Insurance firms must be made to justify higher premiums: TODAY voices
A reader of TODAY wrote in to the publication regarding his thoughts about the increase in insurance premiums:
I see two current issues regarding insurance that impact cost of living. One is the wide range of premiums for health insurance offering similar hospitalisation coverage and the ability of insurers to hike premiums by a large quantum upon renewal.
He is quite astute to note that the cost of insurance policies does impact cost of living — significantly so, I might add. I get this feeling that most Singaporeans do not seem to notice this fact at all, seemingly buying policies without much thought or research, perhaps out of a misplaced trust in the person selling them these policies. When it comes to increasing food prices or transport fares, the same people are understandably upset at the rising costs of living, but they seem oblivious to the fact that a bad insurance portfolio can cost them so much more over their lifetimes.
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Oversupply of Financial Practitioners And Its Effects
Singapore has a population of about 5 million while the number of practitioners in the financial advisory industry can be estimated to be about 20,000 to 30,000. This includes tied insurance agents, Financial Adviser firm representatives and banks’ financial services personnel. It is a considerably large number for our population size. How so?
Let’s look at how we compare to other countries:
| Country | Population | No. of Advisers1 | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 311,000,000 | 310,000 | 1,003:1 |
| Australia | 22,000,000 | 18,000 | 1,222:1 |
| United Kingdom | 62,000,000 | 20,000 | 3,100:1 |
| New Zealand | 4,430,400 | 1,963 | 2,257:1 |
| Singapore | 5,183,700 | 20,000 | 259:1 |
The Quality of Independence
Candidates for Presidential Elections 2011
Another election is upon us and Singapore votes for its third elected President. This time around, Singaporeans get to choose between four different candidates, all of whom seem to stress on how independent he is.
Why the emphasis on “independence”?
Independence, Ethics and Competency
Having experienced both a tied agency environment as well as an Independent one, I can proclaim that the Independent distribution model is still the best for clients. As I have read in an online forum, “all good financial advisers are IFA”, which reflects my sentiments. The person who wrote this line also quickly followed up in the same sentence – ” but not all IFA are good financial advisers”.
This cannot be further away from the truth.