Recently i have my clients and friends asking me whether should they buy insurance products from banks or from me (tied agent)?

Well personally i felt that the answer is the same as you asking yourself ‘Should you go directly to manufacturer to buy products or you should buy from a distributor’ Same things but different pricing. The price that you pay if you go direct to manufacturer is so much cheaper compared to distributor where they will mark up the price by abit to earn the margin.

In our context, buying insurance from us(manufacturer) is more beneficial compared to from the bank(Distributor) 

 First of all, ask yourself this question: ‘Is the agent from the bank going to be your long term consultant or do you think the one from tied agency would possibiliy be the one staying long term?’ Which one has the incentive to do their work better? I believed the answer is quite obvious. The moment you signed on the documents inside the bank, the liability lies directly between the insurance company and yourself. The bank consultant cannot be seen inside your future financial planning process. On the other hand, the tied agency agent will continuously be there to service you making sure that you are covered for every single thing from head to toe.

Of course, i would like to make a disclaimer first by saying not all tied agency agents are Mr or Mrs nice guy/lady or they will choose to stay long term. Nevertheless tied agency agents have more incentives to do their work well. Just take a look at lehman brothers and you would know why i say so.

Second of all, ask yourself this question: ‘ How is the consultant being compensated inside the bank?’ Is it through commission by clearning sales target of different kind of products? Over in bank, most of them are rewarded based on their overall sales target for different kind of products. Meaning to say that if they failed to hit one type of products then they will not be entitled to full commission. However for tied agents, we are rewarded for any products that we recommend to our clients. We does not have a particular sales target to clear and therefore we will always recommend based on client’s need.  Again my disclaimer for this would be that tied agent MUST disclose their commission to clients to show if they have any bias towards any policies sold.

Last question that you can ask is whether bank consultants do a fact-find or rather understand you first before they sell you any products? How long do you know a bank agent before you decide to buy from them? Comparing to a tied agent where he/she will spend quality time knowing and understanding you, who do you think will recommend products based on your needs. Time spent does matter because without a proper understanding of client’s needs, it is hard to be able to properly recommend a product that suits their needs.

Involving financial planning is a time consuming decision process and many of us are not really keen on going through. Many felt that any plans will do the magic but they are all wrong. One wrong commitment may turn out disastrous in long term. It is always good to find the right agent who possesses the passion and interest in their career. Only with the right qualities, they will put your interest in the first priority because they live by the theory that if they take care of their client, their client will take care of them! =)

Note: Above are my two cents worth of thoughts. It does not constitute to any financial advice. Please do your own research before deciding on doing anything on your futre.

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That’s why today I decided to come to airport to chill =) Having a cup of latte whilst doing strategic thinking. I love such moments as I can slow down my pace and reflect on all the things that has happened in my life and learn from the experiences that I’ve had.

Let me do a recap of the experiences that I have gained in the past two months:

1)      During conversations with guys younger than me, I realized that the decisions made during the younger years have the ability to completely alter one’s fate. I made the decision to join the financial industry despite many objections while doing my part time degree and after 4 years, I have never looked back. If I had not made this move, I wouldn’t be where I am now and this website wouldn’t be in existence. I also wouldn’t have learnt so many valuable life lessons in life and met amazing people.

2)      After one of the major exercise that I had during my course, I was reminded that one’s attitude in life decides whether or not you’re poised for success. Eg: If you are always positive about things, you tend to make the best out of it and try to learn new experiences from it. Successful people that I know, especially my boss Merry Riana, has an excellent attitude towards life. She has been going around sharing with many others that the most important things in life can be achieved by having the right attitude. Losers, on the other hand, focus a lot on what they can’t achieve and blame anything and everything except themselves.

3)      We can plan but if the plan that you have is not what God has intended for you, it will not materialize. As a result, you need to see from this point of view and tell yourself that God breaks your plan so that HE can allow the bigger plan to materialize. Every failure in our life serves a purpose. It doesn’t happen without a reason. So seize the chance to learn from the mistakes and grow!

4)      Saving is a virtue! Being able to save and possessing the willingness to save isn’t easy. This is especially so in Singapore where things are so expensive coupled with low wages, it can be quite taxing on normal folks. It takes great determination to weather out temptation and remain as normal =) Although it may seem very extreme but that was what I learnt. We can save money if we really take a step back to reflect on our wants and needs. You have to ask yourselves whether you deserve to buy these items and whether the purchase value adds to your life.

