Friday, December 19, 2008

Financial product has high penalty

Hi

I am a financial adviser represenative. Being in the industry, I do not need to look too far for malpractice, misselling, misrepresentation. There are many greedy so-called advisors. They are not interested to recommend Enhanced Incomeshield or Myshield to you because the commissions are really pathetic. It's sad to see that this industry has degenerated to the current state.

It's really sickening to see some cheaters who just sell this V plan and earn $1m a year. The V plan is basically a regular premium investment-linked policy. It's an insurance contract. Everything is contractual - you need to follow the insurer's rules and terms. If you violate them, you will be penalised heavily. For instance, if you stop paying premium in the first 18 months, you will lose all your premiums paid.

The advisers tell you that you can exercise premium holiday after 18 months, bonus allocation. If you alter the terms & conditions of the insurance contract, there's a hefty penalty for you.

Do you know how much you pay for this product? For a premium of $3,200/month for 25-year term, the FA firms or banks will straight away receive about $40,000 in commission, then the adviser would get 60 - 80% of the amount. For 10-year term, the comm is about $16,000. the longer the term, the higher the commission. you see, money comes from somewhere. If the commission to the advisor is so good, no prize for guessing who pays for it. it's YOU my friend.

At $3,200/month, the total premium for 25 years is $960,000 my friend! How many people in singapore can afford this kind of premium, and can comfortably say that they are able to 'finish' it.

I had heard of people being sold $20,000 a month. those so-called advisers are beyond help. Eventually they will pay for their evil deed. they must be jailed for their sins.

You may ask why the they could sell so high a premium to their clients? The clients are equally greedy, about the 'bonus' allocation and the 'high' returns. The 'bonus' is something that you can see but cannot touch. Many people thought that they can cash out the gains after 18 months, but they will lose everything if you surrender in the first year.

This plan has been in the market for 2 years. We shall hear more news of people surrendering, especially in the current economic condition. i predict that this V plan and other similar plan from some offshore insurers will be the CDOs for the FA industry. I am eagerly awaiting more complaints or newspaper reports about this con job.

For those who surrendered and suffered big losses, please share your story, expose those who conned you and your hard-earned money. If you continue to remain silence, the misselling will become more rampant. More unsuspected people like the elderly will be sucked into.

Please help educate people by sharing your stories. or you may write to mr tan kin lian at kinlian@gmail.com, or visit his blog www.tankinlian.blogspot.com, or write to reporters like Lorna Tan of the Straits Times or Genevieve Cua of the Business Times, or Mr. Shane Tregillis of MAS' market conduct deputy MD.

I thank you for your contribution in building a better society.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

What? You mean there are ordinary folks who can and will pay $3200 or even $20000 per month in premiums for 25 years? First time I read and heard about such things.

Anonymous said...

Nice article.

I hope such despicable financial advisor representative are caught and jailed, even if they come forth and denounce their kind. Better for them to confess and be punished rather than to be living in guilt forever.

"Eventually they will pay for their evil deed. They must be jailed for their sins."

I agreed with you. They reap what they sow.

Anonymous said...

Don't worry, the V plans target highly paid individuals such as high networth because the minimum premium is not within the reach of the masses. These high networth have their own resources to do the necessary research to get a competitive product. If they are lazy and choose to engage an unethical adviser, they deceive to be con.

Nevertheless the latest news is that nobody sells the V Plan now. The Unethical advisers have cease selling the V plan because the V plan product provider has cease paying commission upfront. The unethical advisers have now rechannel their focus on another plan call the G plan from another provider.

- A person from the industry.

Anonymous said...

MAS approved this product including the commission structure and surrender penalty.

Anonymous said...

Wonder when Mr. Tan's low cost life insurance company will be operating to give these despicable companies a run for their money..
These existing companies are like those in the US now and I am not surprised that some of them are potential MADOFFs or they may be resorting to PONZI scheme.

Anonymous said...

quite strange, when complaining ntuc income, all people will named the vivolife & revosave.

However, in this case, it V plan? from which insurer or what is the exact name of product?

pls share so more can be aware.

Anonymous said...

