Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Buy insurance directly

Friday, April 23, 2010

Buy insurance directly

Aviva has taken the bold step to offer motor insurance directly to the public. Some motorists have found the premium to be much lower than the rates charged by other insurance companies. A few examples have been posted in this blog.

I encourage commuters to use the quotation service available in Aviva's website to compare their premium rate with the premium rate charged by your current insurer. You can get an idea about the difference in premiums. If Aviva is much lower, you can consider to switch to them on the next renewal.

You should also look at the Term Insurance rates that is offered by Avivia. You can select a level or decreasing cover. Please send their quotes for me to make a comparison against the benchmark set in my book, Practical Guide on Financial Planning.

My benchmark is rather high. If you find a premium that is higher than my benchmark, you should avoid it. In most cases, you should be able to get a premium rate that is lower than my benchmark.

Tan Kin Lian

9 comments:

Wayne said...: Of late, Aviva seems to be coming on hard and strong as a competitor in the Singapore insurance industry landscape.

Recent evidence of the above:-
a) Aviva My Protector level term plan costs 9% lesser than "all-time-Singapore-house-brand" NTUC Income's term plan. -- Definite shocker as they used to be more expensive 2,3 years ago.

b) Motor insurance: Heard from Radio -Class 95 thursday morning about their advertisement- go to www.aviva.com.sg to get an instant quote. My motor insurance is due May2010, and I went to www.aviva.com.sg and got an instant quote. Guess what? It cost 1.85% less than the already so-very-affordable India Insurance (renewal) that I have had for the past 2 years. And they offer customization (i.e OPC option cost 10% lesser - I am considering to convert my car to OPC).

c) SAF Group Term Insurance: Received a mailer of upgrading my existing SAF Group Term Insurance which I readily signed on the mailer, put it in the self-addressed envelope and sent back.

Watch out and good luck, NTUC Income!.; April 23, 2010 9:16 AM
Anonymous said...: They should offer online whole life and endowment too at steep discount.
Anyway, sooner or later this will become the trend. Online products are meant for the savyy who don't need stupid and rubbish advice from insurance agents. They don't deserve commission for form filling and reading out the benefit illustration.; April 23, 2010 1:39 PM
Anonymous said...: Yeah, Aviva should learn from its home experience in the UK and aggressively provide low-cost insurance online. Allow customers to get immediate online quotations, provide various options, and also allow online applications for life insurance too.

Frankly, simple and common-sense insurance such as level term, decreasing term, CI, disability income, and family income are not complicated to explain. If they use common language and everyday terminology, 80+% of people will be able to understand from the website. Don't need all those expensive consultants or advisers at all.

Just get customers to fill in a basic needs analysis online form, and get the system to display a couple of low-cost options for you to consider. E.g. If you indicate that you are NSman, then they will recommend SAF group term too.; April 23, 2010 2:39 PM
Anonymous said...: It is true that savvy people must be given a platform to buy direct without having unqualified insurance agent as middleman who doesn't add value to your financial well being instead rob you off in huge commission for nothing...MAS should recognise that and this is the way to weed out product pushing agents.
A direct portal is like a supermarket where the influence of the middlemen is absent. This is truly buyer beware.There is no danger of insurance agents conning the consumers, either you buy or you don't buy and if you don't understand you might want to research first before buying. A middleman is a disadvantage becuase if you get an unqualified insurance agent you are finished from the start..Anyway 99% of insurance agents are unqaulified.; April 23, 2010 3:10 PM
Anonymous said...: With calculators to find out the amount of insurance you need is not difficult, in fact better than using insurance agents.
Have at least 3 calculators to calculate (1) dependent income replacement (2) critical illness treatment and income replacement (3)disability income

The solutions are the products from level term to decreasing term on the above.
This is for the people who savvy and expert.
For the blur and ignorant consumers
they just get a prescription letter from a competent adviser and present it at the 'pharmacy" shop to buy directly.
That is it, you get rid of all unethical product pushing insurance agents.; April 23, 2010 6:38 PM
Anonymous said...: Why are we being conned and we didn't know?
Buying online is no different from buying from insurance agent.In both scenarios we make the decision, we decide the products, we decide the amount of insurance. In online we get a quote. With insurance agents we also get a quote.The only difference is with agent we don't personally make the buy but agents buy on our behalf. But why should we pay the agents so much commission and for many years? and for just this?; April 24, 2010 12:22 PM
Anonymous said...: Anon, April 24, 2010 12:22 PM,

you forget that with the insurance agents they can be the devil or the angel. In most cases the agents are the devils motivated by the commission and self interest.
The solution is MAS to police the industry and punish the rogue agents who put their own interest first.
How to know there is conflict of interest? The fact find form should reveal alot. If is is product advice chances are there is conflict of interest. In the case of fabricated fact finding the product reccomended must match
the circumstances and analysis on the reasonable basis.In fabricated fact finding it is never matched but a lot of excuses to justify the reccomendation, like the customers want it or the customers think the product is good or the customers die die want it.
These are the tell tales of unethical practices and conflict of interest.
Like all good lawyers an adviser will discharge themselves and there is no such thing as the customers decline the recommendation which is another way out for product pushing agents.
MAS must know all the tricks of rogue or incompetent insurance agents' ruse to avoid fact find and comply with section 27. MAS must make it as a must.; April 24, 2010 2:05 PM
Anonymous said...: I recommend that people go through an insurance broker to find a better comparison between the different insurers to Aviva's motor policies. One company I've used before is Pacific Prime Insurance Brokers, as they provide advice based on a number of insurers and not just Aviva.; April 27, 2010 2:47 PM
Anonymous said...: I used this company to obtain my Aviva motor insurance:

Pacific Prime offers the most comprehensive international travel and medical insurance policies for Expatriates living in Singapore, and the rest of the Asia Pacific region. Working with all the best insurance companies Pacific Prime Insurance brokers works to find the best deals and coverage for individuals, families and group plans.; April 27, 2010 2:49 PM