Last Updated on June 13, 2023 by Tree of Wealth

This plan is withdrawn since 1 July 2021

Gro Gen Saver an amazing plan for legacy insurance?

What makes a versatile savings plan that grows your wealth (not just accumulate) as well as leaving a legacy for your dependants/ family members?

Traditional savings plan works like this: you save for a period of time, for example, 15 or 20 years, then at the end of it, the plan matures and you get a lump sum. It used to be that this amount will be locked in and you cannot access it at all. Yes, that means if the premium term is 20 years, you cannot touch it for 20 years. However the problem is this: if death were to occur during the premium saving term, the death payout will only be 5% of your total premiums paid at that point, you don’t actually earn the interest yield.

By versatile we mean it is suitable for children’s education for young parents, retirement planning for pre-retirees and even for B.T.I.R (Buy Term Invest the Rest). Not to mention it is also good for legacy planning. Seems like an amazing plan? We will come to that.

Gro Gen Saver Product Details

At a glance, Gro Gen Saver (Previously Known as RevoGift) fits in to the endowment market oddly as it matures when you are 120 years old.

Secondary Life Insured (SLI)

• Wealth accumulation continuity: You can appoint a Secondary Life Insured (SLI) to continue accumulating your wealth and growing with them through their lifetime.
• Policy will only expire after the 120th birthday of the primary policyholder (which is you). Even if the primary policy holder is no longer around (death occurs), the plan will act as an ongoing interest garnering instrument for the SLI. This is especially powerful because traditional savings plan will be terminated upon death. So when will this accumulation and growth end? It’ll mature/expire at age 120 of the primary policy holder.
• You can appoint spouse and children below 18 years old as SLI.

Withdraw Cash At Life’s Milestones

• There is no structured cash benefit payout terms and once there is cash value, you actually can start to withdraw the amount out, even though we do advice to withdraw after it has break even.
• This hence gives you the flexibility to withdraw the accumulated cash value at the intended life’s interval time, which we will show you how to utilise in 4 main scenarios below
• Flexible Premium Terms: Single Premium, 5,10, 15, 20 years with Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) option.

Premium Term	Eligibility Age
Single Premium	0 to Age 70
5 Years	0 to Age 65
10, 15, 20 Years	0 to Age 60

Guaranteed Issuance

• No medical check-up, no health underwriting procedure. Guaranteed to be issued.

Early Break-Even – Capital Guaranteed

• Total Premiums (Your Capital) is guaranteed on the 13^th year no matter your premium term is of 5, 10, 15 or 20 years. This means that on the 13^th year, the Guaranteed Cash Value will be (slightly) more than your total premiums paid at that time.
• For Single Premium (Both Cash and SRS), Capital is breakeven on the 10^th year instead.
• The non-guaranteed yield and interest of 3.25% & 4.75% is not taken into consideration.

Example:

Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) Premium Waiver (Before age 70)

• In the event if TPD occurs during the premium term – RevoGift gives you peace of mind if you happen to become total and permanently disabled. You will no longer have to pay premiums for the remaining period but your policy will run as though the premiums are paid.

Guaranteed Cancer Protection

Be covered when cancer strikes! This guaranteed issuance option (GIO) rider will waive any future premiums if you are diagnosed with cancer while still paying premiums for the plan. No health and medical underwriting for this rider required.

Retrenchment Benefit

Up to 6 months premium waiver in the event of (involuntary) retrenchment.

Gro Gen Saver Versatility

Next, we are going to be comparing against a few endowment plans from various insurers in terms of retirement, children’s education and even whole life plans to show the contrast of the versatility of Gro Gen Saver.

1. Retirement Planning for Pre-Retirees

Retirement plans typically requires you to save regularly over a period of time, accumulate, then starts to pay out to you at a chosen retirement age, usually at 55, 60, 65 or even 70 years old. Payout period is also typically for 10, 20 or 30 years.

A feature for retirement plan is that it will pay out  a guaranteed sum monthly during the payout period.

	NTUC Income Gro Gen Saver	Aviva MyRetirementChoice
Premium Term	15 years	15 years
Premium Amount	$8, 000	$8, 018.80
Payout Structure	Anytime when there is cash value, we strongly advice after it breaks even (13th year)	Payout Age: 50 Years old   Guaranteed Monthly Benefit: $1360, ($16, 320 yearly)   Payout Period: 10 Years
Guaranteed Cash Payout:
50 years old	$137, 160	$16, 320
55 years old	$148, 680	$16, 320
60 years old	$161, 040	$16, 320 (Plan terminates after 10th year)
65 years old	$174, 480	NA
70 years old	$189, 120	NA

However, do note that for NTUC Income’s Gro Gen Saver, the amount shown is the total amount available. For example, at 55 years old at $148, 680 (Guaranteed Portion), if $40, 000 were to be withdrawn, the remaining guaranteed amount will be reduced accordingly and the plan will continue to grow.

