Singapore's protection gap still wide, says AIA chief

SINGAPORE may be a mature insurance market, but it continues to have a large protection gap, says AIA group chief executive and president Ng Keng Hooi.

In view of longevity and the need for a breadwinner's earnings to support his family and aging parents, the so-called rule of thumb for death cover of five to 10 times one's annual income may need to be raised to as much as 15 times income, he said.

The average death claim that AIA sees in Singapore and across the Asian markets it operates in is in line with the statistics reported by the Life Insurance Association in the first quarter of 2018.