An elderly woman was advised by the insurance agent to upgrade from a shield C plan to A plan. She was not well educated. She signed the application form without understanding the legal implications.
15 months later, she was diagnosed for colon cancer. She went to a public hospital for treatment. The specialist advised her to go to a private hospital as she was covered under the A plan.
The medical bill in the private hospital came to a staggering $300,000. She submitted her claim for reimbursement. The insurance company rejected the claim as she did not disclose that she had diabetes. The agent did not ask her. She was not aware about the impact of this non-disclosure.
Read this article.
http://c-onyx.com/page/2347
If she did not upgrade to plan A, she would probably be treated in the public hospital. Her plan C would have covered most of the cost.
This is the price of ignorance. Her family now has to incur $300,000 in medical bills, compared to a small sum, if she had been treated in the public hospital.
15 months later, she was diagnosed for colon cancer. She went to a public hospital for treatment. The specialist advised her to go to a private hospital as she was covered under the A plan.
The medical bill in the private hospital came to a staggering $300,000. She submitted her claim for reimbursement. The insurance company rejected the claim as she did not disclose that she had diabetes. The agent did not ask her. She was not aware about the impact of this non-disclosure.
Read this article.
http://c-onyx.com/page/2347
If she did not upgrade to plan A, she would probably be treated in the public hospital. Her plan C would have covered most of the cost.
This is the price of ignorance. Her family now has to incur $300,000 in medical bills, compared to a small sum, if she had been treated in the public hospital.
This is how insurance agents squeeze blood out of their customers. On the pretext of better plan the customers are conned into upgrading without their needs and financial circumstances taken into consideration as long as there is some commission to be made, even tiny bit also can.
ReplyDeleteMAS must come down hard on these agents. They are the thieves of the industry.
If MAS is serious about standard of advice they should send their men/mystery shoppers to the basement of Bedok Mall Fairprice and Bedok bus interchange and check on the various insurance companies' insurance agents at work. What do they know about personal finance?
ReplyDeleteCustomers should avoid them. How do these agents know those products they peddle suit the passers by without the fact find and risk profiling? One company's agents are touting the measly return of 3% of their endowment. The return is negative if adjusted for inflation of 4%, right? How would that help in the saving for retirement?
You see how unqualified these agents? Or they know that the return is horrible but because of the commission they cook up the dubious benefits to con their customers, mostly seen as middle aged aunties , elderly, ah peks and ah sohs , the easy victims.
MAS should step in if it is concerned about standards of advice. Don't pay lip service . It is just wayang if there is no enforement. Is MAS protecting the consumers or the interest of the insurance companies?
To avoid and protect yourself from unscrupulous and incompetent insurance agents use ROB-ADVISORS for unbiased advice. There are many websites that provide this service. There is one called www.compareFirst.sg which charges NO commission. And if you are looking to buy life insurance with rebates for any kind of insurance products from whole life to endowment to term go to www.DIYinsurance.com.sg. There is another which gives away 50% of the commission to you from any products.
ReplyDeleteWith all these companies offering value for money why go and be conned by insurance agents who are usually salesmen and conmen and women.
If this mis-selling still happens then you the consumers are to be blamed for being numbskull. Why check and spend months to check for the best travel vacation and yet the MOST important thing like life insurance you still buy from conmen from the street and malls without researching and comparison ? Always get second opinion and tell the insurance agents that you want to think it over.
Remember , insurance companies design their products to be as complicated as possible so they they can use their well trained conmen and salesmen to 'sell' aka con you.Remember the 3 Cs of conmanship; CONvince, CONfuse and CON (Cheat)
Insurance agents are like Dr. Codiene peddling codiene disguised as cough syrup in Gallons. It is more lucrative than practising as genuine doctor. Imagine one 90ML bottle of coddiene cost $30. If he sells 100 bottles in 30 minutes he gets $3000 which he can only get by spending the whole day. What adifference. Same like this doctor insurance agents peddle whole life and endowment, all these useless products, he or she will be rich in no time too and qualify for mdrt. Why do you think people join as life insurance agents? to do charity work...to help consumers plan their financial goals? Hahahahah heeeeee,, these agents are planning their own goals by plundering the consumers.
ReplyDelete