sum assured, as the additional cover would have reduced to zero.
If Sarah was diagnosed with a covered early critical illness, she would receive a payout from the Early Critical Illness Advance Cover VI rider, helping to cover her medical costs and potentially allow her to take time off work to recover.
If Sarah became totally and permanently disabled, she would receive a payout from the Total and Permanent Disability Advance Cover V rider, providing financial support to cover her needs.
If, at age 65, Sarah decided to use the income payout option of her plan, she would receive monthly income until age 99, supporting her lifestyle during retirement, and the cash surrender value would be adjusted to account for the monthly income paid out.

Some things to note. This review post will get dated. And the product might not be available for new subscriptions at some point. Hopefully this serves as reference for future policyholders who have forgotten what they have taken up.

There can be shifts in planning narratives over time. For example, limited premium tenures gain popularity over the years because people are less confident of their future earning capacity or sustainability of income levels. Regular payout features gained popularity when more and more people are in tune with the FIRE (Financial independence retire early) movement. An extended period of low interest rates brought down insurance products’ returns yield for policy holders, but now in a higher interest rates environment, things have changed.

Singlife Whole Life Choice may or may not fit into your financial plans. Understand that there is no best plan for all time, but there is a method to objectively facilitate your decisions. Read more about it here.

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