Best insurance plan (Malaysia) | Medical, life insurance guide

Looking for the best insurance policies in Malaysia? Which is the best medical card/insurance in Malaysia, are investment-linked plans better or term plans? After comparing plans from the top insurance companies in Malaysia, here's what I've found:

3 major insurance types:
1. Medical card/insurance (covers your medical/hospital bills)
2. Life/TPD (cash payout if you die or are permanently disabled)
3. Critical illness coverage (cash payout if you die or are permanently disabled)

How much coverage do you need?
1. Medical (Important throughout your life - Annual limit RM500k-1.3mil; no lifetime limit; 200 R&B)
2. Life/TPD (Important up until financial freedom - Min 10X your annual salary - max [annual expenses/5%]- [net worth]
3. Critical illness coverage (Important up until financial freedom - 1-3X your annual salary)

What plans should I choose?
1. Standalone/term plans (if you are on a tight budget, or for life/TPD/critical illness coverage for a fixed period of time)
2. Investment-linked plan (if you plan to maintain coverage for a long time, especially for medical coverage)

What did I choose?
I chose a basic investment linked plan that focuses on medical coverage only. Still debating whether or not I need life/TPD or critical illness coverage - if I go ahead, it will probably be in the form of a 10-15 year term plan. AIA provided the best coverage at a very competitive cost, Prudential came in as a close second for my personal requirements.

I am not an insurance professional, so do consult with an insurance agent before making a decision. Insurance plans are long term commitments, so do shop around and do your research before speaking to insurance agents - not all of them will have your best interest in mind!

Timestamp:
00:00 Introduction
00:45 How insurance works
01:26 Types of insurance coverage
02:43 Medical insurance - what to look out for
04:52 Life/TPD - ideal coverage
07:35 Critical illness - ideal coverage
09:03 Types of insurance plans
09:35 Term insurance (standalone plans)
11:30 Investment-linked plans
14:01 Best insurance plans

[sarhan]

I honestly cant understand enough how your channel wasnt big already. I watch too many malaysian financial advisor yt and none of them put their work as hard as u did.

[ken_yap]

I learned everything I needed to know about buying insurance in Malaysia in under 20 mins! Please come back and make more videos! You provide amazing and really useful financial advice and tips! 🙏🏻💯

[rhtn]

Thanks for this! Love the content. Just to add on, there's this 4th type of insurance product which I personally think should be set as top priority after medical insurance for young adults which is PERSONAL ACCIDENT (PA) cover.

In my opinion, it is higher likely that a person would suffer from partial or short term disabilities which would restrict him/her from getting back to work i.e. loss of income. Life/TPD cover would not be able to cover these scenarios as they do not meet the criteria i.e. insured died, losing a pair of limbs, legs, eyes, etc. CI plan would not be of any use unless he/she is diagnosed with the listed diseases. Medical insurance on the other hand would mainly/only cover the cost of hospitalization & surgeries. Although, medical insurance does provide some sort of post-hospitalization expense coverage but it would reimburse the insured with the loss of income while he/she is still in recovery phase or suffered a partial permanent disability which disallow him/her to continue working.

This is PA cover plays its crucial role to provide allowance (normally weekly) to insured who is unable to work while he/she recuperates after an accident. Of course, there are other coverages in PA as well e.g. medical expenses, accidental death benefit, permanent disability cover, travel expenses (expense for family members to visit you in hospital), hospital allowances. PA cover in general has much lower premium.

Also, in terms of choosing which insurance companies, sometimes is also important to know your personal medical health condition and study the insurers' underwriting guidelines. For example, there are some insurers who do not penalize or mark up the premium for smokers or person with specific health condition.

In terms of whether to get medical insurance as standalone policy or rider on top of an investment linked policy, I personally would opt for insurance linked policy. The main reason is per what you said in the video, although the premium is high in the beginning but at least in general, the premium are flat across the years. Unlike Standalone medical, the premium would increase after hitting certain age gap. For a person who would do not want to anticipate increasing expense year over year, investment linked policy with medical rider would be a better option in my opinion.

[ygan]

Thanks for the clear explanation. And your corgi is too cute!

[GeorgeChoo]

Love your Corgi. Informative video, thumbs up to you and your Corgi!

[faizshah]

I subscribed a takaful plan
With 500k paid for death/tpd
And 300k for Critical illness
My monthly contribution only rm105.50

[TkYsince]

Have always loved your videos for the amount of effort and detailed comparisons you've put in, thanks a lot!

[vradass]

Thank you so much for your video; I just came across it while looking for some 101 on investing. All of your videos, including this one, were excellent and informative.

[ohmgshon]

Thanks for always putting in the research to make these informative and easy to digest videos! Any plans on making a video about how you budget and track expenses?

[bthk]

Thanks for the info swan. You must've gotten a good package for your dog, its sleeping too blissfully over there 🤣

[arman]

Love the dog just vibin there, good video btw 👍🏻

[leehoong]

Ya, aia is the best! I have been with aia for more than 20 years

[randomclouds]

Appreciate your effort that you specially type out the key points.

[joetyler]

Very helpful. Shoutout to the cute Corgi too.

[nagaganas]

thank you for making sense compared to the usual insurance salesperson that i met most of the time

[sweetcheeks]

Very great insight. Thanks so much for making this video.

[jennysim]

Very informative video, clearly explained, just what I'm looking for! Am in the midst of comparing Prudential vs GE vs HLA medical plan. Looks like I've to research on AIA as well!!

[jackylee_jack]

Your video was very helpful n informative. Thanks for sharing.

[jaya]

Thank you so much Swan for this video. It was very helpful and insightful.

[Taka-nqys]

This is very informative and useful. Thanks for making this.