CJH Financial Planning

Today a business friend asked me if there is any way to insure her parents, who are in their late 70s, against medical costs. I told her that unfortunately the policies at my disposal have a maximum entry age of 75, and therefore I’m not able to provide cover for them. However I advised her on a viable alternative, that is “self-insurance”. I asked if she has any other siblings and she replied yes. I then went on to suggest that from now on, she and her siblings should start contributing some money into a medical fund for their parents, and this pool of money becomes an “insurance fund” for them. Coupled with Medishield Life as well as their Medisave funds, this approach should help to alleviate most of the medical costs. Suddenly I can see an imaginary light bulb lit up in her mind — an “a-ha” moment! She said that if each sibling contribute $200 monthly, it seems like this is a do-able strategy. Financial planning isn’t always about buying more insurance policies. Sometimes...

You may have already heard  about the upcoming launch of MediShield Life. I have received many enquiries about how it would affect policyowners of private Shield plans. In this article, I’ll share with you what industry practitioners know about MediShield Life so far, and its impact on you. To understand the situation better, we have to first understand how MediShield Life, and its predecessor MediShield works.

Relying on your company insurance may be disastrous. 1. Cover is usually not complete as companies wish to save costs (as shown in the article where only $45 was paid out for stroke). 2. You lose your cover when you leave the company. 3. You may be 'forced' to leave the company in the event of a prolonged illness or disability. 4. You may change job and your new company offers even lesser coverage than the previous one. 5. When you try to apply for personal insurance when points 2, 3, or 4 happens, you realize that your health is not insurable anymore due to your deteriorated health (weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, etc), a past illness, injury or hospitalization. So why take the unnecessary risk? The days of relying on a company for employee welfare are long over. Now is the age where companies' main focus is on profits. Ensure your personal insurance is in good shape and don't leave things to chance, cos you might not be able to afford it when chance h...

Recently I had a few calls coming in enquiring about medical expenses. As such I thought it would be useful to share this information with my readers. To start off, I'm sure you have seen someone who was hospitalised for a seemingly minor treatment, which still required a few thousand bucks? Or someone who had gone through a major surgery which set him back tens of thousands of dollars? 'Bill shocks' are common when it comes to medical bills as one would not know how much they would incur. And as one of my client said, you really do not know when you'll be making a visit to the hospital, as these things can hit you overnight. Fret not. With a well structured medical expenses protection plan, you can leave your bills to be paid by the insurer and not to worry yourself with unnecessary financial burden.