What is CompareFirst and Direct Purchase Insurance Plans (DPI)
CompareFirst was launched in April2015 to make it easier for you to compare insurance plans. Before that, you'd have to manually find out which are perhaps the more competitive term plans in the market.
Direct Purchase Insurance Products (DPI) were also created to give you more options whereby you can choose to buy products without advice. You should read the required documents carefully before buying any DPI plan.
For this article, I'd focus more on direct purchase insurance (DPI) TERM LIFE plans which I've seen in a few private clients portfolio already.
Note: there is a $400,000 per insurer that you can buy from.
There are ONLY 3 types of duration which are the 5year renewable, 20years and "up to age65".
How to use CompareFirst to find TERM LIFE plans
Go to CompareFirst website and you'd see the following choices below.
Choose TERM LIFE products.
Next select if you want to see ALL plans (which I'd recommend)
Input your desired coverage term and if you would life critical illness benefit.
Lastly, sort by "Lowest to highest" premium.
Note: The example below is for female Age next birthday 25 and non smoker rates.
Case study of female age25 needing coverage to age60 (non-smoker)
With the inputs above, "COVERAGE TERM" of 31 to 35 years will be suitable.
The results will be as follows.
There are several kinds of TERM LIFE plans. Some are reducing term and some have option to renew.
I'd suggest to select "level sum assured without option to renew" which are usually more popular.
Limitations of the summary above
There are several limitations which are still there since the start of CompareFirst.
Firstly, the range of 31 to 35years can give a broad finding.
The AXA Term protector plan is in the top few while being only a coverage to age55.
TERM LIFE plan premiums are based on how long the coverage is bought for. The longer the term the more expensive. Hence, it is NOT really apple to apple comparison.
Secondly, the plans may not be exactly the same.
Top recommendation was MyCoreCI Plan II is has different coverage definitions from most other term plans.
MyCoreCI Plan II covers only 14 CI conditions unlike the 36/37 that most other term plans cover.
But it does have unique benefits like diabetic conditions coverage and 20% premium back if no claims are made. It reinforces that it is NOT really apple to apple comparison.
Where were the Direct Purchase Insurance (DPI) TERM LIFE options for the case?
There is a reason why no DPI options came up. As discuss, the case was for a female looking to cover to age60 and the ONLY DPI options are the 5year renewable, 20years and "up to age65.
Hence, none showed up.
With the filter changed "To Age 65", below would be the summary to know the DPI TERM LIFE options.
There is no way to customise it further.
Benefits of getting advice from a qualified adviser
Firstly, a qualified adviser should make proper comparisons between policy coverage and wordings. This would save you time.
Secondly, an adviser should be able to show variations to the plan such as using backdating to a lower Age Next Birthday and knowing where discount tiers for the plans are. There are discounts with larger sum assured levels.
The example above is on AVIVA MyProtector Term Plan II to meet the need of the female looking to cover to age60.
With premiums at $638.50/y (term duration 36years to customised to her age60) for $500,000 instead of $400,000, this plan could be strongly considered.
Lastly, "early critical illness" coverage should be factored into the overall insurance portfolio and recommended.
Conclusions
CompareFirst gives a quick estimate as to which are the more competitive TERM LIFE plans.
Personally, I conduct meetings mainly via zoom these days and I believe most advisers do so too. If you are not familiar with the insurance terminology, it will be to your advantage to work with a qualified adviser.
Watch video below on how to SAVE PREMIUMS ON LIFE INSURANCE