The Aviva MyWholeLifePlan (IV) has been renamed to the Singlife Whole Life as of 16 August 2022.
The Singlife Whole Life is a whole life insurance policy that provides basic protection for death and terminal illnesses.
It also allows for customisation and flexibility of multiplying up to the five times the sum assured, enhancement of total and permanent disability coverage and critical illness coverage, as well as with the option of several other optional riders.
As a participating policy, it accumulates cash value in the form of guaranteed and non-guaranteed bonuses.
Criteria
- Minimum sum assured of S$50k.
Basic Product Features
Premium Payment Terms
The Singlife Whole Life is a regular premium policy with flexible payment term options – 10,15, 20, and 25 years, or up to the age of 65 years old.
Your final premium amount is determined by factors such as age, gender, smokers status, sum assured, policy type, and length of premium period.
Protection
Death Benefit
A lump sum is paid upon the death of the insured.
Additional Cover and Additional Cover Period
- Additional Protection Coverage applicable within the duration of the Additional Cover Period for the Basic Benefits such as the Death Benefit and Terminal Illness Benefit, and selected Supplementary Benefits such as Total and Permanent Disability Advance Cover IV, Critical Illness Advance Cover V, and Early Critical Illness Advance Cover V.
- You can opt for the Additional Protection Coverage to be either 100%, 200%, 300%, or 400% of the basic plan’s assured sum, or of the applicable supplementary benefits.
- The Additional Cover Period is valid from the policy effective date up till the policy anniversary when your chosen Additional Cover attains its maturity date.
The Additional Coverage amount and duration will be selected during policy application with no amendments allowed thereafter, and will automatically be terminated if the policy is converted to Reduced Paid Up (RPU) Insurance or Extended Term Insurance (ETI).
After the Additional Coverage ends due to the above-mentioned reasons, the policy continues to be active based on the:
- RPU sum determined by Singlife with Aviva or
- Prevailing Base Sum Assured for a coverage period as determined by Singlife with Aviva in the case of ETI.
Terminal Illness (TI) Benefit
Upon the diagnosis of Terminal Illness, Singlife with Aviva will payout a lump sum as an advancement of the Death Benefit.
To qualify for the TI Benefit, the insured is required to be diagnosed with an illness that results in death within 12 months.
The policy will automatically be terminated once the Terminal Illness benefit has been paid out.
Other Features and Benefits
Surrender Benefit
Upon the third policy year, your policy will acquire cash value as long as premiums are paid in a timely manner.
If you have opted for the income payment option, the cash surrender value will be adjusted for the monthly income paid out.
Income Payout Option
From the age of 65, you may opt to supplement your retirement needs and lifestyle, you may decide to exercise the Income Payout Option which provides you with monthly income.
The policy continues to provide you with coverage after the Income Payout Option is exercised. The sum assured will be adjusted based on the monthly income paid out and the cash surrender value of the surrender benefit. You will also continue to be entitled to the Reversionary Bonus for the base sum assured and the Terminal Bonus.
Upon the death of the insured, there are benefits available for payout if the Income Payout Option is opted for.
Waiver of Interest Benefit
If you are between the age of 19 to 75, and face the inability to make premium payments due to involuntary retrenchment or unemployment for a period of at least 3 consecutive months, you have the option to exercise the waiver of Interest Benefit.
This is provided you submit satisfactory evidence within 6 months of retrenchment or unemployment.
Upon approval of the benefit, you are exempted from the payment of the automatic premium loan’s interest amount on any instalment premiums from the date when you are retrenched or unemployed, up till a maximum of 12 months or when you are in permanent and gainful employment, whichever is earlier.
The overdue premium accumulated has to be paid in full within the next 12 months from the end of the Waiver of Interest Period.
There will be interest incurred if the overdue premiums are not paid in full within this Repayment Period.
The Waiver of Interest Benefit can be exercised up to 2 times per policy.
Guaranteed Extra Protection Option
Purchase a new non-participating level term Supplementary Benefit, without any health proof, when you are at any of the following significant life stage event(s):
- Legal marriage, divorce, or widowed.
- Birth of a newborn baby or legal child adoption.
- Purchase of a property.
