Travel Insurance By MSIG

Today, I wish to stress on the importance of travel insurance when travelling overseas. I have been the victim of major illnesses like food poisoning on various occasions, suffering huge monetary losses after being admitted into the hospital. Luckily, I have always bought travel insurance.

The reason why I decided to make this a post was because I recently incurred a huge loss of $1,500 for medical expenses in Vietnam last December. My daughter was admitted into the hospital in Vietnam and had to stay in the hospital for 7 to 8 days. When I went back to Singapore, I submitted a claim and it was approved in around 10 days before a cheque was formally sent to my mailing address. I was very pleased with the professionalism that was being shown and the great customer service rendered to me when I called them.

I remembered buying another travel insurance through Jetstar while going overseas as well a few years ago. During that trip, I was also admitted into the hospital. I was also reimbursed for my medical expenses as well. Sadly, I was admitted to the hospital on my departure date and had to cancel my entire trip back to Singapore but was not reimbursed for the plane tickets. The claims office also did not make any efforts to request additional documents from me. In the end, I suffered a huge monetary loss when they only approve my claim for my medical expenses.

This brings me to my final point. I am touched by MSIG Travel Insurance and will no doubt be a long time loyal customer to them. As for Jetstar or Chartis Insurance, I will never book a flight or purchase any insurance through them again. Jetstar prides itself on being the cheapest budget carrier but I can simply pay $50 more and get better service from other flights, with meals on the flight. I have tried to call them various times when things go wrong but was either put on hold, or experienced unusual hanging up of phone. That is a story for another day, but if you must fly, remember MSIG.

Insurance As Investment

Today, I am going to touch on the importance of insurance. Insurance is a safeguard against the future, yet it is getting a bad name due to unethical agents who promise insane returns yet at the same time, unable to deliver what they promised. Let me just start by saying I am not an insurance agent, but through the process of knowing what I have bought, sees the inherent and immense benefits insurance can have.

I currently have just 1 insurance product under my name. I pay a fee of $100 per month for this product. It is known as an investment linked policy. It combines investment of your premium into some fund while offering you protection in the event of death. This policy by AXA is one of the best financial decisions I have made in my entire life. This is partly due to a good fund my agent has chosen, one which reaps me returns of more than 20% last year.

Of course, as I begins to understand my own financial health and more about the different financial products, I will most probably never purchase another investment linked policy. I will only go for health insurances as I believe in a few years time, my own investing should have shine through and generates me consistently above average returns. I strongly believe this as I have never felt as much excitement as trading and investing before. Call me a boring person, but I seriously feel that trading and investing and being in the center of all the news that are happening around me incredibly rewarding and interesting.

Before I digress further, I will end off by saying any responsible individual should definitely get a health or life insurance. Also, for investment linked policies that insurance agents recommend you, do not go into it unless you know about how the fund is performing. Do not take everything the agent says as facts, they are working for their best interests, their fat pay cheque, and not yours.