You will be able to list the insurance you already hold before buying anything.
Two weeks after Hui Min starts work, a friend from secondary school messages her. He is a financial adviser now, and he would love to "do a quick review" of her insurance. Hui Min agrees to coffee, then realises she cannot answer the first question he is bound to ask: what cover do you already have?
Most first jobbers are in the same position. They assume they have nothing, because they have never bought a policy. In fact, if you are a Singapore citizen or PR with a job, you probably have at least three layers of cover already. This lesson lists them, so you know what you hold before anyone sells you more. Nothing here recommends a product.
MediShield Life is the basic national health insurance scheme. It covers all Singapore citizens and permanent residents for life, including people with pre-existing conditions, and you do not have to apply for it. Its premiums can be paid from MediSave, so most working adults never see a bill for it.
It is designed to help with large hospital bills, for stays in subsidised wards and for some costly outpatient treatments such as dialysis and chemotherapy, but it leaves part of most bills to you. There are deductibles and co-insurance, which are the parts of a bill you pay yourself, and claim limits for each type of treatment. The details, and the current premiums for your age, are published by the Ministry of Health and the CPF Board on moh.gov.sg and cpf.gov.sg.
Lesson 4.1 of The Singapore personal finance system, end to end, Hospital bills: what basic national cover pays and what shield plans add, goes further into how a bill is shared. For this lesson, the point is simpler: you have it, and it stays with you whatever happens to your job.
The Dependants' Protection Scheme, or DPS, is a term life insurance scheme for CPF members. It pays a lump sum if the insured member dies, becomes terminally ill or is permanently disabled, up to an age limit. Members are generally covered automatically once they start making CPF contributions from work, and premiums are paid from CPF savings unless you opt out.
Everyone gets the same modest amount, whatever their family looks like, so it will not replace years of your income. But it is real cover, and it exists whether or not your employer offers group life.
Your DPS status can surprise you. Some people opted out years ago without remembering, and some never started paying because of a gap in contributions. Check your status, the current cover amount and the premium on the CPF Board website. It takes a couple of minutes with Singpass.
The third layer is the group plan you mapped in module 3. Hui Min's, in example figures, includes hospital and surgical cover up to S$20,000 a year, outpatient and dental cover, and group term life of S$96,000. That is a lot of cover while she is employed.
Lesson 3.2, The gaps: cover that ends when the job ends, explained the catch. All of it is tied to the job and usually stops on your last day. So on your list it gets the same note every time: ends when I leave this employer.
There is often a fourth layer that people forget. Many Singapore parents bought policies for their children when they were young: a hospital plan, a whole life policy, an endowment plan. Some are still running, sometimes still paid by your parents, sometimes now expected to be paid by you.
Ask. A policy bought for you years ago may already cover some of what an adviser would suggest, or it may be a savings product with no protection value at all. Either way, it belongs on the list, along with who pays for it and when it ends.
Hui Min writes it all down before her coffee: MediShield Life, DPS cover she confirmed on the CPF website, her group plan, and an old hospital plan her mother turns out to have been paying since she was ten. With that list on the table, the coffee starts from what she already has, and the question her friend has to answer becomes what, if anything, is missing.
Your list will look different, but it uses the same sources: the CPF Board website for MediShield Life and DPS, your benefits map from lesson 3.4, and a conversation with your parents.
List every policy and scheme you are covered by, with what it pays and when it ends.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).