A good thing to note is that, this is the guaranteed portion shown. The non-guaranteed insurer’s interests and yields were not added yet. This means that the total amount is actually much higher:

2. Child’s Education for Young Parents

Children’s Education plans are a type of endowment savings plan that is structured to payout a number of range of years (usually 2 to 4 years) at a payout age, usually when the child is due to go for tertiary education at around 18 to 20 years old. This is however, rigid and difficult to gauge because, well, life and situation they change by the time our child reach that age.

Example below shows a Gro Gen Saver and an Education plan (Best Education Plan for Cash Payout and since removed) when the child is born at age 0:

	NTUC Income Gro Gen Saver	Educate
Premium Term	10 years	10 years
Premium Amount	$5, 000	$5, 035.52
Payout Structure	Anytime when there is cash value, we strongly advice after it breaks even (13th year)	Before chosen Payout Age (age 18 or 20)  – 2 yearly cash benefits   After chosen Payout Age (age 18 or 20) – 4 yearly cash benefits
Guaranteed Cash Benefit When Child is:
16 years old	$52, 850	$2, 800
17 years old	$53, 450	$2, 800
20 years old	$57, 100	$22, 400
21 years old	$58, 050	$11, 200
22 years old	$59, 000	$11, 200
23 years old	$59, 950	$11, 200 (Policy Maturity Amount, Plan Terminates)
29 years old	$66, 100 (Plan still goes on until you are 120 years old)	NA

However, do note that for NTUC Income’s Gro Gen Saver, the amount shown is the total amount available. For example, at 20 years old at $57, 100 (Guaranteed), if $22, 400 were to be withdrawn, the remaining guaranteed amount will be reduced accordingly and the plan will still continue to grow.

Also a reminder, this is the guaranteed portion shown. The non-guaranteed insurer’s interests and yields were not added yet. This means that the total amount is actually much higher:

3. B.T.I.R. (Buy Term Invest the Rest)

Buying Term and Investing the Rest (B.T.I.R.) is a way of separating your premium budget into a term insurance and growing the wealth in a separate instrument, be it a savings plan or investment. Typically this works for those that do not like the idea of whole life insurance with cash value element, making the premium higher and cash value lower during old age. They would prefer to grow wealth themselves, in a separate instrument. B.T.I.R. may be cheaper than getting a whole life plan on its own.

We compare with one of the most competitive whole life insurance and term plan in the market respectively: comparing with this combination: Aviva’s MyWholeLife III VS Aviva MyProtector Term Plan II with Income’s Gro Gen Saver. This is because Aviva has a very good multiple payout critical illness feature, which is the most competitive in the market, not to mention it is extremely versatile.

With this combination of term insurance and Gro Gen Saver, after the age of 70 where supposedly the multiplier has already ended, the cash value accumulated in Gro Gen Saver far exceeds the cash value in the whole life plan.

The best thing about this?

You don’t even have to be diagnosed with any conditions nor illness to enjoy this wealth. Because they are your savings. NOT a Critical Illness Payout.

Plans	Aviva MyWholeLifePlan III	Aviva MyProtectorTerm Plan II	NTUC Income Gro Gen Saver
Basic Sum Assured	$100, 000	$1, 000, 000	NA
Multiplier	x2 (Until age 70)	NA	NA
Early to Intermediate to Advance Stage Critical Illness	$85, 000 (Up to 300%)	$85, 000 (Up to 300%)	NA
Multiple Payout Up To	500%	600%	NA
Death/TPD/Terminal Illness (Before age 70)	$200, 000	$1, 000, 000	105% of total Premiums Paid + Interest & Yield
Death/TPD/Terminal Illness (After age 70)	$100, 000 + Interest & Yield	Plan Terminates after age 70	105% of total Premiums Paid + Interest & Yield
Annual Premium	$3, 896.95	$1750.45	$2000

Ok, so after we see how the features and premiums workout, let’s have a look at how the cash value works out, comparing the whole life insurance’s cash value against Gro Gen Saver’s:

Plans	Aviva MyWholeLife III	NTUC Income Gro Gen Saver
Death/TPD/Terminal Illness (After age 75) @4.75% non-guaranteed Yield	$221, 203	$173, 516
Death/TPD/Terminal Illness (After age 80) @4.75% non-guaranteed Yield	$243, 083	$213, 571
Death/TPD/Terminal Illness (After age 85) @4.75% non-guaranteed Yield	$267, 225	$261, 231
Cash Value at age 75 @4.75% non-guaranteed Yield	$153, 551	$171, 798
Cash Value at age 80 @4.75% non-guaranteed Yield	$184, 213	$211, 456
Cash Value at age 85 @4.75% non-guaranteed Yield	$ 218, 036	$258, 645

There are no right or wrong strategies when it comes to personal financial planning. This comparison is basically to show and highlight the differences in calculations if you spend a sum on getting a whole life insurance vs splitting it for a BTIR with Gro Gen Saver strategy.

