Are life and medical insurance plans REALLY essential for each individual and family?

Allianz Life Insurance Malaysia tells you why it is.

As an insurer, Allianz Life Insurance Malaysia Berhad (“Allianz Life”) wants to create awareness on the importance of life and medical insurance plans to each individual and family. It realises the need to not only provide results for customers but also to the general public alike.

“Both the life and medical insurance plans are equally important in its own way. A life insurance plan is especially important for the sole breadwinner of a family as in the event of death or permanent disablement of the breadwinner, the life insurance policy provides protection for the most basic needs of the affected family. This is such as the policy proceeds can step in to mitigate the loss of regular income. On the other hand, a medical insurance plan is certainly necessary for each and every individual as it covers the cost of hospitalization in case of an illness. This is especially important as medical costs are on the rise,” said Rangam Bir, CEO of Allianz Life.

As life insurance intends to look after the well-being of families, it also forms an integral pillar in one’s financial planning and estate planning portfolio.  It is important to plan and prepare for any unforeseen events as families should not be burdened with trying to meet basic financial obligations. As both life and medical insurance plans work on the basis of risk probability, it is always advisable to start a life or medical insurance policy young when the risks assumed are lower. Most life insurers enable an application for life and medical insurance as early as when the child is 15 days old. 

“One does not have to buy an expensive plan, but begin with an affordable one as it is better to have a plan even if it provides small coverage than not to have one at all.  Once a plan is purchased, insurers will not change the terms and conditions of the policy due to health condition that is acquired after the policy is in force, unless the policy lapse,” said Rangam.

For those who already are diagnosed with illness and do not have an insurance plan in hand, they can still purchase a life insurance policy as long as the illness is not life threatening or terminal. 

However, insurers will either impose an extra loading premium or exclusion to the health condition. Interested policyholders should also be aware of some standard exclusion in an insurance contract, especially for a medical plan.  These are standard exclusions that are applicable to everyone whether they are healthy individuals or a person with illness.

 “As part of personal financial planning, everyone should have a life insurance and a medical plan.  Besides taking care of unforeseen events that may cause loss of income, it gives peace of mind knowing that there is a plan in place to step in to cover potential financial hardship for a person or a family. Once a plan is in force, we do recommend that an annual policy review is done to ensure that the coverage has kept up with the changes to one’s life and the necessary action can be taken to enhance the coverage appropriately,” concluded Rangam.

To increase awareness on the importance of life and medical insurance plans, Allianz Life also produced a video which can be viewed on the Allianz Malaysia YouTube page at https://youtu.be/iWkNRz_0gAs .

About Allianz in Malaysia

The investment holding company, Allianz Malaysia Berhad, a subsidiary of Allianz SE, has two insurance subsidiaries - Allianz General Insurance Company (Malaysia) Berhad (“Allianz General”) and Allianz Life Insurance Malaysia Berhad (“Allianz Life”).

Allianz General is one of the leading general insurers in Malaysia and has a broad spectrum of services in personal lines; small to medium enterprise business and large industrial risks.  Allianz General also leverages on the bancassurance agreement with CIMB Bank to reach out to the bank's over-a-million-customer base.  The GWP for general insurance business for financial year 2014 reached a mark of RM2.13 billion.

Allianz Life offers a comprehensive range of life and health insurance and investment-linked products and for the financial year 2014, Allianz Life recorded a gross written premium (“GWP”) of RM1.83 billion and is one of the fastest growing life insurers in Malaysia.

Allianz Malaysia has 36 branches nationwide.

About Allianz

Together with its customers and sales partners, Allianz is one of the strongest financial communities. About 85 million private and corporate customers insured by Allianz rely on its knowledge, global reach, capital strength and solidity to help them make the most of financial opportunities and to avoid and safeguard themselves against risks. In 2014, around 147,000 employees in over 70 countries achieved total revenues of 122.3 billion euros and an operating profit of 10.4 billion euros. Benefits for our customers reached 104.6 billion euros.

This business success with insurance, asset management and assistance services is based increasingly on customer demand for crisis-proof financial solutions for an aging society and the challenges of climate change. Transparency and integrity are key components of sustainable corporate governance at Allianz SE. 

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