Sun Life Singapore launches indexed universal life policy for wealthy families in Singapore

Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada Singapore Branch (Sun Life Singapore) announced the launch of SunBrilliance Indexed Universal Life (SunBrilliance IUL), as part of its expanded product strategy to cater to the different needs of the affluent, high-net-worth (HNW) and ultra-high-networth (UHNW) client segments in Singapore. 

This comes amid record wealth inflows into the nation, and as a growing number of HNW and UHNW families are prioritising their wealth preservation and succession planning needs since the pandemic struck.

SunBrilliance Indexed Universal Life is Sun Life Singapore’s newest addition to their Affluent, HNW and UHNW solutions on the back of their successful Future - S Whole of Life policy. 

Michael Wei, chief partnership and marketing officer of Sun Life Singapore, said: “Across Sun Life’s integrated high net worth platforms in Singapore, Hong Kong and Bermuda, we observed an increased interest in exploring alternative life insurance protection solutions amid a backdrop of volatile macro-economic conditions and a global rise in interest rates. There’s also been a growing trend of investment savviness where clients are seeking investment elements within their policies while wanting to enjoy lifetime coverage."

Singapore has proven itself as Asia’s pre-eminent wealth hub, bolstered by its favourable business and financial environment, and stable geopolitical landscape. This has led to an increase in demand for wealth planning solutions with insurance growing in popularity as a key tool for estate planning and wealth transfer in recent years. 

Wei said: “Recognising this opportunity, we have developed the SunBrilliance Indexed Universal Life which is designed to appeal to the investment-savvy affluent, HNW and UHNW clients. We have an innovative solution that offers a good balance of both long-term security and protection, as well as the ability to take advantage of market upsides and achieve potential attractive returns by benchmarking the S&P 500 index."

“The decades-long experience of Sun Life as a market leader and pioneer of affluent, HNW and UHNW insurance in Asia puts Sun Life Singapore at the forefront of this growing segment, and Sun Life Singapore will continue to leverage our expertise to serve the needs of our clients in securing their future for generations to come,” Wei added.

The key benefits of SunBrilliance Indexed Universal Life include:

• Lifetime coverage for protection 
• High potential growth through an Indexed Account linked to the S&P 500 index performance with the possibility of an additional 20% of the index return
• Downside protection with 0% p.a. floor on the Indexed Account return and a minimum guaranteed 2.5% p.a. crediting rate for the Fixed Account in the first 20 years, providing peace of mind
• Legacy Plus allows the death benefit to be paid out in annual instalments for up to 10 years. As the first and only life insurer in Singapore to offer this unique benefit option, we believe that this will enrich and deepen wealth planning, philanthropic and charitable-giving conversations.
• Highest degree of flexibility to enable your premium to be allocated among the investment options based on your preference and to reallocate the balance among the accounts based on your investment perspective
  
• Smoothing investment volatility with Dollar Cost Averaging which spreads the premium allocated to the Indexed Accounts to create Index Segments over 12 months

In conjunction with the launch of SunBrilliance Indexed Universal Life, Sun Life Singapore is announcing its inaugural Philanthropic Pledge in partnership with Community Chest, marking the first time a life insurance company in Singapore is incorporating upfront charitable giving into a life insurance solution to encourage philanthropy and charitable giving. 

Wei said: “Within the realm of wealth planning, insurance solutions are often deemed as a ‘late-stage’ or ‘long-term’ instrument with proceeds expected to be disbursed decades away. As an organisation that has been a custodian of our clients’ wealth and insurance needs for more than 150 years, we challenged ourselves to rethink the paradigm on how we could accelerate the giving process.

“With our inaugural Philanthropic Pledge, we aim to inspire our Sun Life Singapore clients to become advocates of philanthropy and charitable giving. As such, with every purchase of SunBrilliance Indexed Universal Life plan, Sun Life Singapore will donate up to 0.5% from the premiums received, with a cap of $20,000 per policy. This initiative marks the first time across the industry where donations are given upfront upon policy inception, rather than upon death benefit payout, which typically occurs years later.”

Our Philanthropic Pledge is executed in the name of Sun Life Singapore and will be managed and disbursed in accordance with Sun Life’s philanthropy goals to achieve long-term behaviour change through practical programmes contributing to four areas of need:

• Type 2 Diabetes prevention, care, awareness and education
• Mental health
• Community initiatives that drive diversity, equity and inclusion
• Disaster relief

This new collaboration follows a recent private fund-raising event in April 2023 where SGD 86,000 ($65,088) was raised in support of Community Chest. Prior to that, the last collaboration between Community Chest and Sun Life Singapore was in September 2022, which advocates philanthropy among the HNW and UHNW community in Singapore. By virtue of the earlier collaboration, clients of Sun Life Singapore are able to benefit from getting access to Community Chest philanthropy service, which will allow them to start, manage and track their philanthropic journey, guided by a Community Chest relationship manager through a structured process.

Chew Sutat, chairman, Community Chest, said: “We are excited to build upon our partnership with Sun Life Singapore to encourage greater philanthropic giving among the HNW and UHNW community in Singapore. The Philanthropic Pledge will be part of our Change for Charity initiative, which makes it easy for people to donate regularly by providing giving opportunities at various touchpoints across Singapore. Such innovative partnerships will enable HNW and UHNW segments to give back in a sustainable manner and empower communities in need to achieve their full potential, despite the challenges they face.”

Karim Gilani, president of Greater China, Singapore and International HNW, Sun Life, said: “The launch of our SunBrilliance Indexed Universal Life in Singapore has earned a number of ‘firsts’ through innovative features and benefits, made possible with the resolve to enhance the status quo, innovate and to be open to feedback from our business partners and clients. I’m pleased that we are setting the bar to define what high net worth insurance solutions mean to our partners, clients and the industry.”

Re-disseminated by The Wealth and Society