01 The right amount
How much cover do you actually need?
The industry-standard guideline — from the LIA Basic Financial Planning Guide that MAS points to — is death and disability cover of about 9–10× your annual income, so a surviving partner can replace your earnings, clear the mortgage, and not be forced to sell the home. And bought as pure term insurance, it's cheap:
| Annual income | Cover (~9×) | Est. term premium* |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $450,000 | ~$225/yr |
| $70,000 | $630,000 | ~$315/yr |
| $90,000 | $810,000 | ~$405/yr |
| $120,000 | $1,080,000 | ~$540/yr |
*Illustrative term-life (death + TPD) for a healthy 30-year-old; real premiums vary by age, health and insurer. Meaningful cover is cheap when it's pure protection.
02 The big price difference
Term vs whole life: the same $1M, very different price
$10,000–$20,000 a year — most of it diverted into a slow-growing cash value.
Under $500 a year for the same $1M of death & TPD cover — pure protection, nothing skimmed.
The gap isn't buying you more protection — it's a savings product wrapped in insurance, with the cost and commission that come with it.
Insure cheaply with term, and put the difference to work — on your own, or with a partner whose incentives are aligned with yours. Right-sizing protection and sourcing best-value cover is one of the things I help with. And if one of you already owns a whole-life or investment-linked policy, don't rush to cancel it — work through the keep-or-leave maths first.
03 Even within term
Same cover, different price — depending who sells it
Even within term insurance, identical cover is priced differently across channels:
Illustrative, identical $1M cover — a ~70% gap from the sales channel, not the protection. MAS created Direct Purchase Insurance (no agent, no commission) for cover up to $400k — worth comparing on CompareFIRST below.
For your money: that ~$520-a-year gap on identical cover is $13,000 over a 25-year policy — paid for nothing but the door you walked through. Term insurance is one of the few products where comparing three quotes takes an evening and reliably saves five figures.
For your life: a claim is processed by the insurer, not the person who sold you the policy — so buy the contract, not the relationship. The right person to keep close is whoever helps you compare across providers, not whoever can only sell you one shelf.
04 The priorities
What's actually worth insuring as a couple
- Income — enough term cover on each working partner to replace earnings for the years they're needed
- The mortgage — so the survivor isn't forced to sell the home
- Hospitalisation — keep each of your Integrated Shield Plans in force
- Income protection / disability — protects the ability to earn, not just death
- Skip, for now — "savings" and investment-linked plans dressed up as protection
Want to go deeper?
Sources & notes
Figures as of June 2026. The 9–10× income guideline is from the LIA Basic Financial Planning Guide (referenced by MoneySense). Term pricing (~$1M death + TPD for under $500/yr for a healthy 30-year-old) and the whole-life multiple (20–40×) are from published Singapore insurance comparisons. The channel price spread and Direct Purchase Insurance details are from my own industry research and MAS. Premium estimates in the table are illustrative.
General information, not financial advice, and not a recommendation of any product. Your needs depend on your income, debts and dependents. Jonathan Wong is a licensed financial adviser representative in Singapore, currently between firms — during that period he is not able to provide financial advice. You can check his registration yourself on the MAS Financial Institution Representatives Register at eservices.mas.gov.sg/rr.