So many insurance products, so little time. If you’re trying to pick a life insurance policy but have no idea which insurer you should buy from, our series of life insurance reviews will give you an overview of what’s out there.
In this instalment, let’s have a look at AXA’s life insurance offerings. There are 11 different life insurance products listed on the AXA website — which should you pick?
We’ve sifted through the options and shortlisted 3 main AXA life insurance plans for the average consumer.
Why consider life insurance from AXA Singapore?
AXA is a French insurance company that operates all over the world, with a strong presence particularly in Europe and North America.
They are considered one of the bigger insurance companies in Singapore, and are one of just 7 insurers offering Integrated Shield health insurance.
When it comes to life insurance, AXA offers both term and whole life options. The key differences are that term life insurance protects you for a specified term (e.g. for a number of years or until a certain age), while whole life insurance entitles you to lifelong coverage, or at least coverage until a very advanced age.
Another key difference is that whole life insurance helps you accumulate cash value, while term life insurance does not. So, if you decide to surrender your whole life insurance plan, you can obtain the cash value accumulated up to that point.
Read more: Life Insurance in Singapore — The Basics of Whole Life and Term Insurance & Term Life vs Whole Life Insurance in Singapore — Which Is Better for You?
AXA Term Protector (term insurance)
AXA Term Protector is a AXA’s signature term life insurance plan, where you or your family will receive the full sum assured if you pass away while the plan is in force.
There are two versions: Term Protector and Term Protector Prime:
- Term Protector is the basic version, offering a sum assured starting from $100,000
- Term Protector Prime is the version adapted for high net worth individuals, with a minimum sum assured of $2 million
Either way, you can choose a term from 5 to 30 years, or opt to be covered up to age 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75 or 99. The maximum age for coverage is 99 years — that’s right, practically “whole life” coverage.
Don’t want to have to pay throughout your entire term? You can opt to shave your premium payment period to 15 or 20 years. For shorter insurance coverage terms (5 to 15 years), there’s also a single premium option.
Another feature we like is the indexation option, which adjusts your coverage according to the inflation rate.
Other than SGD, you can also enjoy protection in other currencies, namely USD, EUR, GBP and AUD. This makes it a good option for expats who might return to their home countries or Singaporeans based overseas.
For those looking for truly comprehensive protection, riders matter. Here are the riders available with this plan:
- Early Critical Illness Payout — Offers protection from early to advanced stage critical illnesses, letting you access your payouts upon diagnosis.
- Advanced Critical Illness Payout — Lets you access payment in advance upon a critical illness diagnosis.
- Advanced Total and Permanent Disability Payout — Offers payout for total and permanent disability.
- Disability Cash Benefit — Receive an annual cash benefit if you become disabled.
- Critical Illness Plus Benefit — Receive a lump sum payment without affecting the rest of your plan if you are diagnosed with a critical illness.
- Personal Accident Benefit — Receive a cash benefit if you get injured or die in an accident without affecting the rest of your plan.
- Guaranteed Survival Payout — If opt for the Term-to-age 99 plan and outlive it, you will get reimbursed with your sum assured.
- Critical Illness Premium Eraser — Waives future premiums if you get diagnosed with a critical illness.
- Premium Waiver — Waives future premiums if you get an early to advanced stage critical illness diagnosis, and waives 6 months’ worth of premiums if you suffer an involuntary loss of income.
- Payer PremiumEraser — If you are buying the plan for someone else, this rider waives future premiums if you suffer from total and permanent disability or critical illness (early to advanced stage).
The plan is convertible, which means you can switch out to, say, a whole life insurance plan at a later stage.
Sample premium: $28 per month for 30-year-old male non-smoker with sum assured of $500,000 for 20 years.
AXA Decreasing Term Assurance (mortgage insurance)
AXA Decreasing Term Assurance is a mortgage insurance policy for people who are more concerned about covering their outstanding property loans.
It insures you for any sums remaining on your home loan. If you die, suffer from total and permanent disability or get diagnosed with a terminal illness before fully repaying your mortgage, the insurance plan will pay the remaining sum owed.
With mortgage insurance, you don’t have to worry about the bank taking possession of your home and leaving your family in the lurch. But bear in mind it generally doesn’t give your dependents a payout to live on.
Read more: Mortgage Insurance in Singapore: How To Compare & Decide Which Is Best For You
You can choose between paying a single lump sum premium at the start of your plan, or yearly payments over a period of 10 to 30 years.
To ensure that the plan also covers your home loan’s interest payments, choose an interest rate ranging from 0% to 15%.
Here are the riders you can choose from:
- Personal Accident Benefit — Covers lost income and medical expenses in the event of an accident, and also offers a payout for accidental death or major and minor disabilities caused by accidents.
- Living Accelerator Benefit — Entitles you to your full sum assured if you are diagnosed with a critical illness.
- Waiver of Premium Benefit — Waives premiums if you suffer from critical illness or disability.
- Disability Cash Benefit – Receive an annual cash benefit if you suffer from total and permanent disability.
Sample premium: $34.12 per month for 30-year-old male non-smoker with sum assured of $500,000 for 20 years.
AXA Life Treasure (whole life insurance)
AXA Life Treasure is a whole life insurance plan for those who’d like coverage for death, total and permanent disability and terminal illness up to the age of 99 years, with a minimum sum assured of $25,000. You can use a multiplier of up to 7X to increase your payout amount.
As is usual with whole life insurance, the policy also enables you to accumulate cash value over the years, which you can access if you decide to surrender the plan.
With whole life insurance policies, you do not have to pay premiums all your life. Instead, you can choose from a premium payment period over which to pay, which in Life Treasure’s case ranges from 10 to 30 years.
One unique feature of the basic plan is that you can receive a disability payout if you become disabled and are unable to carry out any two out of six Activities of Daily Living (washing, dressing, feeding, toileting, walking or moving around, transferring).
The following riders are available for this plan:
- Accidental Death Benefit – Doubles your protection in the event of accidental death.
- Early Critical Illness Benefit – Offers protection from 132 early to advanced stage critical illnesses, and increases by 50% your payouts for top critical illnesses like major cancer, heart attack or stroke.
- Critical Illness Benefit – Offers protection from 40 advanced stage critical illnesses, and increases by 50% your payouts for top critical illnesses like major cancer, heart attack or stroke.
- Critical Illness Plus Benefit – Receive a lump sum payment without affecting the rest of your plan if you are diagnosed with a critical illness.
- Waiver of Premium Rider – Have future premiums waived if something happens to you.
Sample premium: $216.54 per month for 30-year-old non-smoking male with $100,000 sum assured, 2X multiplier and premium payment term of 20 years.
Which AXA life insurance policy is best?
AXA’s term and whole life insurance are some of the most customisable and feature-packed plans out there, with a mind-boggling array of riders available.
They are on the pricey side, but if you know exactly what you want and prefer to mix and match your benefits, AXA Term Protector or Life Treasure are both a good bet, depending on whether you prefer term or whole life insurance respectively.
AXA’s mortgage insurance is an option if you’ve already got separate life insurance for your dependents and now want to cover your home loan. However, bear in mind that it’s more expensive than Term Protector.
However, if you’re just looking for basic insurance coverage, AXA life insurance plans are not the most cost-effective. AXA Term Protector, for instance, requires you to purchase a rider just to get protection from total and permanent disability, which is often available as part of a basic plan.
If you’re on a budget and are okay to forgo some of AXA’s value-added features, you might want to choose a more economical term insurance plan on MoneySmart.
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