- Your child enrols into tertiary education.
- When you enter full-time employment within one year of tertiary education graduation.
The non-participating level term Supplementary Benefit provides coverage for death and TI. You can choose to exercise this benefit from the age of 10 years up till the age of 99.
The premium will be calculated based on your age when this Supplementary Benefit is opted for.
This Supplementary Benefit continues to be in force, so long as you continue to make premium payments.
The Guaranteed Extra Protection Option can be exercised up to 2 times, regardless of the number of policies you might have that offer similar benefits.
Policy Loan
You have the option to request a Policy Loan of up to 90% of the cash surrender value less any payables to Singlife with Aviva, if you have not exercised the Income Payout Option.
There will be a minimum loan amount and policy loan rate which are subject to changes according to Singlife with Aviva’s terms and conditions. The interest rate is non-guaranteed.
Add On Riders
Total and Permanent Disability Advance Cover IV
Provides coverage for disabilities that are total and permanent. The payout under this supplementary benefit is an advancement and reduction of the Death Benefit.
Critical Illness Advance Cover IV
A lump-sum payout as an advancement of the death benefit is done if you are diagnosed with any of the advanced stage critical illnesses covered. More on this later.
Early Critical Illness Advance Cover V
With the Early Critical Illness Advance Cover V, you extend your critical illness coverage to 59 late-stage and 72 intermediate and early-stage CIs.
Benign and Borderline Malignant Tumour Benefit – 22 specified organs covered for Benign Tumour (suspected malignancy) requiring surgical excision.
Critical Illness Premium Waiver II/ Payer Critical Illness Premium Waiver II/ Payer Premium Waiver
Allows waiver of premium payment, if you are diagnosed with a critical illness of any stage or if the payer of the insurance premium is diagnosed with a critical illness, faces death, or total permanent disability.
These are the CIs and ECIs covered by the Singlife Whole Life.
Bonus Features
Reversionary Bonuses
Singlife with Aviva might allocate a reversionary bonus annually, but the bonus rate is not guaranteed.
Upon declaration, the reversionary bonus becomes guaranteed and will be paid out, regardless of the performance of the participating fund, less any payables to Singlife with Aviva.
You can withdraw the reversionary bonus in cash value, but your bonus payout will be less than the guaranteed accumulated reversionary bonus. The cash value of the accumulated reversionary bonus will be determined by Singlife with Aviva.
After withdrawal, your policy continues to be active with zero accumulated reversionary bonus. Future reversionary bonuses can be added to the policy.
We provide you with the following illustration for a clearer understanding. For example, with a return of 4.25% p.a, the reversionary bonus is S$5.00 per $1,000 sum insured.
The annual compounding rate determines the interest built up on reversionary bonuses.
The below table illustrates the Reversionary Bonus for the past three years.
Terminal Bonus
Upon policy termination due to a claim, surrender or maturity, you might receive an additional bonus if Singlife with Aviva declares a non-guaranteed terminal bonus, less any payables to them.
The terminal bonus is indicated as a percentage of the accumulated reversionary bonus surrender value and the bonus might vary, depending on when the insured surrenders his or her policy.
With this being a new plan, past indicative results of Terminal Bonus are presently not available.
Participating Fund Performance
The Singlife Whole Life is also a participating policy that allows you to accumulate cash value in the form of guaranteed and non-guaranteed bonuses.
Annual Investment Performance
Singlife with Aviva’s participating fund in recent years has generally been performing well.
The table below illustrates the investment mix of the Singlife Whole Life based on strategic asset allocation.
Due to it being belonging to a new investment pool within the par-sub-fund, the actual investment mix is currently not available.
The actual asset allocation might slightly differ from the Strategic Asset Allocation indicated above but will fall between the asset allocation range stated.
There is also no historical performance for this policy due to it being a new investment pool within the par-sub-fund.
Geometric Average
The Geometric Average will be more suitable and accurate in calculating profits for investment portfolios such as that of participating funds.
Instead of just taking the average rate of return, the geometric average takes into account compounding and returns and losses, which has a part to play in the amount reinvested in the following years.