5)      What kind of lifestyle do you desire? Have you asked yourselves why you are  working so hard? Do you desire a relaxed lifestyle when you retire? If the answer is yes, then I suggest that you should migrate overseas =) After I came back from Australia, I learnt that it doesn’t take much effort to lead a relaxed lifestyle there. The culture is such that anyone can lead such a lifestyle. The per hour wage is about A$15-20 and working hours are from 9-6pm. After work time is meant for family bonding whereas weekends are meant for gathering with friends or colleagues. Even if you are unemployed, the government will also provide you with social benefits. So basically it is a choice of abandoning everything in our home country or to migrate to another place to start all over again. We need to find a purpose for working hard. We can’t just work without a reason because one of these days, you will just wear out and find life meaningless.

Well that’s all for my two cents worth of sharing. Hope you can gain some insight through my experience. It’s always good to leverage on others than to go through itself.

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Just spoken to a friend of mine and she asked me this particular question which i thought that it was quite easy to answer but after hearing her version of answer, i was impressed. I told her that each of us will need to find a partner because we need someone to love and to share the joys and downs in life. and to start a family of our own. Then she told me her answer from her point of view.

She said that both should only get together when you realised that he/she can help you to grow and develop into a better person spiritually and how much both of you can serve God in a better manner. I was really surprised to hear this kind of answer because it really makes alot of sense to me. She makes me realised a couple of things about myself. It was one of those quality conversation that i had so far and i will always remember.

It got me thinking that alot of people these days did not really plan for their future in term of relationship. Many at times got married because of the wrong reasons such as buying a house, being together for very long, peer pressure or age issues etc. Personally i have also seen many failed marriages or relationships and most of them was for the same reasons such as character faults or money. So it makes me wonder how come they still want to get married in the first place?

Anyway this friend of mine is very logical at her first stage with the guy that is wooing her. She knew that nothing will come out between them hence she did not give herself any chance to be emotionally attached to him. She still treats the guy as normal friend but just rejected those romantic dates. This way, she is able to be emotionally detached from any feeling in the future because she is worried that if she lets herself continue with the guy, she may fall deeply and by the time she wants to get out, it will be quite painful. Such actions is what i called planning. Putting serious thought in every relationship with the person you want and wanting the best out of it.

If all of us are able to do so, i believe that the divorce rate in singapore will reduce by quite alot. Not forgetting that if both party shared the same religion or belief, it will surely helps alot. Because of the fact that both parties have God in mind, they will rely on this relationship with God to nurture the relationship.

I’m really glad that i have always been surrounded by nice people that have guided me the right way of life and through their sharing, i really benefited and grew as a person. Previously i have always looked for a relationship where i hope i can meet someone that is able to meet my expectations and normally when that doesn’t happen, my world seem to be crashing down. My friend made me realised that i am also looking for someone to give me credit for my own self-worth. Meaning if i failed in a relationship, i be blaming myself for what had happened and become unhappy. The correct way should not be this way because there is no person in this world that is able to give you credit for self worth especial God and yourself. We should be proud of who we are and be glad that our presence here will bring some happiness to people around us. We must never allow other people to determine our self worth because the moment you do that, your worth suddenly becomes worthless.

With this new belief in my life, i am going to live my life differently! I’m going to do some planning on my future relationship. I’m also going to share what i have learned with all my clients and friends that i’m meeting. Hope that i can be one adviser that not only versatile in financial matters but also in handling their relationship matters

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First of all, she shared with us about the importance of having a plan. It is not a normal plan of what you are doing daily or weekly but it is a plan that involved 10 years of your career! Not many people this days are able to do it because they are not serious about their career as they are taking the approach of what we called ’see see look look’ attitude. She told us the moment when she started out this career as a financial planner, she has planned out what she is going to achieve step by step in years to come. And guess what? She achieved everything in just a short 5 years!!!

Listening to such success stories have again reinforced the idea of law of attraction and importance of planning. Law of attraction works in a way that we will dream and visualise what we want the things in life to be and slowly our behaviour and actions will be more in tuned to this area. At the end of the day you will achieve the things that you been desiring. Planning of what you want in life is the first step of getting what you want. We should really sit down and think of what we want to achieve in life.

Merry Riana (my pretty boss) had shared with us her own personal dream book that she had it years ago when she was still a student. Inside her dream book consists of all her dreams including being a young millionaire, singer, no.1 trainer and of course a wonderful family of her own. So did she managed to achieve everything? OF COURSE not all tho =) But she can proudly said that she managed to get almost 90% of the things she desired since last time.

