Review: SingLife Endowment Series Four – 2.25% pa Guaranteed For 3 Years (Limited)

Update 6th March: Tranche is closed. Please look at China Taiping’s offer if you are interested in such products.

Interest-hungry people should be interested in this: 2.25% pa guaranteed returns on your savings for 3 years. All you need is at least $5,000, and for the cash-rich this goes up to $500,000 if you so desire. Pretty unique is also the fact that it does offer some liquidity on your money, unlike most other endowment products, but more on that later.

Details and Features

Provider	SingLife
Min Amount	$5,000
Max Amount	$500,000
Returns	2.25% pa guaranteed
Tenure	3 years
Requirements	Up to age 80
Other Features	– Death benefit of 105% – No medical underwriting – Free withdrawal option

2.25% pa guaranteed puts it at a notch higher than recent products like HL Bank’s iSaving (1.98% pa), e$aver (up to 1.70% pa), and Maybank i-Savvy (1.90% pa), without having to alternate tour savings between accounts.

The “catch” is that there is a fixed tenure of 3 years, but this might be more of a pro for some. Having to constantly look for new places to put your money for returns is a hassle, and there is no telling where the interest rate will go for the savings accounts. Case in point, e$aver recently decreased their rates.

All the nice things of an insurance product…

As an insurance product, there is a small amount of coverage: 105% of the amount placed for accidental death. If I put in a single premium $100,000 today and croaked tomorrow, my family gets $5,000 towards my last rites, on top of the $100,000. It’s not much, but it’s something.

Also, the Policy Owners’ Protection Scheme covers up to $100,000 of the aggregated guaranteed surrender value of all the policies you have with each insurer. That means if this product is the only policy you have with SingLife, the maximum you can claim is $100,000 in the unlikely event SingLife defaults. In comparison, savings accounts are insured up to $75,000.

…and not all the annoying things

There’s no medical examination to be done for this product and it will definitely be issued if you sign up, bearing in mind that this product will close for new applications once it hits a certain number of sign ups.

Also, it has a free withdrawal option, which allows you to liquidate part of the amount without suffering capital loss, which is pretty unique for insurance products. This is applicable if you have financial reasons, such as getting retrenched, or if you get married, have a new kid, or purchase a new home. It also applies if your health (or your spouse) has changed for the worse severely.

You do lose the returns on the amount withdrawn, and you can only do it once on $50,000 or 50% of your single premium, whichever is lower.

Sign Up

The tranche is closed.

Conclusion

In the current interest rate environment where rates seem to be dropping and bank accounts cap your bonus interest rates to $70,000 to $100,000, one might consider putting excess cash in products like this, especially if you don’t want the hassle of alternating bank accounts.

The good:

• Decent interest rate of 2.25% pa guaranteed for the risk-averse
• For some, 3 years is a decent tenure
• Death benefit, Policy Owners’ Protection Scheme, Free Withdrawal Option

The bad:

• 3 years needed to get full returns
• Not for risk-seeking people
• Limited tranche

The ugly:

• Having to terminate before 3 years is up

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
8 Stars of Sethisfaction

This advertisement has not been reviewed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.