I believe most of us already insured with some kind of life insurance, which covers compensation on total permanent disablement (TPD). Have you ever think of what if the disablement is "non-total", for example, you just lost one single finger in an accident?
Life insurance won't cover for that, and in fact, you need to find such insurance under the general insurance category (note that not every life insurance agent is also agent for general insurance). I think you should have heard of the term before, it is called personal accident (PA) insurance.
If you are an employed employee, most probably you are already covered under the group PA policy that your company buy for you. You might also be insured with PA under some promotion of car loan, car club, credit card, bank account, etc. The question will be is the insured amount enough? What if you change company and the new one doesn't provide such employee benefit? What if you are retired?
After some consideration, I finally signed up with the Overseas Assurance Corporation (OAC) Centennial PA Personal Accident Insurance this year. What do you think of when you see the word "centennial" here? Yes, OAC is part of the Great Eastern group.
The premium of this policy is RM100 per year (less than RM9 per month) with the sum insured of:
- Accidental death: RM100,000
- Permanent disablement: RM100,000
- Medical expenses: RM5,000
There is a "no claim renewal bonus" with an increase of 10% on the above sum insured for renewal each year up to 100%. This mean if no claim is made, 10 years later, the sum insured will become:
- Accidental death: RM200,000
- Permanent disablement: RM200,000
- Medical expenses: RM10,000
If any claim is made, the sum insured will be reverted to the original amount.
Under this policy, the following are covered:
- Accidental death
- 26 items of permanent disablement
- Medical, surgical and hospital expenses for injury
- Bereavement allowance for death resulting from accident, dengue fever, malaria, Japanese encephalitis, yellow fever, scarlet fever or coxsackie
- Repatriation expenses if the accidental death happen outside Malaysia
- Rehabilitation allowance
- Disapperance for more than 1 year (while travelling)
I believe this policy will complement my life insurance policy as well as cover up any shortage in my company's group PA insurance scheme. It is very affordable too although the premium will be burnt off every year and does not carry cash value like most life insurance products. It is renewable up to 100 years old (and I believe when we get old, we are more risky in getting accident).
