This Father’s Day is particularly special, as it is the first year I will be celebrating as both a son and a soon-to-be dad. Like many Asian families, my dad was the primary breadwinner, [...]

In 2010, after the Global Financial Crisis that caused many to lose their wealth, I had an epiphany to develop the “Philosophy of Sufficiency” for my firm. It is the philosophy that [...]

I was born five years after Singapore’s independence. My late father came from Malacca during his teenage years to work for the Singapore Traction Company, which ran trams. It was a blue-collar [...]

In the past two decades, we have not used investment-linked policies (ILPs) when constructing investment portfolios for our clients because we do not deem them suitable. However, over the years, [...]

Earlier this year, I was on the beautiful islands of the Philippines. The sky was bright blue, while the rolling green hills set the backdrop for my holiday. To fully soak in the island [...]

Investment-Linked Policies (ILPs) have always been a heavily debated and controversial topic among investors. To make matters worse, there are multiple types of ILPs being sold, and all with [...]

About a year ago on 26 October 2022, my day was marked with many realisations, each with varying intensities of pause and self-reflection. The first one came when it dawned on me that I had [...]

One of the most challenging aspects of insurance planning is determining how much coverage you need. Buy too little insurance and you won’t have enough to get through a tough situation when you [...]

In celebration of his 25 years in the financial industry, our CEO, Christopher Tan shared an epiphany he experienced 2 years after the Global Financial Crisis in a recent article he wrote for the [...]

This month marks the 25th anniversary of my career in wealth advisory. Time really flies. I had a good career, not that it was worry-free. Instead, it was all the crises that I have gone through [...]

Note: This article has been updated on 4 April 2023. In 2020, the MediShield Life Council conducted the first major review of the MediShield Life scheme since its launch in 2015. One key finding [...]

In recent months, there have been a couple of inquiries coming from our prospective clients and clients who are interested to explore parking their money into a short-term endowment plan. One of [...]

Why do we need to be adequately insured for critical illness (CI)? We already have an Integrated Shield Plan, why do we need a CI plan? What is CI coverage for? These are some of the thoughts we [...]

Two months ago, I wrote an article on this column revisiting the age-old debate on term vs whole life insurance. The conclusion was that in most situations, term insurance is the most suitable. [...]

Of all the enquiries that I have encountered regarding critical illness coverage, I sense that many struggle to find a coherent way to plan for it. They would fret over the level of coverage and [...]

MediShield Life was introduced back in the year 2015, a revamp from its predecessor “MediShield”. The key design for the plan is to provide affordable medical treatments for all Singaporeans and [...]

Choosing the right amount of life insurance is an important part of creating a sound wealth plan that takes care of your dependents even if the worse should happen. Arriving at the right number [...]

I recently did a podcast on insurance planning and was surprised by the overwhelming response. While consumers were generally thankful for the information, I was taken aback that some advisers [...]

The Federal Reserve has just announced yet another interest rate increase by 0.75% at the recent Federal Open Market Committee in an effort to combat rising concerns of inflation. Consumers [...]

Dear younger me, You might be surprised to hear from the older you. By the time you read this, you would have graduated and worked for a few years. I know that you are struggling to make sense of [...]

3 years ago, my friend contacted me to seek my advice as she and her husband each bought a leveraged whole-life endowment plan from the bank. This friend of mine is risk-averse and has always [...]

“Can I still buy insurance? Which insurance companies are willing to cover me?” These are the questions I recall having asked by a prospective client who suffered from a heart condition while I [...]

At the time of this writing, I just came back from celebrating a relative’s son’s 1 year old birthday. It was a joyous occasion. The baby was distracted by the helium balloons oblivious that he [...]

This article is a two-part series and you can find part 1 here. Given the cost of the delivery options, check-ups, cost of complications during prenatal & delivery and potential congenital [...]

Pregnancy can mean the beginning of a new stage in a woman’s life, with all the changes that new stage can bring. There are the obvious ones such as the cravings, fatigue, nausea, and changes to [...]

In this episode, I will share the key differences between two severe disability insurance schemes – ElderShield and CareShield Life, in helping Singaporeans prepare for their long-term care [...]

In this episode, I will share the key considerations you should take into account if you own an Investment-Linked Policy given its insurance charges that increase tremendously from age 40. View [...]

In this episode, I will share how you can be adequately covered to ensure zero or low out-of-pocket expenses during a medical crisis, and to allow you to live normally until your situation gets [...]

