Life insurance can serve a useful purpose

Life insurance is inherently a good product. It provides protection and encourages savings for the long term.

It becomes bad when too much of the savings is taken away from the policyholder, leading to a poor return to the policyholder, compared to other types of investments. It becomes worse when it is sold dishonestly, without disclosing the true cost to the policyholder or by deceiving the policyholder using half truths or outright lies.

It is possible to design life insurance products to give good value for policyholders and still allow an adequate rate of commission to the insurance agent. It allows the agent to make a honest living and to earn more through hard work, without making the customer poorer.

Some insurance companies practiced fair treatment of policyholder in the past, and even give a good rate of bonus based on what they have earned. This allowed the customer to earn a good rate of return, even after allowing for expenses and profit margin. It is possible to achieve this outcome in the future, if the principles of fair treatment of customers are observed.

Tan Kin Lian