So with another success stories with regarding about a long term career/life plan, what are we waiting for? Right now, please go and sit down to think seriously about what do you want in your life for the next 10 years and how are you going to achieve it? Pen it down inside a book so that you can see it next time. You can make it nicer by placing many pictures (what you want to have) to create a more ‘real’ effect.

Secondly this lady also shared with us about passion. As usual for most people to be successful in any other career, he/she has to love the job. To love the job, the person needs to be passionate about it. To be passionate about it, you got to do it with interest. Though it may sounds easy and i believe many of us have heard it many times before but yet seldom of us managed to do it. Why???

In my opinion, i feel that it is because people did not put enough reasons to put behind the reason for doing something. Although it is just reasons but do u guys know that by just having strong reasons can just simply makes or breaks a person. Success is just sometimes depending on the reasons behind the action. Eg: If you want to be lose weight so you got to ask what are the reasons behind? Is it because it feels good to have it or because it is a must for you to have it if not your loved one will leave or look down on you?  If your reason is the latter, i am very sure you will lose weight real fast! I also believe that interest can be cultivated. So long you put enough time and effort in trying to learn something and most importanly associated feeling into the thing, interest will get stronger day by day.

Well i believe right now after reading it, you may feel motivated. If you are, take actions now! Go do your planning and talk to people that has been there done there. Get their advice and MODEL after them! But if you are still not motivated or convinced about the importance of having a plan in your career/life, go look for some reasons why you think it is not importance and ask whether is it really true that we should live life just as things come or we need to really plan ahead?

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What i mean is that most of us prefer to have only one consultant handling all the insurance portfolios and in my opinion i think it is perfectly fine. However the problem comes in when the consultants did not really explain clearly on the type of policies they sold and reasons they recommended. So as a result, there are many clients who ended up buying many duplicated policies or rather useless policies that they are not well-covered for. Personally i have encountered a few of my clients who have many policies and paid few thousands per annum for it but only to find out that they ended up with little coverage and have many ‘loop’ holes in their financial planning. Therefore i believed that a second opinion on the type of insurance portfolio you are having is necessary and always remember it is not a MUST to buy a plan from the new consultant that do a review for you. Please only buy when there is a need and not because to repay the services of the consultant.

Therefore all along during my 4 years in this industry, although i am not the most knowledgeable consultant but i am very confident to say that i care alot for my client’s interest. Many times i had done a couple of reviews for them and  recommended them plans that i don’t earn that much and it is better for their interest. There are those who appreciated my planning while they are people who don’t. However i felt that most importantly is that i can sleep well at night without worrying that my client will scold me for being irresponsible in my job.

I need to say that passion and interest in meeting people and helping them must be one of the priorities of a financial consultant. It will determine how long the person will be staying in this industry and whether his clients will refer other people to him. So far, i am quite blessed. I have many good clients who have been keeping a lookout for me and been referring people to me. With these good people in mind, it really keeps me going in my career and making sure that i will continue to do a good job  for them and making sure their needs are well-taken care!

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At any time, we should stay focus on the importance of protecting our health and income. Firstly, we should ensure that we are covered by hospitalisation plan, e.g. private shield plans offer by many insurers such as NTUC Income, Prudential, Great Eastern. You can use CPF Medisave to pay for the main plan, and you are encouraged strongly to get the rider to cover the deductible and co-insurance with cash payment. Most of my client ignored the importance of getting the rider because they believe that chances of happening is low but i always tell them that accident happens when you least expected it. Are you willing to take the chance to leave your family with financial burden?

Secondly, get yourselves covered with at least one whole-life insurance or limited paying term life insurance and supplement the shortage with term insurance that cover the 30 critical illness (eg. Cancer, heart attack). The coverage required should be about 5-10 times your annual salary. Changing environment and living standards have made us more susceptible to these critical illnesses. Ironically, with the advancement of medical treatment, most of the illnesses can be treated if detected early, though with high medical cost. Hence, we need lump-sum payout from life insurance to help to cover some initial medical assistance required and also to cover the loss of income for 1-3 years when undergoing treatment.

Thirdly, set aside an emergency fund of at least 6-12months of your family expenses. This method of saving will really ensure that in times like this, you are not scared of anything and even open up to more investment opportunities. This is another area that i strongly avocate my client to practise. Money is just like bullet in war. You got to have it when you need to fire.

Only when you have put aside money for the above health and income protection plans should you start to consider accumulating your wealth and enhancing it with higher returns. Since planning for family is not an easy thing, it would be better if there is common financial vision between husband and wife. At least for sure, you won’t end up in a position where one save money and one spend money.

