Great Wealth Advantage: Why I Signed Up?

Hi MELEPAK kakis, today my post is about a wealth accumulation policy that I took up with Great Eastern Singapore. The policy is called Great Wealth Advantage (GWA). If you must know, I do not like to mix my insurance policy with my investment policy/funds. That is why my insurance plan are not those linked with investment kind (Will share about my insurance plan on a different post). So when a friend/agent introduced me to the Great Wealth Advantage plan, I was intrigued and wanted to know more. So here’s what I found out about GWA and why I end up signing up with the plan. If you too want to know more about Great Wealth Advantage plan, come join me in this MELEPAK session!

What is Great Wealth Advantage?

GWA is an investment linked policy (ILP) that gives us greater control of where we want our funds to be in. But unlike most ILP, GWA is purely an investment policy where 100% of our premium is used to buy funds. Basically 100% of the premium that you pay will go into the funds that you have selected. It is also a policy where you can sign up for as low as $200/mth.

However, there is a ‘lock-in’ period of 10 years. If we are to withdraw the funds within the 10 years lock-in period, there will be charges. There is also a penalty if you decides to pause paying the premium within the first 5 years.

Fees and Bonuses for GWA

There is a 2.5% charge on the value of your investment BUT only for the first 10 years. After the 10th year, it is a free platform for you. On top of that, you also get a 5% welcome bonus for your first year and additional 5% loyalty bonus from the 10th year onward. (What this means is for your first year and 10+ year, you are already guaranteed a 5% returns on top of the performance of your funds. Sure bo?)

Insurance Aspect of GWA

Insurance coverage wise, the GWA policy has minimal coverage of 110% total insurable value (TIV). So if you are looking for a traditional ILP which can give you extensive and comprehensive coverage, this is not the policy for you. But if you, are like me, prefer a separate plan for insurance and investment, then GWA is a good option as 100% of your money goes into buying funds and not pay for your insurance coverage.

GreatLink Funds To Choose From For GWA

There are many funds to choose from when you sign up for Great Wealth Advantage. Below are those that are available for GWA:

You can check the past performances and prices for any of these funds here. If you are planning to sign up GWA, you should do your research and read the report of all the funds before deciding on where to put your money.

Why Did I Signed Up With Great Wealth Advantage Policy?

Now that I’ve shared what little I know about GWA (please do more research on your own), I will now tell you why I decided to sign up. But before that, let me share some details with my policy:

• Annual Premium: $12,400
• Greatlink Funds Selected: 50% Global Technology Fund & 50% Global Real Estate Securities Fund

Ok now, let’s continue with why I invested in GWA.

I Need Control Over My Investment

The first reason why I signed up for GWA is because I am able to choose which funds my money will be invested in. No, I am not a control freak. The only reason why I need to be able to choose the funds is because as a Muslim, I need the funds to be ‘halal’. As with my stocks strategy, the funds/stocks that I choose needs to be Syariah compliance. Basically anything that deals with non-Syariah stuff (example: alcohol, gambling, interest etc.) are not allowed.

So that is why I need to control where my money is invested. That is not possible with regular ILP but GWA gives me that flexibility.

I Need To Save Up For Long Term Goal

Start every investment by having the end goal in mind.

Pak Melepak (2020)

The next reason why I decided to sign up is because I need to force myself to save up to achieve my 10-20 years goal. I believe that if you are going to invest in something, you should have the end goal in mind. So for this GWA investment, I am planning to withdraw it in 15-20 years time when it’s time for me to buy my LANDED PROPERTY. My end goal for my property journey is to buy a freehold landed that I can pass down to my kids in the future. And according to my plans (I will share my property timeline plan in another post), I should be in the market for a landed property in 15 years time (god willing).

So I want to make sure that I have funds available when the time comes and GWA will help me to save up for that day. With a conservative returns of 4% (past performance is at 7% returns), my GWA investment should give me $380,000 at the end of 20 years. That is slightly more than half of the downpayment needed for a $2,500,000 freehold landed property.

I Need To Diversify My Investment Portfolio

Lastly, I decided to take up the policy as I want to diversify my investment portfolio. I am a big believer in diversifying my investment although I’ve not truly done enough of that currently. At the moment, I’ve only invested my money in stocks, crypto, and websites. So I feel that GWA is another good platform for me to invest my money in.

My Final Take on Great Wealth Advantage

So if you are considering signing up for GWA, do your research and find out more from more than 1 agent. I am blessed that I have access to 2 Great Eastern agents so I asked lots of questions from both agents to double confirm stuff. It was really helpful especially for someone like me who have no clue about investment linked policy before this and help me made my decisions. If you are wondering then which agent I went with. It’s the one who first introduced me to the policy. But I did urge Kay to sign up GWA with the other agent. So it’s fair.

I will be updating my GWA investment yearly so do look out for my 1 year update in January 2021.

Hope you find this post useful and enjoy our MELEPAK session. If you have any question or opinion about GWA, please leave a comment below.