Tan Kin Lian's Blog: High charges

Friday, March 07, 2008

High charges

Dear Mr. Tan,

In my foolishness, I bought an ILP from company X. After paying premiums for a few years, I was surprised to find out that my investment is still way below the invested amount.

I asked the agent for an explanation. He pointed out to me, from the policy contract, that the percentage of my premiums that was invested during the first few years, only a certain percentage was invested (starting at 20% for the first year). This was not explained to me when I bought the policy.

Why should the insurance company take away so much of my premiums? I wish to get out of this policy, but I will have to lose more nearly two years of my savings. What is your advice? Should I cancel the policy?

REPLY
If you have not been property informed about the charges, you can make a complaint to this organisation,
http://www.fidrec.com.sg/website/faq.html

The insurance adviser is required to explain to you about the key points of the contract and to recommend a financial product that suits your needs. If he or she has failed in this duty, you should make a complaint.

If more consumers are willing to come forward, this will help other consumers from being misled.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...: You should take the agent to Fidrec for concealment of material facts.
There was dishonesty and misrepresentation of the product , therefore you have the right to return of premium plus interest.
Unfortunately, you are not alone.It is common and rampant with companies whose agents are product pushers.
Companies Pru and Ntuc have the largest number of product sellers and I am not surprised that your agent is from one of these 2 companies.; March 07, 2008 12:48 PM
Anonymous said...: It is hard to report this misrepresentation. This is because the agent got his 'backside' covered through the fact-finding form they use. If you do report, he will find some ways and means to say you have been informed.

The main problem is because these products are too complex for most layman to understand. Talk about allocation ratio in ILP, non-guaranteed premiums in health products, terminal bonuses in whole life etc. How can the consumer digest all these info?

There is a need for simple products for this market.

blackbox; March 07, 2008 7:56 PM
Anonymous said...: If you keen to pursue the matter check the fact finding form I am confident that the agent left a trail of self incriminating evidences.It is not easy to write a good fact finding form. Many agents have simply no idea how to write. They will leave a lot of 'HOLES'. See your lawyer or the people at CASE or Fidrec. In fact the fact finding form is the best place to look for "the dirt of agents"; March 08, 2008 12:23 PM
Anonymous said...: The insurers have run out of ideas. They are now resorting to "complex" product to decieve the clients. They make the client believe that they are new when actually they are "rojak" of few other products. Like revosave and vivolife, a lot of the features are useless and obviously intended to fool the customers with the help of the greedy agents.This is a marketing trick. It is sad that financial products are marketed like other products.Hope medicine and drugs will not go the same way. One of these days
I am not surprised that vivolife will be marketed as a product that can prevent dread illness or death or disability, as preventive insurance product.In fact some aunty agents have been heard to have implied this.; March 08, 2008 1:36 PM