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As parents, are you concerned about the rising cost of education for your child? Are you worried that you don’t have enough money for your child’s future education? Should you buy a life policy or education policies? Apparently these are the top few questions that most of my clients are facing and I have thought to address this issue over here. These days, being a consumer who is constantly being bombarded with information from your insurance adviser and even banks on insurance policies, saving plan for your child, are you having trouble deciding what is best for you? I hope this article will be able to help you…

In general, the types of insurance policies are recommended for family with young children to provide for coverage from hospitalization, education to lifetime savings are as follows:

Private Shield Plan. The first and foremost important coverage for a new young member in the family is a shield plan. The purpose of such shield plan is to ensure that the family finance is not wiped out in case something unfortunate happens to the child. One of the example was about an old man whose 40 years of CPF was wiped out in 3 months due to her daughter illness. It was really a very sad case and this incident truly impacted me the fact that Shield plan is very important. The Shield plan normally covers a child’s hospitalization fees, pre-hospitalization and post-hospitalization consultation and medication fees. The basic Shield plan( known as Medishield) offered by CPF covers till age 85 and subject to deductible and co-insurance, meaning you have had to pay some of the charges. Most shield plan offered by insurance agencies covers for the entire life and optional low-cost rider to cover the deductible and co-insurance. Shield plan should be bought as soon as the child is born.

Education Policy. Education policy is a better alternative to regular saving. Instead of just putting a regular amount to the bank savings account that earns you pathetic interest per annum, you should buy an education policy instead. One benefit of buying such policy is that it creates a saving habit for you and at the same time, gives your child some form of insurance protection. Some investment savvy parents may consider taking up a regular investment saving plan which means the amount that they put in every month is fully invested. This school of thought takes advantage of the dollar cost averaging strategy which works well especially if you have a long term appetite. Most education policy yields better returns when you buy earlier for your child. So, switch from regular saving to education policy early especially for your girl who is likely to enter tertiary education at 19 years old.

Child Life Policy. The only advantage of getting a life insurance for the kid is that he/she will not be having exclusion from any pre-existing illness from the policy. Normally I also don’t recommended parents to get a whole life paying policies for their child. If the budget allows, I would suggest a limited paying term (whole life coverage) plan for them because it will be cheaper and have higher coverage compared to similar policies sold at a later age.  

Do not rush to buy a high coverage insurance plan for your kids because that is not the top priority for parents. However, the parent itself will need to have enough coverage so that the family will not be in financial turmoil should something happen to the breadwinner. It is good to plan ahead and it is also important to find someone that cares for your interest. Do drop me an email if you like to find out how much do you need to protect adequately for your family.

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By some measures, tuition has increased an average of 8% every year in the last 25 years. What does this mean for your child? A child born today could face a tuition bill three to four times over what a college student pays today. One estimate holds that scholarships and grants cover less than half of all college costs, on average Thus, it’s imperative not only to save for your child’s eventual college costs, but to start now.  

Tertiary education is without a doubt expensive, and is spiraling out of hand from more and more people. Being unable to provide for a tertiary education definitely means losing out to people who do.

This is a fatal flaw in today’s ever so competitive job market. Soon, a degree will be the minimum requirement for s good job. 

That means that saving up for an education is important. It certainly is not an easy task, but one that is crucial and requires self-control to fulfill. It requires a plan, and the commitment to follow through your plan.

First, calculate your needs. Perhaps, estimate for one can never calculate inflation. Research on the costs of courses, hostel fees, living expenses, costs of books, transport fees. Nothing should be left out. Then, look at the different ways of funding.  It is good if you can find an option that can meet your estimate cost at the lowest interest rate. Take note, you might not want to include the possibility of your child working to pay off a bit of the costs when in university. In some prestigious universities, working when studying will really kill the grades. That is for certain. Now, work towards that estimated number through endowment plans, unit trusts and some other way that you want to use.

Put aside a sum for that purpose each month. Be logical. Do not put away too much until you realize that you have compromised on your daily living expenses. It should be a number that you will be comfortable with in the long run .Using that same number, figure out how much you will have by the time your child is ready for university education. If you have more than one child, your goals need to be more ambitious. Seek a financial advisor to help you with the confusion and frustration.

Always remember no debt is definitely better than any debt. Do not think of loans until you reach the time to decide. If you already have enough by then, use your own money to pay for it. Having a debt to be paid off after graduation is not a pleasant thing. Those should only be “last resort”.

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