You will be able to use the free-look period and the complaints process if a policy does not fit you.
Nadia signed up for an ILP at a roadshow in a shopping mall three weeks ago. The representative described it as "like a fixed deposit but with better returns" and said she could take her money out "anytime". When the policy documents arrived, she read the product summary for the first time and found surrender charges for the first ten years, account values that weren't guaranteed and an insurance charge that rose with age. None of that matches what she was told at the roadshow.
She still has options, and the first one runs on a clock. This lesson covers the free-look period, the complaints route, and the records that make either one work.
New life insurance policies come with a free-look period: a short window after you receive the policy in which you can cancel it and get back what you paid, less certain costs. The costs that may be deducted, such as medical examination fees the insurer paid, are set out in the documents. For an ILP, the refund can also reflect any change in the value of the units since they were bought.
The length of the period and when it starts are stated in your policy documents. Find it the day the policy arrives, and write the end date in your calendar. Lesson 5.3 of Read the fine print: payslips, statements, policies and contracts, Distribution costs, surrender values and the free-look period, shows where it usually sits.
Inside the free-look period you don't need a reason, and you don't need to prove anything. You write to the insurer, follow its cancellation process, and get your refund. It's the cheapest moment to change your mind, by a long way. After it ends, stopping the policy means surrendering it at whatever surrender value it has, which in the early years may be very little.
Nadia checks her documents. She is still inside the period. She writes to the insurer to cancel, keeps a copy, and asks for written confirmation. That ends it.
Suppose she had found out months later. Cancelling would no longer be free, and the question becomes whether she was mis-sold: whether she was told things that weren't true, or not told things she should have been, in a way that led her to buy something unsuitable.
Signs of possible mis-selling include being told a non-guaranteed value was guaranteed, being told there were no charges for leaving early when there were, a recommendation made without any fact-find, a product that clearly doesn't fit the needs you stated, or a replacement done without explaining what you'd lose.
Start with the insurer, or the financial adviser firm if the representative works for one. Write to its customer service or complaints team. Email works and leaves a record.
Keep the letter factual. State the policy number, when and where you bought it, who sold it to you, what you were told, what the documents actually say, and what you want: cancellation with a full refund, for example. Attach copies of the fact-find, the benefit illustration, the product summary and any messages from the representative. Give dates for everything.
Firms have their own process and timelines for handling complaints, and they should acknowledge yours and tell you what happens next. Ask for a written final response.
If the insurer rejects your complaint or doesn't resolve it, you can take the dispute to the Financial Industry Disputes Resolution Centre, FIDReC. It's an independent body that handles disputes between consumers and financial institutions in Singapore, and insurers fall within its scope. It offers mediation first and then, if needed, adjudication.
FIDReC has rules on which cases it accepts, the time limits for bringing them, the size of claim it can decide and any case fee. Check them on its website before you file. It will usually expect you to have complained to the insurer first and to show its final reply.
Separately, if you believe a representative broke the rules, you can report it to MAS. MAS doesn't resolve individual money disputes, but it does act on misconduct.
The single most useful thing you can do, long before any dispute, is keep the paper. For every policy, keep:
the fact-find or needs analysis, signed by you the benefit illustration and product summary you were given before signing the policy contract and schedule messages, emails or notes from the adviser, especially anything about returns, guarantees or what you could withdraw
A complaint without these turns into your word against theirs. With them, you can show exactly what was said and what was written. Save them in one folder per policy, and back it up.
The activity asks you to find the free-look period on your most recent policy and write the steps you'd take if you believed it was mis-sold. If your most recent policy is old, use the steps anyway, and check that your records folder has the four documents listed above.
Find the free-look period on your most recent policy and write the steps you would take if you believed it was mis-sold.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).