SHARES INVESTMENT NEWS: SINGAPORE MARKET OVERVIEW

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Friday, 18 May 2018

Singapore Share Market Analysis / Blog/ News Last 15 days

Thursday, 3 May 2018

Navigating the waters of property technology and Singapore’s property market | An interview with OrangeTee’s MD, Steven Tan

Picture Big Data and that fancy 2-bedroom condominium you are eyeing in Pasir Panjang. That’s not something you would typically see in the same sentence, much less imagine it. But, Steven Tan, Managing Director of OrangeTee has made it his mission to put these two things together, and for the benefit of none other than the consumers.

ZUU online met with Tan at the OrangeTee building in Toa Payoh to learn what that mission entails.

“We started to notice an industry trend towards technology sometime in early 2015. PropTech (Property Technology) companies were providing consumers with a lot more options to DIY their property transaction, along with a flat fee payment model,” Tan told ZUU online.

“It was a clear signal that the consumer was going to be king, and that we needed to provide clear value to our consumers if our agents wanted to continue to be relevant.”

Tan explained that consumers in the past had few options beyond engaging agents for their property transaction needs, because a lot of the information available was controlled by agencies. That has changed in recent years. “Now, we must able to convince consumers that the commission to their agents is a worthwhile investment, because the value they get from their agents is above and beyond the cost and time savings of them doing it themselves.” The solution – as he saw it – was a digital overhaul of the traditional property agency business.

A business transformation that is not just skin deep

Right from the start, Tan was determined that OrangeTee’s move towards technology went beyond lip-service. So in 2015, OrangeTee put together a taskforce that was committed to driving digital transformation for the entire company.

Tan told ZUU online that the taskforce continually looks at the transformation from many different areas. One of the most pivotal decisions that came out from the task force was the launch of the PropertyAgentsReview in 2016, a portal that helps consumers find a suitable property agent based on the reviews of other verified customers. “Many people will only transact a property two or three times in their life, so they may not be experienced enough to make a good decision about their property or optimize their property value. That is where a property agent can be really helpful, and it makes recognising and engaging the right agent even more important.”

From its inception, PropertyAgentsReview was designed to be user friendly and efficient. A visitor to the portal need only indicate the type of property they are interested in, whether they are buying, selling or renting, and the location in Singapore they are interested in. Within seconds, PropertyAgentsReview would provide them with a list of property agents who fit their criteria best.

Visitors to the site would then be able to access the profiles of the agents, details of their past transactions, and the honest reviews left behind by their previous customers who engaged them within the past 18 months. The platform centers around a Singapore map, which makes navigation more intuitive and relatable. It also makes it easier for consumers to locate property agents over several different locales.

Since its original launch, the portal has continued to add new features, including the search for a specific agent and the option to choose property agents who can speak certain foreign languages and mandarin dialects. Other new developments are also in the pipeline, according to OrangeTee.

As a testament to the portal’s success, PropertAgentsReview currently has over 10,000 reviews, which Tan adds is neither screened nor edited. “We’re very confident that, ultimately, agents still have an important role to play,” he said.

Personalised insights for agents, for consumers

Perhaps the biggest changes are those that customers will not be able to see on the site. OrangeTee is building up its data analytics capabilities, in order to empower their property agents to provide more personalized insights for their customers.

At present, all property agents in Singapore are able to purchase reports from third party property platforms. The reports offer information like caveats or transactions, details of individual projects, comparisons with other projects, and some details like average transactions and district information.

While the information in these reports are handy, there is little variation from agent to agent. So OrangeTee is beefing up its dashboard for its property agents to provide additional information, like comparisons of property trends, and comparisons of projects over a longer period of more than 10 or 20 years.

“When you look at caveats over several months, you won’t be able to identify certain trends. During a downturn, the prices of everything goes down. But some will go down by a smaller percentage, or rebound much more quickly than others. Caveats won’t be able to provide that information, but data analytics can fill in that gap,” said Tan. “We would be able to identify developments that are more resilient than others, in the face of cooling measures or a downturn.” Orangetee also has the added benefit of being able to provide more insights from its own database, to allow their agents to be more targeted in their marketing efforts.

“These are just two examples of what we are working on, but with data, there is still a lot more we can do, to generate insights for customers, so they can make the right decisions.”

Going back to OrangeTee’s basics

To be sure, Tan’s dedication to OrangeTee’s digital transformation, harkens back to his original decision to join the company in 2000.

According to Tan, Orangetee was established in April 2000 as a predominantly online business. Tan was invited to leave his comfortable job as a branch manager in another property agency, to build OrangeTee’s offline agency business that would run in tandem with its online business. “I was quite comfortable [in my previous job], but I knew that the online space would be crucial, so I decided to join OrangeTee because of their emphasis on technology.”

