Finexis and AXA FutureProtector

Many of you should recall the saga between AXA and Finexis over the sale of the FutureProtector term insurance which was literally given away free by Finexis. AXA ended up demanding to claw back money from Finexis due to the high lapse rate of the product.

Just the other day, I received a letter dated 1st Oct 2010 from Finexis. Its contents are as follows:

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Attention: Mr/Ms./Mdm XXXX

FUTUREPROTECTOR PLAN

Dear Mr/Ms./Mdm XXXX,

Thank you for being a client of Finexis Advisory Pte Ltd.

As you would know, insurance provides peace of mind for you and your family, and an appropriate amount of term insurance coverage is the foundation of proper financial planning. These term insurance rates tend to increase with age and your decision in getting such coverage early is extremely prudent. The AXA Futureprotector is such a term plan, which offers you the following benefits:

• Financial protection against death and terminal illness
• Guaranteed renewability
• Guaranteed premiums for the coverage term

We noted that you have purchased the AXA Futureprotector last year during our promotion. However, you may have overlooked the renewal and thus, your Futureprotector is no longer inforce.

To allow you to renew your Futureprotector plan, which has lapsed on 17 April 2010, we have arranged for designated personnel(s), to contact you soon to follow up on our letter and to complete the Health Declaration form. The reinstatement will be at AXA's absolute discretion and this letter is valid till 15 January 2011.

Yours sincerely,

Signed off by Warren Lim

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I think Mr Warren Lim is mistaken in a few ways by sending me this letter:

Firstly, I did not purchase AXA Futureprotector. It was given to me free-of-charge as part of their promotion. I was told to just pay for it first with a full reimbursement to come later.

Secondly, I did not overlook the renewal. I was reminded by the agent to cancel it and he even sent me a Giro cancellation form which I did not use at the end of the day as I simply called up the bank.

Thirdly, once you get something for free, it is very seldom that you will want to pay for it. Why pay for something when you had it for free the last time?

AXA FutureProtector High Lapse Rate

It was reported in the Straits Times today that AXA, an insurance company, is trying to claw back $7 million from local financial advisory firm Finexis.

Last year, Finexis had a promotion where they were giving away free 1 year term insurance to its customers and potential customers. This free 1 year term insurance was AXA's FutureProtector policy. Most probably unknown to AXA, Finexis gave away all these insurance policies without asking customers to pay a single cent.

This was my personal experience:

Financial Planner from Finexis: "I got free insurance to give you. Just sign it here and after 1 year cancel it. Free, why not just take it. $200K coverage."

Me: "Okay lor"

I readily signed up for the free insurance from Finexis with the mindset to cancel the policy after 1 year. Afterall, that was what I was told to do. In fact, just this year, the agent sent me a giro cancellation form so that I could cancel off the policy as agreed upon. But I had no use for the form as I had already informed the bank beforehand to cancel off the giro agreement at the start of the year.

So now we know the repercussions of giving away free insurance. I am pretty certain that many of those who took up the free insurance just lapsed their policies as they saw no need for that protection at all in the first place. The only reason they took it up was because it was given totally free of charge without them having to purchase any other policy at all. We Singaporeans love free stuff =)