Saturday, November 28, 2009

Payout under CPF Life

Dear Mr Tan
In the CPF-Life form they ask two questions (which I feel is irrevelant):
- annual assessable income
-annual value of house.

I am doing some part-time job with provides an irregular income and may downgrade to a smaller flat later on. I do not know if the CPF will pay me more, less or the same amount in the future, due to my change of circumstances.

I intend to put $75000.00 into my retirement account to join this scheme. Should I go ahead or put my money here or go elsewhere?

REPLY
The CPF ask you for the annual assessible income and the annual value of your house to determine if you quality for the full amount of the L-Bonus of $4,000, or a partial bonus or none at all. Apart from the L-Bonus, the monthly payout from the CPF Life will not be affected by your income or housing.

In my view, the CPF Life is attractive to the members as it is run operated as a non-profit and on mutual principles (i.e. all the members share the experience of the scheme fairly), has low expense ratio and earns an attractive interest rate of around 4%.

The annuity plan offered by the insurance companies, will not be able to offer this attractive payout.