Tan recalled that being an online business in 2000 was a lot simpler than it is now.

“In 2000, you just need to put information online for the agents to access, and you were already the market leader,” he said laughing. “At that time, we put caveats, transactions, and project information online and we were already ahead of the game. But our advantage was diluted when these services started being provided by other property portals.”

“Now we are in a very different ballgame, and we have to be very customer centric so our agents can maintain their relationship with their customers.”

A veteran in the property business

Tan started his career at a glass company in 1986, and was quickly promoted to become a marketing manager in a couple of years. When he noticed the growing popularity of full glass clad facades on buildings – also known as curtain walls – Tan quit his job in 1989 and set up his own company specialising in curtain walls.

The business was doing well for a time, expanding into Taiwan and then China, but ran into financial difficulty when the construction industry went into a recession in 1992. Tan made a quick decision to become a property agent and that became a 2 decades long career for Tan.

So what does Tan think about Singapore’s current property market outlook?

“Promising,” said Tan. “The overall sentiment is good, supported by the strong economic outlook both globally and locally.”

Tan points out that many property buyers are anticipating higher property prices – after recent collective sales were transacted at relatively high psf prices – and are now rushing to purchase property before the price hikes. New home sales had risen from between 7,000 to 8,000 homes in the past few years to over 10,000 homes in 2017 alone, and Tan expects the sales momentum to continue.

While many home buyers lament about the shrinking sizes of private condominiums in lieu of higher psf prices, Tan believes private homes here would never get as small as those in other developed cities like Hong Kong.

“I think, as a Singaporean, we have to get used to our homes getting smaller, because when the psf price is higher, and there is a cap from the TDSR, the only way we can purchase a property is to go for a smaller flat. But ultimately, if the private homes get too small, more people will compare and buy HDB property instead. Hong Kong doesn’t have this option.”

Investing in what he knows best

Even now, Tan admits that his own personal investment portfolio is predominantly in property. “Why property?,” he continues. “Because I’m familiar with property, and I have no time for other investments.”

“As a property investor, you must have a holding plan and an exit plan,” he told ZUU online. “A lot of people just buy because others are buying, or because the sentiment is good. All of these things are important, but you must also know why you want to buy, how long you plan to hold it for, whether it is for your own stay or whether you plan to rent it out, if you are renting, then you should also know how much of your mortgage loan can be realistically covered by your rental returns.”

“At the same time, you should also plan when you want to exit, when the price is good enough for you, because the market can be very unpredictable. That exit period could be very long, because you may not see the returns you want within the next few years, so you must also have the holding power to reach your exit plan,” said Tan.

“This is a more prudent approach, because unlike other investment asset classes, property investment is not so liquid.”

Ultimately, Tan still believes that property prices will always grow over the long term. So the longer one holds their property, the higher the chance they will see a positive return on it. “Even now, after 15 quarters of downtrend in Singapore, overall property prices fell by just 12%. But just watch, it probably won’t take 15 quarters to recover from that 12%.”

Sunday, 8 April 2018

Top Health Insurance Policies In Singapore

Insurance covers provide an easy way of shielding oneself from unexpected life crisis by providing a way for transferring risk. Regardless of the amount of income or age, everyone needs insurance. Rapidly aging population, growing incidences of chronic diseases, as well as escalating healthcare costs, means Singaporeans, more than ever, need to take insurance covers.

However, the health insurance landscape can be tricky to navigate given the number of options available. When it comes to health insurance policies, hospitalization, and integrated shield plans, maternity, term insurance, critical plans and whole life insurance are some of the pacts that Singaporeans need to pay close watch to, as a way of transferring risk in pursuit of good health.

Changing lifestyles, deteriorating environment, and increased stress levels means people will always be prone to get sick. Health insurance policies are designed to provide a safety net for combating financial burdens that can come into being as a result of health issues or fatality.

Below are some of the things to look out for before settling on a health insurance plan.

Plan According To Your Needs

When taking health insurance policies it is important to consider some of the needs that might arise. If you are newly married or planning to start a family, you may have to take a policy that will cater for maternity costs. In case you have aging parents, it might be wise to take cover for aging parents.

Insure the Right Amount

While being under-insured is much better than not being insured, it is still not enough and may plunge one into more financial meltdowns. Before taking a health insurance cover, take into account the medical costs that might come into being and whether the policy will be able to cover a good chunk of the costs.

Don’t buy a cover just because you can afford it now, always consider how much it will cost as you get older.

Health Insurance Policies

These are plans provided by insurance companies designed to cover expenses incurred in case one experiences health issues. A good chunk of the policies cover medical and surgical expenses. Just like other forms of insurance coverage, Heath insurance requires one to pay premiums monthly, or annually.

