Good system by Tan Tock Seng Hospital & NTUC Income.

Today, one of my elderly client had a cataract operation at Tan Tock Seng Hospital. I assisted her in medical insurance claim. The policy is Income-shield by NTUC Income. I was pleasantly surprise that the hospital has a system to process the claim directly with the insurer. This is the process:

1. Prior to the admission, call 63321133 (NTUC help-line) to establish whether the medical treatment is claimable.

2. On admission, bring along your policy document.

3. Let the hospital admission staff know that you are claiming from the policy.

4. Based on your IC number, the staff will log on to NTUC web-site and print out a "Letter of Guarantee" for you to sign.

5. The staff will also prepare a "claim form for medisave-approved integrated plan" for you to sign.

6. The claim is processed directly between the hospital and NTUC Income.

Client was very happy. I applaud this system!

Giving to parents?

In my professional observations, many people do not give part of thier income to parents. Some give only a token. Only a minority provide meaningfully to their parents. Among the common reason is that income earned is not sufficient to maintain own family life-style, how to give?

I disagree. It boils down to character and discipline.

One ought to have the character to realise that "we are financially poorer than we think". Earning an income in Singapore is not easy. Therefore, it is not necessarily to own a car, the private house, and eat out everyday. I have observed most people is willing to spend $1000 per month on car, but when it come giving to parents, $200 is "difficult to carve out".

One ought to have the discipline to do a budget and implement it. With a budget, you will find ways to "squeeze" extra cash for your parents. For example, if you skip lunch(assuming $5 per lunch) everyday (or just have an apple), you will have extra $150 per month to give to your parents. I have good news for you. In Singapore, no matter how we "diet", we will still end up over eating. Therefore, by skipping lunch, you will definitely not die, you will end up healthier, your parents will be happier(because you are able to give them more), and for the men, this is a good excuse to avoid buying drinks for lunch partners.

What is Wealth?

I am always being asked this question. Different people define wealth differently. From wealth management angle, wealth is defined as net-worth. This is assets - liabilities. There are many people whom I work with have plenty of assets but are in negative net-worth. This is due to the liabilities they have taken up while acquiring these assets. In my professional observations, in most un-planned situations, it is very easy to be caught in the negative net-worth trap because of the temptations around us.

The primary purpose of Life Insurance and its cash value

2 Sundays ago, the sunday times published an article on life insurance rate of returns show a lack of understanding on life insurance by the author.

Life insurance's BASIC purpose is to CREATE CAPITAL and PROVIDE LIQUIDITY to a life transition situation that NEED money. An example of such situations are death of a key income person of a family or business. The cash value within a life insurance is to allow it to be in-force for whole of life at a level premium manner. Life insurance is not created primarily for RETURN ON CAPITAL like any other investment products.