CJH Financial Planning

As I approach my tenth year in the life insurance and financial advisory business, it has come to a point in my career where I am embarking on a new challenge, that is to groom and train young people into successful financial consultants. As such, I have been away from writing articles for a while, busy juggling both client consulting and mentoring responsibilities. All newly minted financial consultants have to undergo intensive product training, mastering one product at a time, until they reach a level of proficiency and experience where they can flap their wings and fly on their own. While I was training the new blood of our industry, it is inevitable that that the new consultants ask which products do our clients like the most. Although financial planning is a highly customised affair, and no two persons' financial needs are exactly the same, some products are indeed in higher demand than the rest. This may be due to a greater awareness for certain types of policies. And du...

Last week, a client asked me to help examine a very affordable type of term life insurance policy that all Singapore NS-men are entitled to purchase - Aviva SAF Group Term Life policy. He wanted to know if it is a better deal as compared to the other term insurance plans out in the market. First and foremost, it is a common misconception that all term life insurance policies are the same. It is also incorrect to assume that since all term policies are the same (which is not true), then the one with the cheapest premium is the best. Different insurance policies have different wordings, and what may be claimable from one policy may not be claimable from another. Also, different insurance companies differs in claim experience, cost of operations and distributions, size of their life funds, and investment performance. When it comes to service, different insurers also differs in continuous client engagement, speed and ease of claims, and personalised custo...