Types of Health Insurance Plans

Hospitalization & Surgical Insurance

It is a basic type of insurance plan, which covers health and surgical costs incurred due to accidents and illnesses.

Catastrophic Medical Insurance

It covers major illnesses that most of the time lead to steep medical costs. Insurance companies, in this case, provide coverage for prolonged treatments like dialysis, chemotherapy, and radiation.

Supplemental Medical Expenses

This is an additional insurance plan, designed to supplement the main medical plan.

Disability Income Insurance

These types of policies are designed to provide a regular stream of income in case the insured is disabled such that they are not able to go to work.

Why You Need a Health Insurance

Health insurance policies, depending on type, are designed to provide a range of benefits not limited to cashless financial aid in case of hospitalization. Such policy also provide cover for medical checkups once a patient is discharged and cover costs for medication.

Health Insurance Policies also provide financial aid for emergency hospitalization, financial aid in case of critical illness as well as reimbursement for hospital expenditure. Some policies also do come with tax benefits and financial cover for pre and post-hospitalization expenditure.

Integrated Shield Plan

An integrated shield plan is a type of health insurance plan made up of two parts, MediShield Life and a private health insurance portion.

MediShield Life is a mandatory national health insurance scheme, administered by the government and designed to cover public hospital bills for class C and B2 wards. All Singaporeans are automatically covered under this plan. Coverage is provided regardless of age or preexisting medical conditions.

Hospital Ward	Room Features	Can Choose Doctor
Private	1/2/4-beds, air-con, TV	Yes
Class A	1 bed, air-con, TV	Yes
Class B1	4-beds, air-con, TV	Yes
Class B2	6-beds, naturally ventilated No TV	No
Class C	8-10 beds naturally ventilated No TV	No

Patients who seek coverage under this plan would have a good chunk of their bill covered by MediShield Life, less the deductible and co-insurance component. Payout under IP only covers a fraction of the total bill in patients who seek treatment at higher-class A and B1 wards but don’t have IP cover.

Private health insurance, on the other hand, is designed to cover bills incurred from treatments in class B1 and A wards. It also covers costs incurred in private hospitals.

Considered an upgrade of the government offered MediShield, Integrated Shield Plan allows a patient to enjoy coverage at A/B1 wards or at private hospitals. While the plan calls for more payments when it comes to premiums, patients don’t have to worry about a large bill wiping out their Medisave or cash savings.

Integrated Health Insurance Shield Plans Comparison

Benefits	NTUC Income Shield Plan P S$	AIA Health Shield Gold Presige S$	Great Eastern Supreme Health Plan	Prudential Shield Plan A Premier	Aviva My Shield Plan
Inpatient and Day Surgery
Daily Ward & Treatment Charges	1600	1,700	As Charged	As Charged	As Charged
Daily Ward Treatment Charges in ICU	2,200	3,600	As Charged		As Charge As Charged d
Surgery	1050-14,100	As charged	As Charged	As Charged	As Charged
Surgical Implants and Approved Medical Consumables	14,000	5,000	As Charged	As Charged	As Charged
Outpatients			As Charged	As Charged	As Charged
Kidney Dialysis	3,000/mth	36,000/yr	As Charged	As Charged	As Charged
Radiotherapy	600/day	500/day	As Charged	As Charged	As Charged
Chemotherapy	3,500/mth	36,000 yr	As Charged	As Charged	As Charged

Term Insurance Rating Singapore

Term insurance is a type of cover that provides coverage for a certain period of time or years. A payout is made if the insured dies within the policy tenure. No payout is made in case the insured survives the policy tenure.

It’s premiums are usually low in younger years and tend to increase rapidly as one gets old. Term Life insurance can be used as an insurance cover for a loan repayment or post-death liabilities.

In Singapore, Term life policies typically focus on two covers, death and terminal illness. Other insurance companies offer additional benefits such as cover for dread diseases, Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) as well as premium waivers and personal accident cover.

Why Take a Term Insurance

Larger Life Coverage

Term insurance plans provide pure life coverage and since they are affordable, one can opt for a higher life cover for the same amount.

Riders

Insurance companies do allow policyholders to attach riders to their term loan thereby enhancing policy utility. Some of the rider’s one can add include illness and critical illness plan, which allows one to receive the sum assured of being diagnosed with a critical illness. Other riders include loss of employment cover, disability cover, and waiver of premium cover

Enhanced Cover

An insurance company may offer the flexibility of enhancing the life cover during critical stages of the policyholder tenure. In this case, one may be allowed to enhance cover by 50% at the time of marriage and by 25% on becoming a parent.