This V plan must be the Variable universal Life (VUL), the most expensive of the series but another rip off . Usually for high net worth individuals but any how sold by FA salesmen for the ordinary folks who have no business to have this plan.There maybe some downsides of the products but the faults lie with the agents for mis-selling and conflict of interest. They are high commission products high enough to incentivise the salesmen to use unethical, lie and misrepresent them.
Again Mr. Tan's FISCA is much neeeded to expose the salesmen and the products.

Anonymous said...

What V plan? Is this referring to Vista?

Anonymous said...

A person from the industry said: Don't worry, the V plans target highly paid individuals such as high networth because the minimum premium is not within the reach of the masses.

I beg to differ. I seriously doubt average advisers also have high networth clients. In my company, some mediocre advisers suddenly earnings > $100k because of this. Do you think they sell to high networth clients? Somemore, do you think it's so easy to missell to those high networth client meh? I suspect more of the sales were done with vulnerable group of people ie. the elderly, the uneducated etc..But how, you may ask? Suppose an auntie has $50k in life-savings, those blood-sucking advisor can ask her to split the money up by investment on a monthly basis of say $2,000 a month for 25 years' term, for dollar cost averaging mah, so they said. got guaranteed bonus somemore. Convincing huh. Who cares if the auntie cannot continue to pay premium. the advisor already earns the comm, so long as the auntie doesn't stop paying in the first 18 months. As a FAR, I really pity those who are being conned into believing that this is a wonderful plan.

Just for your info, it takes > 12 years before one can break even on investment, for a 25-year term..

Anonymous said...

Everybody in the industry know that the V plan is from insurer Z. It is also an open secret which FA firm/bank is selling it.

Parka said...

There should be a law to make declaration of commission public — make the customer know how much actually goes into the pocket of these advisers.

Anonymous said...

Parka,

The commission is made public. It is called the Cost of Distribution. It is in the benefit illustration. Everythig is already made public.

Anonymous said...

To 2:32 PM,

You look "too up" the average advisers. The average advisers are both stupid and evil. They are too stupid to know how to use the Zurich's benefit illustration which is probably the most user unfriendly to use.

Instead, it is the smart and evil advisers that are selling the Zurich's V. They target super high networth clients like Directors and CEOs. High networth individuals are probably the most vunerable group of people because they only trust their private bankers which we know only like to suck weath from these rich fools. If there is trouble, these rich fools are too embrassed to complain because of their social standing. I have come across many of these rich fools who seem does not even know they can seek independent adviser and they say only trust their banks.

Anonymous said...

2.32Pm, your auntie example also happened in ntuc. Ntuc agents will seek an old auntie or uncle who has lump sum saving. They will advise them to split the lumpsum into monthly or yearly to buy revosave and lock them up for at least 15 years. If the aunties or uncles cannot pay it is not the agents' business.How do they do it.
The agents would tell the aunties about gauranteed payouts like annuities and the return better than fixed deposit but how much more the agents don't tell. These aunities and uncles foolishly believe them and invest in the revosave. This is unethical. There are other products which can give the aunties and uncles more return but the agents don't want because the commission is small, revosave commission is more.
There is another product which has been abused by the agents too. It is Harvest. The agents will advise a person with lumpsum to break up into 5 payments. The commission is lot more than buying a single premium product.
So you can see how evil and schemming the agents can be if there is money involved.

Anonymous said...

4.22PM,
your examples are examples of mis-selling and inappropriate recommendation.This breaches section 27 of the FAA.It is a cheating case.

Anonymous said...

What is wrong????
Something is not right here!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Wonder why MAS is closing their eyes to these malpractices but advise consumers to open their eyes big.
When MAS says no regulation, the insurance companies do exactly as told,ie. no internal regulation also. If there is why are malpractices not spotted? Why are the above cases happened?

Anonymous said...

remember in one of the posts sometime back someone said a policyholder was putting $2000 a month in the revosave, ie$24000 a year. Assuming he diligently commits the full term how much does he gain?
Less 1.5%. If he fails to commit it will be a big loss. Can you see the the disproportionate risk return? Does it look like the minibond?
This policyholder is either stupid and idiotic or the agent put a spell on him before closing him.

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