In this episode, I will present one common tactic used to simplify the way to pay estate duty – use of whole life plans. If you’re an investor of foreign assets, this information [...]

In this episode, I hope to dispel a myth that many have believed for a long time – that insurance is a good instrument to accumulate wealth. View the full list of podcast episodes published [...]

In this episode, I will be explaining the types and durations of our insurance needs as well as how we can prioritise one over another given our limited resources. View the full list of podcast [...]

In this episode, I will share the comparison on how every dollar of premiums you pay is being used between whole life and term insurance. View the full list of podcast episodes published here. [...]

In this episode, I will share the reasons why we have been emphasising so much on using term insurance despite the absence of a maturity benefit – one of the main reasons for its [...]

Insurance should be used strictly for life protection. In most instances, it is a temporary need, the only exception is probably medical expense insurance. In this episode, I will share the [...]

Critical Illness Coverage, otherwise known as Dread Disease Coverage, is a type of insurance policy founded back in 1983 in South Africa. The coverage was founded primarily and simply with the [...]

When it comes to insurance, it is important to pay as little as you can and be covered for as much as you need. While many Singaporeans consider insurance an important part of their overall [...]

Two years ago, after a few months of research, thinking and hesitation, I surrendered a whole life insurance policy that I had purchased and replaced it with a term insurance policy. As it was [...]

Moving to another country is difficult in itself, let alone having to worry about your investments being drained by the country’s tax. In this episode, I have invited Will Price from [...]

The most recent changes to the Integrated Plan (IP) or sometimes known as the Integrated Shield Plan (ISP) caused a hot debate between the insurers and the doctors over the past 3 weeks. So, what [...]

In my previous article dated 28 November 2020, I wrote about universal life policies (ULPs) being touted as good instruments that allow the affluent to free up more cash for their retirement [...]

Since 2003, we have been advocating the use of term insurance instead of whole life policies. The thinking is pretty straightforward: the primary purpose of insurance is to replace income loss [...]

In 2019, the Life Insurance Association (LIA) proposed a revised set of standardised critical illness definitions that eventually were implemented by insurers. From 26 August 2020, all critical [...]

  Do you know which type of insurance is of the highest priority for you? The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in Singaporeans becoming more aware of protecting themselves and their loved ones [...]

Long-term severe disability is one of the health risks that may befall a person. Usually, this is most likely to occur when a person is older. When someone suffers from long-term severe [...]

Since Providend started back in 2001, we have always adhered strictly to two guiding principles that differentiated us – One is to go on a fee-only basis to remove all conflict of interest and [...]

About a month ago, I gave a talk at the Seedly Personal Finance Festival entitled “Insurance – Cutting Out the Fluff” to an audience of almost 1200 young people. In the talk, I shared about how [...]

To all soon-to-be-parents, having a new addition to your family can be a wonderful yet nervous event. After nine months of preparation and anticipation, you are finally able to welcome your [...]

Worried about not having sufficient financial resources to take care of themselves if they meet with an accident or suffer an illness, a group of friends decided to come together at age 40 to [...]

Frequently Asked Questions Regarding CareShield Life 1. How is TPD insurance different from CareShield life in terms of coverage and payout? Is there an overlap? Total and Permanent Disability [...]

One of the key concerns of Singaporeans is that as we aged, we might be hit with severe disability and as such do not have enough financial resources to take care of ourselves. Severe disability [...]

Mark is a good friend of mine. Some years back he had the opportunity of his lifetime to build his dream house on a piece of land given to him by his grandfather and he had a budget of $1 [...]

Sometime in September last year, The Business Times reported that the average insurance coverage of a Singaporean is equivalent to only one year of his/her income. And according to an OCBC survey [...]

Most of us own whole life insurance plans. They are meant to protect us against death, disability or a major illness for our entire life. But do we really need insurance cover for our entire [...]

Since 2003, we have been advocating the use of term insurances. While many Singaporeans appreciated our beliefs, the insurance and financial planning industry fought it. We stood out like a sore [...]

When I started out my career as a financial adviser with an insurance company many years ago, I was taught that insurance products are a good instrument for accumulating one’s wealth. Not only do [...]

Life insurance is meant mainly to protect us against loss of income due to death, disability and a medical crisis. It is also meant to provide us with sufficient resources to pay for medical [...]

Finally, your baby has arrived. After nine months of anxious waiting, the climax at the delivery ward is awesome, especially for first-time parents. Before long from basking in your bundle of [...]