“What? $300 a day? So good? No way!” You may ask.

Yes, it is true. My colleague told me that her client had cancer and was warded for more than a month. Not only was that person’s hospital medical expenses reimbursed by the insurance company, he got paid $300 a day too! That’s $9000 a month!

It is not that we look forward to getting sick but the thought of being paid $300 a day does provide peace of mind to that person. The prospect of losing his job is very real and with the extra money in his pocket, he can rest easier.

At the same time, I would suggest that he should have a critical illness plan that pays a lump sum of money to help him through at least 5 years without any financial worries.

Please feel free to contact me if you do not any independent financial advisor representative serving you.

Many of us have bought our life insurance policies 5, 10, 15 or even 20 years ago. We would have forgotten what we have bought and quite ignorant of what we have bought over the years. In an unfortunate event of a sudden death or injury where you are unable to communicate with your loved ones, will they know where to find your insurance policies and do they know what to do with them when they find the policy documents? Do they need to read all the documents just to know what it is all about?

Just imagine all the stress and anxiety your family members have to go through just to get through the pile of insurance documents.

Remove this fear and anxiety once and for all. Engage an independent financial adviser representative to review your insurance portfolio and have an insurance summary done up and put all your documents in ONE folder in a systematic order. This way, anyone who takes out this folder will be able to see how much the insurance payout will be immediately. The contact numbers of all the insurance advisers must be clearly visible so that they can be contacted immediately. Always update the contact list should your insurance adviser leaves the industry.

Appointing a trusted independent financial advisor rep as the main contact person will relieve your family of the hassle of getting the claims done professionally and promptly.

Reviewing your insurance portfolio regulary will show up any loop holes in your plans as you progress higher financially or you have a new member in your family. A financial plan is a process not an end product. You may even terminate some insurance plans which have become redundant or become too expensive to keep.

So pick up the telephone and call your independent financial adviser rep to review your insurance portfolio now.

In your life insurance policy documents, you may have noticed these two phrases “waiting period’ and “survival period”. But do you know what it means and what are the implications if you do not meet the criteria set by the insurance companies?

Let’s take a closer look…

Waiting Period – Normally you will find that there is a waiting period of 90 days before you can claim from the insurance companies upon diagnosis of a critical illness. 90 days from what, you may ask? 90 days from the commencement date of your policy or date of reinstatement of your policy.

Commencement date is simple enough, it is the date that the insurance company starts to cover your life after their underwriting department gives the go-ahead. It may be the 1st day of a month or it can be a date that the insurance company decides.

Date of reinstatement happens when you make good the premiums that you have forgotten to pay when it was due, or you did not have the funds to pay the premium. Normally you have 30 days grace to pay your premium. After 30 days, your policy will lapse. To re-instate it, you have to back pay the premiums owed. Once it is paid, your policy will be re-instated. BUT…be careful here…

Your waiting period of 90 days for the critical illnesses start all over again after the reinstatement date! Should you be diagnosed with a critical illness, you will NOT be able to claim from the insurance company! You can appeal but you’d better pray the CEO is in a good mood.

So remember to pay your premiums, use GIRO if possible, so you will never forget. And yes, do make sure you have sufficient funds in your bank account please. especially if you are going to be posted overseas for a long period of time.

Survival period if different. Normally you will see “survival period” of 30 days upon diagnosis of a critical illness is needed before the insurance company will pay. If the person dies within 30 days, the insurance company will only pay the death benefit but not the critical illness benefit.

So what, you may ask? That person is going to die anyway…

A BIG difference, if the policy pays both upon diagnosis of a critical illness AND another payment upon the death of that person. Nowadays, I see alot of insurance companies have this kind of policies.

If you are not sure what you have, I suggest you review your life insurance policies with an independent financial adviser rep soon. Be sure or you may encounter a rude shock one day…