4. Saving & Legacy Insurance Planning

The Gro Gen Saver is essentially a savings plan, with a twist. By maturing only when you are 120 years old, you can essentially pass it to your spouse or kids (got to name them as Secondary Life Insured before the age of 18), thus forming a true legacy plan.

Imagine signing up for this plan at the age of 28 when your firstborn arrives.

When death occurs for example, at the age of 73 years old, your kid would have been 45 years old and the policy will be passed on to him/her, continuing the plan and growing it indefinitely, until your supposed age of 120 years old.

To compare with a normal savings plan, we look at another of NTUC Income’s saving plan, Gro Steady Saver. It is a plain vanilla savings plan where it matures at the end of the saving term. At the end of second year, on the 3^rd year you have the option of receiving cash benefits, or cashback option. You can choose to reinvest or draw out. The cash benefits are fixed yearly, though they can be accumulated.

Almost all insurers have this sort of savings plan, the reason for picking NTUC Income’s version is that is has one of the more steady (pun intended) returns in terms of plan, as well as insurer.

NTUC Income	Gro Gen Saver	Gro Steady Saver
Premium	$5, 000	$5, 000
Savings Term	20 Years	20 Years
Value at the end of 20th year	$141, 923 Plan continues to grow until you are 120 years old.	$132, 270 Maturity Value, plan terminates after the 20th year.

Below, we look at the various premiums returns:

Returns Comparison For Gro Gen Saver

28 Year Old, Female, Non-Smoker

Premium	$3, 600	$5, 000	$10, 000
Premium Term	20 Years	20 Years	20 Years
Breakeven	13th Year	13th Year	13th Year
Maturity	120 Years Old	120 Years Old	120 Years Old
4.75% Acc@15th Year	$62, 974   (Total Premiums at this point: $50, 000)	$87, 464   (Total Premiums at this point: $75, 000)	$174, 928   (Total Premiums at this point: $150, 000)
4.75% Acc@18th Year	$84, 734   (Total Premiums at this point: $64, 800)	$117, 686   (Total Premiums at this point: $90, 000)	$235, 371   (Total Premiums at this point: $180, 000)
4.75% Acc@20th Year	$102, 185   (Total Premiums at this point: $72, 000)	$141, 923   (Total Premiums at this point: $100, 000)	$283, 846   (Total Premiums at this point: $200, 000)
4.75% Acc@30th Year	$156, 658   (Total Premiums at this point: $72, 000)	$217, 580   (Total Premiums at this point: $100, 000)	$435, 161   (Total Premiums at this point: $200, 000)
4.75% Acc@45th Year	$284, 501   (Total Premiums at this point: $72, 000)	$395, 140   (Total Premiums at this point: $100, 000)	$790, 280   (Total Premiums at this point: $200, 000)
By the time you are 120 Years Old (Maturity Amount)	$1, 953, 301	$2, 712, 918	$5, 425, 836
Total Premiums	$72, 000	$100, 000	$200, 000

There are many ways to do legacy planning, for example like creating wills or trusts for their beneficiaries but these estate planning tools cannot create wealth.

Gro Gen Saver legacy insurance is Suitable For You If

• You wish to accumulate wealth or legacy planning to leave your beneficiaries with an inheritance.
• You have a secondary insured person to continue your legacy planning efforts.
• You have certain life milestones that may need cash funding. This policy allows you to withdraw cash to facilitate some important life milestones such as starting a business or paying for your child’s college tuition fee, or even your own retirement.

One More Thing

For NTUC Income’s par fund management (the one responsible growing your non-guaranteed yield):

Flexibility of the Plan

• Although it is mentioned that the primary insured should reach their 120th birthday before the maturity benefit is paid, this is actually the selling point for Gro Gen Saver and you want it to be as long as possible – The beauty of this plan is that because it breaks even at so early and matures at so late, it fills in the gaps of many life’s milestones changes and needs and even be your legacy for your 4^th generation (provided if you start early, before age 30)
• The yield depends on the Life Participating Fund maintaining a high rate per annum.
• While you can withdraw the cash value of the policy at any life milestone, you get more value if you leave it in the plan and re-invest for the long term.

There is however..

• Lack of cash benefit features
• No option for joint-life applications
• No other supplementary benefit riders except for cancer waiver

Sounds good?

We hope this in-depth analysis helps you in understanding the pros and cons of NTUC Income’s Gro Gen Saver to help you decide if  it meets your savings objectives. All savings plans have their own advantages and disadvantages and it is recommended that you choose one that is within your objectives and liquidity needs to ensure you get the best possible value.

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