How to Choose Term Insurance

The best term insurance policies are the ones that offer coverage over a number of things. Coverage, in this case, should not be limited to death and terminal illness.

Some of the additional riders to look for in term insurance include coverage for total and permanent disability. However, always compare the premiums with and without the riders to ensure you end up with the best deal.

Term insurance policies vary from one company to another. Premiums paid also differ depending on whether one is a smoker or not. There are also insurance companies that offer premiums depending on one’s health condition.

Top Term Insurance Policies in Singapore

Term Insurance	Premiums	Entry Age	Benefits
AXA Term Protector	Premiums Start at 65 cents per day	I month old Up To 70 Years	Minimum Assured S$100,000. Covers Death and Terminal illness. Riders Available: Advance Total and Permanent Disability payout, Critical Illness payout, Personal Accident benefit
NTUC iTerm Insurance		0 Years-79 years Renewable Till 84 years	Death terminal illness and TPD cover. Policy renewal Until 84 years. Optional Riders: payor Premium Waiver, Enhanced Payor Premium Waiver, Dread Disease Premium
AIA Secure Term Plus	Starting From S$22/ month	Maximum Entry Age 70 Years	Covers against terminal illness and death. Fixed premiums throughout policy tenure. Optional riders : Critical illness Rider, Accident Cover Rider, hospital and Surgical Benefit Rider.
Aviva MyProtector-Term Plan	Premium starting at S$2.44	Renewable until 99 years	Coverage between S$500,000-S$1.5 million. Covers against death and terminal illness. Optional riders: critical illness advance cover.
FWD Term Insurance	Starting from S$2.60 per day	Maximum entry age- 70 years Policy Renewable until 100 years of age	Covers death and terminal illness. Maximum sum assured S$3 million. Optional Riders: Critical Illness Cover Premium Waiver Cover

Whole Life Insurance

Whole life insurance is a type of contract that includes insurance and investment components. It includes lifelong coverage and an investment component known as policy cash value. This type of cover protects the insured their entire life, provided required premiums, are paid to the maturity date.

The investment component is designed to build cash value that the insured can borrow against or withdraw.

Basics of Whole Life Insurance

Death Benefit

Death benefit in a whole life policy is the stated face amount, which can be increased through dividend accumulation. The face amount can also decrease the deduction of outstanding policy loans.

Maturity

Whole life Insurance, unlike term insurance, matures at death or at the age of 100, in some policies. A policy may become a ‘matured endowment’ in case the policyholder lives beyond a maturity date of say 100 years.

Taxation

Whole Life Insurance policies are exempt from taxation except in unusual circumstances. However, if a policy is cashed out before the maturity date, it might incur some charges in the form of taxes.

Who Needs Life Insurance

Whole Life Insurance is designed for people who wish to provide their dependent family members a reliable stream of income in case they die or liquidate their business debts. Such policies can also be used to pay down debts or be used for charitable events.

The best Whole Life Insurance Policy in Singapore by Premiums

Annual Premium for Male Non-Smoker

Age	Aviva	Manulife	Tokyo Marine Insurance Group	Great Eastern	Ntuc Income
30	S$2203	S$2,065	S$2,156	S$2,323	S$2,123
35	S$2,494	S$2,344	S$2,549	S$2,667	S$2,423
40	S$2,822	S$2,660	S$3,017	S$3,042	S$2,746
45	S$3,298	S$3,013		S$3,540	S$3,127

Annual Premium for Female Non Smoker

Age	Aviva	AXA Life	HSBC Insurance	Manulife
30	S$1,523	S$2,063	S$2,027	S$2027
35	S$1,971	S$2,698	S$2,729	S$2,729
40	S$2,608	S$3,441	S$3,642	S$3,642
45	S$3,422	S$4,496	S$4,437	S$4,437

Term vs. Whole Life Insurance

While both term and whole insurance are geared towards providing financial security, they also differ in some aspects. Choosing between the two can be overwhelming given that both of them come with unique benefits.

The most important thing to consider when choosing between the two, is to consider first why you are buying the life insurance.

When to Choose Term Life

You can select a term life insurance if you need to replace your income over a certain period such as when raising kids or paying off the mortgage.

Term life is also ideal when one wants affordable coverage that does not result in unnecessary financial burden.

When to choose Whole Life

Whole Life Insurance is ideal for people who want to provide money to their heirs to pay off for things like debt. The policy is also ideal for people who have lifelong dependent such as partner or child with special needs.

Whole life is also good for people who want to spend retirement savings and still leave some inheritance money to their loved ones.

Source- https://zuuonline.sg/money/insurance/top-health-insurance-policies-in-singapore/

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