Seth’s Blog on Finance

Tokio Marine Maintains Annual Bonus Rates… For 48th Year in a Row!

Tokio Marine Life Insurance Singapore has sent out updates on its Participating Fund performance and has maintained bonus rates for its Participating policies.

For the uninitiated, when you purchase a Participating policy such as a whole life policy or an endowment savings policy, the insurer illustrates a projected return you would get at a certain assumed rate of investment return of the insurer’s Participating Fund. Simply put, if the insurer maintains (and hence does not reduce) the annual bonus rate for the duration of your policy, you would receive the amount stated on the documents which your agent has showed you when he/she first sells you the policy.

Till date, Tokio Marine has been the only insurer in Singapore that has the distinguished achievement of never cutting its bonus rates since its first bonus declaration in 1963. While many other Participating poliyowners have no doubt been disappointed by the dwindling return of their policies, Tokio Marine has maintained this feat yet again for the 48th year in a row.

Although past performance does not guarantee future results, this impressive track record is something to be considered if one is looking at getting a Participating policy. In a market where some insurers sell overpriced polices and still cut bonuses despite their exorbitant premiums, I commend Tokio Marine for keeping to each “promise” it sets out to each of its policyowners. I believe this is of much better value to people than spending extravagant amounts of money on dubious advertising campaigns and employing its sales agents to accost people like roadside hawkers peddling goods.