Singlife with Aviva has been one of the few better-performing participating funds based on geometric average net investment returns on participating funds, with steady growth for the past decade and 5 years, leading to being the top 5 performers for the past 3 years (2017-2019), at 6.9%, higher than the group average of 6.69%.
Expense Ratio
Singlife with Aviva has a pretty high expense ratio against the average expense ratio in the past 3 years. The expense ratio is one of the important factors to take note of as it can significantly affect the final profits generated for the participating fund.
Overall Performance
Singlife with Aviva has held decent growth and maintenance over the past decade for its participating funds.
But they have a pretty high expense ratio, above the industry average in 2019. This might be a point to consider for those who are looking for insurers with a steady and healthy participating fund record.
The results mentioned above are based on past fund performance and may not be indicative of future profits and results.
It is also important to understand that the final returns distributed to you are not the same as the funds’ rate of returns. The bonuses are decided and declared by Singlife Aviva.
My Take on Singlife Whole Life
Looking for an insurance plan that offers protection, savings, and retirement income at the same time?
Singlife Whole Life is one of the few plans that provide you with this.
In comparison with the annual premiums across the whole life plans, the Singlife Whole Life has decently priced premiums with one of the highest critical illness coverage as compared to some of the other insurance companies.
| NTUC Income Star Secure | Manulife LifeReady Plus II | Singlife Whole Life | AIA Guaranteed Protect Plus (III) | Great Eastern Complete Flexi Living Protect 2 | China Taiping i-Secure(II) | AXA Life Treasure (II) | Prudential PRUActive Life II | |
| Early Critical Illness | 142 | 125 | 72 | 150 | 35 | 42 | 41 | 74 |
| Intermediate Critical Illness | 33 | 40 | 37 | |||||
| AdvancedCritical Illness | 59 | 52 | 55 | 56 | ||||
| Total CI Conditions | 142 | 125 | 131 | 150 | 120 | 137 | 134 | 74 |
| Additional Coverage | ||||||||
| Special Benefits (Diabetic Complications, Osteoporosis, etc) | 15 | 10 | 16 | 15 | 10 | 12 | 14 | – |
| Juvenile Benefits (Kawasaki Disease, Severe Hemophilia, etc) | 15 | 12 | 11 | – | 16 | 12 | 14 | – |
| Total additional coverage | 30 | 22 | 27 | 15 | 10+16+5(Senior Conditions)= 31 | 24 | 28 | 0 |
| Total Conditions Covered | 172 | 147 | 158 | 165 | 151 | 161 | 162 | 74 |
Comparison of the number of critical illnesses coverage and additional coverage.
On top of the above-mentioned benefits, Singlife with Aviva also has decent performing participating funds, based on their other current existing products available in the market in recent years.
It also has the following benefits for consideration when choosing a whole life insurance best suited for your needs:
- Option to receive monthly income after 65 years old. This might reduce the sum assured, but might aid in supplementing your retirement lifestyle.
- Option to defer premium payment and interest waiver for up to 12 consecutive months in case of involuntary retrenchment or unemployment.
- Up to 4 times multiplier benefits till age 65/70/75.
- TPD protection for life, as compared to the majority of other insurance providers offering only up to 70 or 75, some even only till 65 years old.
- Has one of the most coverage for multi-stage critical illnesses (131) as compared to other insurance companies.
The policy also has its downsides as well. These include:
- Higher minimum assured sum of $50k as compared to similar insurance policies such as the NTUC Income Star Secure where the required minimum sum assured is $20k.
- Multiplier benefits only up till age 75 as compared to 80 years old in previous plans.
- Lower guaranteed surrender value if the policy is surrendered in its early stages.
- Has one of the highest expense ratios for their participating funds.
We strongly advise you to assess your insurance coverage and investment objectives and do your due diligence before deciding on any policies and investments.
For whole life policies, it is recommended to consider the coverage, par fund performance, and expense ratios, instead of just the policy premiums,
This is especially true when you’re purchasing for ECI/CI coverage. Check the definitions and whether what’s covered is in line with your past medical history and your family’s.
Need some assistance in selecting the best life policy suited for your needs? Check out our list of best whole life insurance plans in Singapore for you to make a better decision.
Or if you prefer to have an expert’s recommendations, you can talk to our partner financial advisors.
