A proposal to outlaw life insurance policies for children could affect more than two million parents nationwide who hold such policies today.
Last week, Legislator Shei Chi-da (
The proposal comes just two years after children's life insurance was made legal. In the 1960s, Lee Ming-zhan (
Since the Ministry of Finance lifted a ban on children's life insurance, the product has become one of the industry's most popular sellers.
According to the Life Insurance Association (
During that time, children's life insurance accounted for 36 percent of all newly underwritten life insurance policies.
Average coverage for the policies has been roughly NT$650,000 (US$20,000), according to the association.
"After the deregulation ... more than two million insurance policies have been underwritten, and so far there have been no cases of moral hazard or protest by the general public," said Chang Chung-yuan (
But some say a case similar to that of Lee Ming-zhan in the 1960s could happen in Taiwan today, and for evidence they point to the US, where children's life insurance is also popular.
In 1995, seven-week-old Tara Abdelhaq suffocated in her crib in what looked like a case of sudden infant death syndrome.
Federal prosecutors alleged that Tara's mother, Dina Abdel-haq, had murdered her daughter in an attempt to collect on a US$200,000 life insurance policy.
Abdelhaq, jobless and on welfare, faced US$34,000 in gambling debts and had been recently arrested for check fraud at a casino. Another daughter, Lena, died in 1994 when she was just 18 days old. Abdelhaq is now serving a 21-year sentence.
Still, some life insurers argue that there is a huge demand for children's life insurance. The policies are also an investment vehicle, they note, which can be used for a child's education and healthcare expenses.
But other financial experts disagree.
"If the parents want real protection for their children on college or higher education expenses, mutual funds -- especially global equity funds -- are the answer," said K. P. Liu (劉凱平), president of SinoPro Securities Investment Advisory Consulting (弘利投資顧問).
"Insurance policies for children are not the most ideal investment vehicle. The returns have been relatively low compared to mutual funds," Liu said. "Since the investment period for a young child can be as long as 15 or even 20 years, the risk of equity investments are acceptable. An average global equity fund could easily reach a 12 to 15 percent annual return on investment."
Insurance policies, on the other hand, normally will not return more than 5 percent annually, Liu said.
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
RSS