Singlife Flexi Retirement Review: Previously Aviva MyRetirement Choice III

Criteria

The most unique thing about this retirement plan is that it allows flexibility when choosing;

• Your retirement age
• Desired payout of Monthly Guaranteed Income (MGI)
• Desired years to receive monthly payouts
• Desired premium term

Features

Premium payment options

The plan has a premium period of 5, 10, 15, 20, or 25 years. Notably, like other policies, you can pay your premiums, monthly, quarterly, biannually, or yearly.

Payout Options

Upon attaining your chosen retirement age, you will receive payouts depending on your preferred payout period which can be 5 to 35 years.

As a rule of thumb, the maximum age to receive the monthly total income is less than or equal to 99 years. Moreover, any debts that you owe to the policy will be deducted before any payouts are made.

You can also receive the payout as a single lump sum amount under the Fast Forward Options.

More on that later.

Non-guaranteed Bonus

The policy also offers non-guaranteed bonuses to policyholders which can be cashed out in the following methods:

• As a single payout depending on your preferred retirement age.
• You can also choose to have it converted to monthly payouts.

Notably, the policy offers one of the returns on investments on the market.

If at the end of your accumulation period you don’t want to receive the payouts, you can reinvest the amounts to earn higher returns in the future.

Protection

The Singlife Flexi Retirement will provide you with guaranteed and non-guaranteed income streams in your retirement years.

Other than that, there are multiple benefits including coverage against life uncertainties such as loss of independence.

Death or Terminal Illness Benefit

If death occurs during the accumulation or payout period the family of the assured receives a lump sum payment.

The same applies if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness as specified by the policy. In both instances, the policy automatically terminates upon claim settlement.

Total and Permanent Disability

Under this benefit, you will receive premium waivers if you suffer from total and permanent disability.

Care Income Benefit (CIB)

Care Income Benefit offers you additional financial support or payouts to help you manage partial disability.

The Care Income Benefit is available during the payout period in the following circumstance.

• It’s only available if you are unable to perform at least 2 or 3 out of 6 Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). These activities include; washing, dressing, feeding, toileting, mobility, and transferring.
• In case you are unable to perform 3 ADLs, you will be paid a care benefit of up to 100% of your preferred Guaranteed Monthly Income(GMI). On the other hand, if you are unable to perform 2 ADLs you’ll be paid 100% of the GMI. In both situations, this depends on the severity of the condition.
• The benefit is paid from the anniversary after 90 days from the time the partial disability is certified.
• Benefits end if you recover from the permanent disability.
• Also, if death occurs, the benefits automatically terminate.

Fast Forward Option (FFO)

In case of a diagnosis with a partial disability during the payout period and it’s your first Care Income Benefit claim, you can apply for FFO and receive a single CIB payment.

However, the payment is made 90 days from the time the partial disability is ascertained.

Normally, the lump sum paid is lower than the CIB. Also, the FFO is only paid once after submitting the CIB claim.

On the same note, you cannot apply for FFO if the CIB payment has commenced. What this means is that you can only exercise one benefit at a time.

Additionally, you can’t apply for CIB if you had made a claim under FFO in the case of partial disability.

CIB claims are made if you are unable to perform up to 3 ADLS activities.

Confusing? We think so too.

Here’s a table to simplify things for you.

Optional Add-on Riders

One of the unique advantages of Singlife’s Flexi Retirement is the availability of Optional Add-on Riders. These can help in boosting your coverage in exceptional circumstances such as death and permanent disability.

EasyTerm

EasyTerm riders allow you to make an extra lump sum cash payment to a tune of 5 times the basic plan’s yearly premium in case of death, total or permanent disability, and terminal illness.

EasyPayer Premium Waiver

As the same suggests your future premiums are waived if death, total or permanent disability, and terminal illness occur.

In this regard, the policy continues to be in force regardless of the outcome.

Cancer Premium Waiver II

With this waiver, you will not pay any premiums after a diagnosis of Major Cancer.

Critical Illness Premium Waiver II

Under this waiver, you will not pay any premiums upon diagnosis of Critical Illness as long as it’s covered under the policy.

Payer Critical Illness Premium Waiver II

Under the waiver, the policyholder will not pay any premiums after a diagnosis of Critical Illnesses provided it is covered under the policy.

Illustrations

To help you understand how the policy works, here we have 2 examples of two individuals who chose Singlife Flexi Retirement, but have diverse backgrounds.

Example 1

Supposedly Jane is a 40-year-old female with 2 children. She chooses Singlife Flexi Retirement as a way of saving and ensuring maximum comfort during retirement.

Jane opts for annual premiums of S$12,232.70 spread across 15 years. She also opts to receive a GMI of S$1000 for ages 65 to 85.

Notes;

• The total premium paid by Jane is S$183,490.50.
• The accumulation period is 10 years
• At 65 years, that is 10 years from the final date of paying premiums, Jane receives S$56,322 which should help her kickstart her retirement.

Subsequently, Jane starts to receive a Monthly Care Income Benefit of S$1,000 and a non-guaranteed monthly cash bonus of S$730.

In total, she receives S$1,730 per month.

Unfortunately, at age 70 years, Jane suffers from a stroke which renders her incapacitated. Therefore, she can no longer perform at least 3 ADLs. In this case, she automatically qualifies for the Monthly Care Income Benefit.

If Jane opts for the FFO, she can get a single payout of S$76,656.

Notably, the single payout varies depending on the stage of diagnosis of the partial disability.

• The monthly cash bonus and lump-sum payment are investment rate of return of 4.25%p.a

• Because the bonus is non-guaranteed, the actual benefits vary depending on the participating fund’s performance.

• The accumulation period starts from when the premium payment ends to the policy anniversary date when you receive your first Monthly Total Income.

Example 2

Suppose John, a 40-year-old male chooses Singlife’s Flexi Retirement. He opts to pay premiums of S$18,579.50 p.a over a period of 10 years, retirement at 66, and payouts to last 20 years when he turns 87 years.

Further, John opts to convert the non-guaranteed bonus into monthly payouts.

Here is how the scenario plays out;

 Notes;

The policy ends when John turns 87 years old, which is 20 years from his selected retirement age.

At 87 years, total monthly payouts $2,952.80 X 12(months) X 20(years) which is equal to S$708,672.

Out of the total projected income, S$224,000 is guaranteed monthly income whereas S$468,672 is non-guaranteed income.

Singlife Flexi Retirement Summary At a Glance

Singlife Flexi Retirement Highlights

From our review, it’s now clear that Singlife’s Flexi Retirement is a great option if;

• You would like to receive regular income on your golden years
• Looking for an investment that can earn you guaranteed and non-guaranteed income in the form of annuities in the future.
• If you prefer saving every month
• Looking for an insurance policy without the need for medical underwriting.
• You don’t require access to your funds before retirement
• If you need a policy with the potential to generate higher returns than banks.

My Review of the Singlife Flexi Retirement